my diy needle wheel dart pump

[spazz]

i have 2 of them that i got used in the classified secton here on r/c. but i would say marine depot or preimum aquatics will have them the cheapest. cusotm aquatics some times has cheaper prices too. but they all will lower there price to what the other on line vendors have there price at. so check around. if you can find one with the baldor motor. it would be better. thats if you plan to make a needle wheel pump out of it in the future. they have a little bit better design than the newer ones. or find a 750 series 3600 or 4200 pump. those have the baldor motor. i found that the needle wheels do make the motor warm to the touch. but not overly hot. thats another thing i need to messure. the heat transfer to the water. and the heat of the pump when runnning. but i dont think it transfers much if any. we will see though.

 

[Isayso]

Spazz!
have you tried a mak 4??
or the in /out is too small?

 

[spazz]

the biggest problem with the iswaki's,genex, and panword pumps is the size or the housings. and the gallons per hour they put out.
see the nice thing about the dart is the volume of water it puts out at 180 watts. and the inlet and outlets are huge. they allow alot better flow through the pump housing. the inlet and outlets are so small that the flow through them would be restricted alot. a pump thats pushing water through it can force it through the tiny hole of the outlet. but once you inject air into the water, that force is gone. its like taking a pressure rated pump, and turning it into a flow rated pump. the output on most of those pumps are smaller than my little finger. i wish i could find a medium sized pump that flows 1500gph and have at least 1" inlets and outlets that have no restrictions on the housings. the other thing is the ceramic shafts have to be supported by the housing inlet. that restricts the pumps ability to draw water and air into them.
this is why the dart is the best pump for this job. it has no ceramic shaft. its direct drive. and it has the huge intake port. which gives zero restriction between the air intake and the pump impeller. when choosing a pump to convert i just ran the watt to gallons ratio in order to get the most efficent pump possable. the mag drive pumps are wat to ineffecient to be made into a needle wheel.

 

[hahnmeister]

For the 1500gph pump...why not try a Velocity T4? Pretty good performance.

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6550391#post6550391 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
For the 1500gph pump...why not try a Velocity T4? Pretty good performance.

i will have to reasearch them. are they direct drive or mag drive?
do they have big ports on the intaks and output.

 

[hahnmeister]

1" in and out...not sure about the drive...but they are about 150-160 watts (higher pressure).

 

[BeanAnimal]

mag drive

 

[spazz]

you really have to take the size of the impeller into consideration also. the mag drive pumps arew high speed small impellers where the mag drive pumps are low speed large diameter impellers.

 

[BeanAnimal]

heh?

I am not sure what you were trying to say there.

In any case the T4 is a large impeller.

 

[tinygiants]

Spazz,
We need pics of this test tank turned skimmer

I for one am interested in how the collection cup and neck area will be designed. I am also interested in how they function in terms of bubble combining. As you already noted my skimmer neck is showing a significant bubble combining.

Dale

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6556110#post6556110 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tinygiants
Spazz,
We need pics of this test tank turned skimmer

I for one am interested in how the collection cup and neck area will be designed. I am also interested in how they function in terms of bubble combining. As you already noted my skimmer neck is showing a significant bubble combining.

Dale

im in the shop working on it. but i have to get my buddies tank done first. he has to have it.

 

[tinygiants]

I used to go to a board that was a little bit out there. It was called forumsfromhe**. There was a guy on there that would have milling sessions. He would work in his shop building his widgets all the while updating his thread. This would go on until the drinking and working became drinking and surfing. The between time was usually very informative.

Your work is always worthy of pics, so I look forward to it whenever it is.

Dale

 

[Energy]

My tanks ready when you are spazz. Left you a pm earlier but I don't know if you got it.

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6561966#post6561966 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Energy
My tanks ready when you are spazz. Left you a pm earlier but I don't know if you got it.

sorry i didnt get back to you today. i did an all nighter in the shop and didnt get to bed until 6 am this morning. i almost got the test tank converted to a nasty looking skimmer. its almost too ugly to post pics of. lol it will be the worst looking piece of equiptment in your fish room. you might want to put an old blanket over it so no one sees it. i wouldnt want to hurt your reputation for having such a nice fish room. lol

 

[Energy]

Looks don't matter- performance counts and that's what we will be testing. No problem about yesterday- Long days and short nights are tough. We'll catch up soon.

 

[spazz]

well here it is. this is the first pics of it after i cranked it up as a skimmer. now dont laugh. i know its ugly. but i think it should do the trick well enough. the first thing i noticed was the riser tube is not big enough in diameter. but it will have to do for now. im hoping to get enough time to run down to energys house and hook it up some time this week. but i have to see what work has in store for me first.

hey, i know your sitting there laughing. stop it!
:lolspin:

 

[BeanAnimal]

are those marbles in the neck

Looks pretty good to me spazz

 

[tinygiants]

I am not laughing. I like your work. I am curious about your twist loc flange. Care to post more details about (like o ring size, o ring seat) it in the flange thread?

I am noticeing that even with your superior bubbles, your riser looks like mine (joined bubbles). Every skimmer I have seen has had that. I am beginning to believe that using our current approach we will lose some bubbles to popping and joining. I guess we should expect that though. Can you imagine pumping out 135 CF of bubbles per hour and all of them ending up in the skimmer cup?

Dale

 

[hahnmeister]

Its because his riser neck is too narrow. A skimmer like that should have a 5-6" diameter neck to prevent that turbulence.

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6580454#post6580454 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Its because his riser neck is too narrow. A skimmer like that should have a 5-6" diameter neck to prevent that turbulence.

i agree. it should be at least 6" but the problem is... i dont have any 6" twist locks designed. lol yet.... rome was not built in a day. and they messed up getting there too. they just didnt have the interenet to show the world there oopses. but hey i look at it this way. now i know for next time. right...ha ha ha ha