Fan spray pumps?

[mndfreeze]

I recently got a gift of misc parts from a friend who bought a freshwater setup for just the tank and a few water and air pumps were part of it.

One of them sucks up water then spits it out in a fan shape from the top to spill back into the tank. Are these at all useful on a reef tank? I was thinking the waterfall like effect would be cool as well as keeping the water stirred, but I already lose a lot of water per day to evap and have to top off just about daily it seems. (It is a open top 14G nano under a halide and a fan)

Just want peoples experience and opinions on this. I don't have a surface skimmer, just an airstone biocube one and when I top all the way off I do get 'oily surface' look so more surface agitation would probably help there.

 

[mndfreeze]

Does no one know what I'm talking about or just no one really has any idea on my questions? I KNOW ONE OF YOU HAS ONE RUNNING AND ISNT ADMITTING IT!#%!#

haha
=(

 

[Reef-o-Roni]

I wouldn't keep an airstone in my tank but I do point one of my power heads up and it keeps the slicks at bay.

 

[mndfreeze]

Yeah, this isn't an airstone, its an actual pump but the water outlet is meant to be above water, and spills a fan shaped column out. Best case it will churn water for me, break the surface tension a ton, and sort of randomize my flow a bit since im not cool enough to have a wavemaker yet, but I'm not sure if there are any massive negatives im not aware of.

 

[Reef-o-Roni]

Your lps can get an embolism with air bubbles in the water column.

 

[mndfreeze]

I already have microbubbles since adding my skimmer and halides that I can't seem to get rid of. You think water spilling from an inch high will cause massive bubbles? If its just bubbles then I shall have to test it in a bucket and see.

 

[tcamos]

It's a good way to promote gas exchange by added surface aggitation. I know a couple of people who use them in their BioCubes in the middle chamber. Not something for in the display tank, but more for back-end.

 

[mndfreeze]

Welp, this IS a 14G cube so I'll play around and see since it seems like there isn't any massive cries of disaster, not short term at least.

thanks!

 

[AZSW]

I'm thinking it is going to increase your evaporation a ton, but other than than shouldn't hurt. It also may cool the tank as well come to think of it.

 

[tcamos]

I think that's why people stick it in the back of the BioCube because that's closed up and evap isn't as bad.

I've used a spraybar in my freshwater tanks and it creates a nice effect...sort of like rain.

I can't think of how one would cause a disaster.

 

[mndfreeze]

Sadly I dont have he top for it and I run a hanging halide anyway so even the back chambers are open like the rest of the tank. I have a ton of evap as is but my tank does run hot. I've had to put a fan in my light and a fan pointed at the top of it to keep it closer to 80, otherwise I run around 84 and even through 16 dark hours it will only sway a degree, MAYBE 2 with no fans. So temp would actually be kinda nice, evap however will suck as I already have to top off every day, every other day if I want to risk it.

 

[KRASHPD]

That is very similar to the output on AC50s, or the tetra filter I have on my frag tank. There is no negative effects as long as the water is only falling a couple inches back into the tank. I think is a pretty healthy effect. If you don't have much flow or a nano powerhead for the 14g then it can really help. If you have good flow and gas exchange, then it would just one more then to plug in and not make much of a difference.

It can be a hassle to top off a nano frequently. Even on my 34g cube I use an ATO and only add water to the top-off container once a week. It is well worth the time and money to me not to worry about that everyday.

 

[tcamos]

Spray bars do lower temp.

 

[mndfreeze]

Yeah, topping off is my biggest PITA. With such low water volume 2 days jacks my salinty hard, enough to anger things. An ATO is my next aquisition hopefully. I might build one I read about on nano-reef to save cash if it looks like it works well.

I'm going to clean this baby off and stick it in tomorrow. Only other concern I have, is it all came from a freshwater tank. I have no idea if they ever used a copper medication. I'm going to clean the hell out of this but its actually pretty clean, so I dont even know if it was used long. Is a good rinse going to get any possible copper nasties out or should I be looking for a specific method. I would be PIIIISSSSEEEDDD if I crashed my tank just playing with a new pump.

 

[AZSW]

Dude!!! The tsunami tipoff is like $39, and the spectrapure and others are only about $50. I promise once you get an ATO you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

 

[mndfreeze]

Hah, well, want to buy some computer equipment? I dont have 40 or 50 bucks! (see out of work sig. haha)

 

[AZSW]

If you can make my bunk old Dell's run faster, and do a few other things for me, we may be able to work things out.

 

[mndfreeze]

I actually probably could, really depends on why they are running slow. I have piles upon piles of random hardware here. PM the model numbers and I can see if I have any hardware that fits their generation.

 

[tcamos]

Dude!!! The tsunami tipoff is like $39, and the spectrapure and others are only about $50. I promise once you get an ATO you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

I did a DIY top off...but for $39 I think I would just buy it...

Where do you get these from?

 

[AZSW]

Well you still need a pump and some tubing, but google search for tsunami ATO. I beleve it is called ATS, but could be wrong.

Edit it's the tsunami AT-1 auto top off. I guess $39 was awhile ago lol. I found it for $59.99 on aquacave, but for that price, the spectrapure LLC would probably make more sense.

I also have used a gravity fed float valve with an elevates resevoir, but that just won't work in a biocube of any size. It needs a ln acrylic sump
where you can mount the float valve.