Join me for a strange one...

Thanks for all your help H20ENG. Note your acrylic is playing a part here too.

Thanks Cbonito. I knew this thing was going to have something for everyone. :)

srusso; Full tank pictures? I did? Or someone else did? Well at any rate I've been using my available time on The Valve, so I haven't stopped to take full tank pictures yet. You can go back to the last one. Not a thing has changed. It looks exactly the same. I still have one, (1), single tang. I don't want a bunch of denizens while I'm still messing with tank stirring. I have no Coraline and don't want any so nothing like that has changed either. I still have never fed Tang a single thing, so, the algae is slowly fading away as my turf scrubber and Tang work it over.
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You'll all be happy to know I've slayed several issues in the last two days.

Remember my theorizing that I could just run the motor in one direction and not worry about unscrewing the drive shaft? Wrong. The motor can now shut the valve every time but it doesn't have the torque to shove it all the way thru. Probably better that it doesn't anyway so I don't cause wear on the rubber seat.

However, that put me back in the "unscrewing" predicament. I finally got psycho on it. I realized that the drive shaft I made was drilled clear thru. This gave me access to the end of the motor's shaft while it was screwed fully into the drive shaft. Enter the TIG welder. I dropped the stinger down the hole and welded the end of the motor shaft to the inside of the drive shaft. It aint never ever unscrewing again...

I now have it all bolted up to the flanges with the dump tank pipe glued in. I've dry run it a dozen times and it looks good. I took a movie of it and if I can figure out how to put it up on youtub I'll show you folks.
 
Here's the tank glued to the flange I made. A good use for WO-16!
Notice the gussets I added on H20ENG's sage suggestion.

653d3b993c695aa9ed85.jpg


See how tall it is?

4337a1ab43989059adae.jpg


And now everything assembled!

17d27e003889ed65bcdf.jpg
 
Try this video..

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sKOtjgPeohU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Very cool! Sadly my tank lacks sufficient space to hide a dump system and the SAF (spousal acceptance factor) is at its limits as it is... My next house is having an in-wall tank apparently!

Im really enjoying this build come together, thanks for sharing the journey
 
Damn thats beautiful!!!! Excellent excellent excellent!! :hammer:
You my friend are a machine!
 
kcress said:
Try this video..

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sKOtjgPeohU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Click to expand...

Awesome!!!

What's it for???

I've been tied up with a new baby and dealing with fun from work....so I seriously have been out of touch for a bit.

Are you looking to do a Carlson Surge Device with this?

Nick
 
coketech said:
Very cool! Sadly my tank lacks sufficient space to hide a dump system and the SAF (spousal acceptance factor) is at its limits as it is... My next house is having an in-wall tank apparently!

Im really enjoying this build come together, thanks for sharing the journey
Click to expand...

We hope to see your future tank setup. And, thanks!

H20ENG said:
Damn thats beautiful!!!! Excellent excellent excellent!! :hammer:
You my friend are a machine!
Click to expand...

;) Many thanks for your continued support and the suggestion to "sand down the butterfly". Don't know where I'd be without that idea.

srusso said:
I can't wait to see it in action!
Click to expand...

Soon... V e r y soon. (waiting for youtube upload now)

maxxII said:
Awesome!!!

What's it for???

I've been tied up with a new baby and dealing with fun from work....so I seriously have been out of touch for a bit.

Are you looking to do a Carlson Surge Device with this?

Nick
Click to expand...

Thanks for the word!

Look back up this thread to see my tank. It's for a wave in that tank. I really like a dynamic display - water in motion kind of tank. My last one had lots and visitors and myself had lots of fun watching the waves - though they were noting like this. I don't know if I'd call it a Carlson because this is just a directly driven mechanical valve that will dump about 8 gallons in about 500ms from a few feet up into my tank.

Box412 said:
wow great read and project
Click to expand...

Thanks Box! Stay tuned - more to come.
 
So.

I setup my test system. It's a 55gal tank with a very useful acrylic surround. I added a sump pump to fill the dump tank. It takes about one minute to fill the dump tank with about 8 gallons.

I found that the butterfly seals in one direction completely and leaks a bit shut in the other direction.

