Something different when it comes to circulation?

dantimdad · Oct 22, 2009

I have been interested in trying to figure out a low wattage, high volume, laminar flow system for some time now. My inspiration is videos of the East Australian Current and the huge amount of water it moves in one direction.

I would want to do this on a 6 or 8 foot long plywood tank that was at least 36" from front to back and at least 30" tall.

My thoughts (Dang! I wish I could draw!) would really only work asthetically for an inwall.

Could you put a row of large bulkhead fittings, say three 3" on each end of the tank then plumb them around from one side to the other. Then put a prop style pump facing in to each one on one end?

Given that 3 of these will draw way less current than a large closed loop pump and move a ton more water than most of the pumps out there, I would assume this would work.

Maybe we could figure out a way to mount a prop in the 3" pvc and drive it with magnets?

Thoughts?

Has anyone done something similar?

It sounds weird and complicated, but, surely, given all the creativity in this group, we could do it.

Steven

Acroholic · Oct 22, 2009

Have you thought about using a Carlson surge type device?

dantimdad · Oct 22, 2009

Yeah, I used one years ago on a 150 I built. It was way too noisy.

I was thinking of some sort of surge to add more circulation the tank besides laminar but, haven't decided how yet.

dantimdad

Harry_Y · Oct 24, 2009

I saw pictures of a freshwater "River" tank where they used powerheads.

They ran PVC pipes from one end of the tank to the other end.
Then connected the pipes to the intake of the power heads.

Water flowed in one end and out the other.

You could build a box on one end and put modded Maxi-Jets or
Tunze Streams in it with just the face poking out (circle) then
pipe the box to the other end.

If you are making a plywood tank you could make a
big channel in the back for the water to flow around.

DLO · Oct 24, 2009

I attended the CRASE conference today . Jake Adams was one of the speakers and this was his subject . He showed pics and video of some 10' long reef tanks run with less than 100 watts for water circulation using 3-4 powerheads at each end . One end runs for a few hours and then the other end . Very interesting and the flow in the video was impressive . Its on youtube somewhere .

Hahnmeister · Oct 25, 2009

Running water through pipes means you are condensing flow and pressure into pipes, and this alone will kill efficiency. A gyre type of system where flow is constant and circular throughout the tank is a very efficient way to have the water 'stir' itself, just like when you stir a pot of water and stop... it keeps going. Conservation of momentum in this respect is key... having the flow go from one end to the other is okay, but having it return through piping kills the conservation and prevents the momentum from doing the work.

The most effective methods I have seen are with gyre style setups. For those who want this, but also want some alternating flow... you can run two alternating sets of pumps, and as long as the alternation of flow is long, the momentum you can build is impressive. One of the anchor leaders of my local club (WRS) uses only 2 maxi jet mods (for what... 20 watts?) to create a gyre effect on his entire 150g. Its pretty impressive.