Is there such thing as an energy efficient large reef system build?
- Thread starter Made4water
- Start date
Made4water
New member
Very beautiful. You could just about throw a tank on and dive in!
David MC Lee
Active member
an "L" as you can see in these build pics.
Also here is a better shot of just the paddle.
bullitr I just saw my first Wavebox yesterday and I can say it looks easy to install on any tank and does make a lot of water movement it does not really compare to the type of motion you get from a paddle. Again you need a custom tank for a paddle.
David MC Lee
Active member
plywood and low iron glass. Steel frame made from 2" tube steel 1/4" thick. The other center area is the built in overflow/sump. I have since removed some of that area when I last set the tank up. The tank is empty now because we moved last spring.
The first time I hooked up the motor it made a about a 2" wave of water that went right over the side of the tank. I then turned the voltage on my power supply down from 12VDC to 7VDC and it would still give me nice waves but the top was about 1/4" from the top of the tank and ran fine for years.
The first time I hooked up the motor it made a about a 2" wave of water that went right over the side of the tank. I then turned the voltage on my power supply down from 12VDC to 7VDC and it would still give me nice waves but the top was about 1/4" from the top of the tank and ran fine for years.
I gather form the picture it works like a windshield wiper?At what sort of speed did it go back and forth? I`am in the process of trying to put a tank 3mt x .90h x 1.4mt w. my first problems the silicone, nobody wants to recomend one because of the size, then there`s the flow, pumps etc. But this idea seems to do away with most if not all but the return from the sump. Did you have any other sort of pumps doing that apart from the paddle?
David MC Lee
Active member
I used GE RTV 108. Most of it held very well. I made a mistake when I put my glass in, the glass sat on some little block of rubber, about 3 bur I didn't get enough silicone around them and on the more outer bead I didn't flatten it out very well. After about 6 years it start to peal up and there is a tiny area near the rubber where water came out. I now have to reseal all the way around all of the glass. The glass is held in place just fine. If I was going to do it all over again I would have a battery powered silicone gun to be able to put down a large bead very fast before it start to dry.
I had two 5000G/Hour pumps and ½" of each went into a skimmer and the skimmer dumped into the back area of the tank. The other ½" of each pump ran spray bars. I then had one more 5000G/hour pump that ran just a large spray bar. The spray bars were around the front top of the tank and the lower back bottom. The back one would spray toward the front and up a little while the upper front ones would spray toward the back and down a bit. As the paddle moved all of the water back and forth each spray stream would move back and forth a little. I had planned on a 4th pump but never installed it because my overflow could not handle anymore water. Because of the thick steel bar frame you really could not see the 2" pump spray bar around the front top of the tank.
David MC Lee
Active member
The one with some black tape around it is the skimmer output, that is really 3". The gray union you see is the top of the DIY skimmer.
David MC Lee
Active member
DIY skimmers. I would not recomend these for an energy efficient tank.