I'm just using a 12V gel cell battery to operate the gear motor. It seems to be more than enough to run the valve. In a dead quiet setting you can barely hear the drive. However, since moving water sound appears the instant the valve starts to move there is no chance of ever hearing the drive. The valve can even cycle shut before the last of the water has hit the tank which will eliminate any chance of hearing any mechanical sounds. 'No noticeable man made sound' was a requirement of anything I came up with. I'm happy with this. There is simply no sucking, gurgling, hissing, whining, slurping, flushing, or toilet related sounds what-so-ever. :dance:


Keep in mind this test is a half filled 55 tank. Call it 25 gallons. I'm dumping 8 gallons into it. That's dumping 32% of the water volume into the tank. In my main tank it's a different story. There it will be about a 4% dump. So it won't be so apocalyptic there.:lol:

Notice the tank wave at the end. Sort of a teeter totter thing. That continues for about 3 minutes. Seriously under-damped I guess.

With this butterfly valve setup this way I can open the valve fully, partially or barely for different durations and results.

So without further adieu check this out.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/py_sLvOshag?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Will there be any plumbing on the undercarriage extending into the tank to direct the flow and keep air out, or will there be an air space between the surge and the tank as shown in the move?

I am anxious to see your controls, a robust failsafe to prevent overfilling the pipe is in order!
 
Thanks Coke and Chaka for feedback.

Yo brackishdude!
I was just thinking about that entire subject. My original plans were to mount this surge structure up in my chase and duct its handiwork into the tank with custom piping. After actually sticking my head up there, (nasty place to reach- think working in a half limbo position looking up and working behind you), I've decided ducting light around all this in a pleasing manner will be easier than piping water. Also, since the tank can go up and down having the surge structure fixed to the tank instead of the wall means only the 1" water fill piping needs to deal with the vertical motion. That also means The Surge can operate with the tank in any vertical position.

I stuffed it in there last night and because the top of my Dtank is all flat acrylic it doesn't play well with the bolts and the drive motor on my SS. So. I need to make a support piece of acrylic to accept the flange bolt heads, the open butterfly, and to provide the cross support you see in the movie above that is a volunteer picture frame. :)

Also filled that 55g test tank to within about 8 inches of the SS and the resulting wave was much more beautiful and slow motioned than from that ~20" drop in the movie.

In all cases I expect to get some entrained air as that is what a wave 'slopping' into a pool would provide. I will note that it looks like there are virtually no micro-bubbles. They are all maco-bubbles that immediately rise to the surface.

I will want the water directed to the sides, not just the straight down, to mine-sand. I'm not sure of how to do that in an adjustable manner. I guess I need maybe two vanes than can be turned. Vanes like the ones in your car dash. That probably means adding some duct or a piece of pipe to mount them crossways in. That in-turn will mean some height but not a lot will be exposed to the air. If the water hits the surface at too low an angle it may skip off the surface and cause lots of splashing..

Lots to 'discover' here. Any suggestions welcome.


Robust overfill? Oh yeah! Definitely.

I would like to be able to suspend dumping indefinitely for working in the tank, or feeding, or maybe night time. And especially while screwing with the whole thing. My plan is to put an overflow into the top of the tower that is a separate pipe that runs down next to the surge tank to reach the DT. Obviously the smaller that pipe the better logistically but at some point it won't be able to support the pumped flow. I suspect if the pumped flow is delivered thru 1" my safety bypass can't be 1" with only 3 inches of head on it.
 
Last edited:
kcress said:
I would like to be able to suspend dumping indefinitely for working in the tank, or feeding, or maybe night time. And especially while screwing with the whole thing.

My plan is to put an overflow into the top of the tower that is a separate pipe that runs down next to the surge tank to reach the DT. Obviously the smaller that pipe the better logistically but at some point it won't be able to support the pumped flow. I suspect if the pumped flow is delivered thru 1" my safety bypass can't be 1" with only 3 inches of head on it.
Click to expand...

I wired my return pump into a Normally Closed timer. When I want to feed, I just give it a crank, feed, and the pump will kick back on up to one hour later. You could do the same .

If you run your emergency overlflow down into the larger vessel/reservoir/surge, it would siphon and empty it quickly. Once the siphon is broken, repeat, but hopefully with only a bit of spilliage (or none) just befoore the siphon kicks in each time. If the surge is over the DP, at least the spilliage would end up there. . .
 
Super sweet setup! Spent most of the evening following your progress. Can't wait to see the end product. Cheers noto
 
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