Question for you big tank owners with closed loops

[Ray]

Oh I forgot to add my closed loop drain is dead center of my tank and I have no back up plan if it leaks besides curl up in a ball on my floor and start crying

 

[Liam]

what did you have for surgery Liam.....hope you feel better

thanks Ray,it was for a hernia,its no joke let me tell you.
I am feeling better in myself but i still can't walk without severe pain and its been nearly a week

 

[nichols]

thanks Ray,it was for a hernia,its no joke let me tell you.
I am feeling better in myself but i still can't walk without severe pain and its been nearly a week

Hope you feel better Liam. Had a hernia done myself a few years back. Not alot of fun.

 

[Liam]

Hope you feel better Liam. Had a hernia done myself a few years back. Not alot of fun.

thanks Bill

 

[Kevin McG]

Rough draft, I will plumb durso's out the back. Using this Google Sketch-up is a real PITA

 

[Liam]

looks good. One little tip i used on my 150 with a linear overflow was to angle the bottom plate,this will stop large air bubbles forming under there

 

[Kevin McG]

looks good. One little tip i used on my 150 with a linear overflow was to angle the bottom plate,this will stop large air bubbles forming under there

You mean the actual floor of the overflow? The tank when ordered will not include the overflow anyway, just the drilled holes in the rear. I will be machining the overflow out of black acrylic and slapping it together anyway so I can come up with anything I guess.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

I have had both closed loops and now Tunzes/Vortechs. Beyond what has already been posted regarding efficiency, elec cost, initial cost, hidden vs non hidden, etc. I have come to one approach I would use if I were starting from scratch.

My general thinking is that more little pumps is better than one or two big pumps and/or closed loops. The reason is that the ideal flow is low velocity, high flow which is tough to do with only a few pumps. With many pumps you can achieve low velocity from each pump but collectively create high flow from the collection of the flow from many small pumps. In addition, many small pumps allows better randomization of flow.

For the implementation of the pump array, I would use as many Vortechs as possible (or that you can afford ) possibly augmented by Tunze Streams. I am currently using 3 Vortechs and 4 Tunzes with the Vortechs' flow direction perpendicular to the Tunzes. The Tunzes flow runs along the length of the tank whereas the Vortechs' flows are from front to back and located invisibly behind the rockwork. The pumps are not run at thier max flow rates since it is not necessary given the number of pumps.

If you are concerned about appearance, you can build overflows that hide most of the Tunzes (except for the cowling of course) the way I did in my tank.

 

[Liam]

You mean the actual floor of the overflow? The tank when ordered will not include the overflow anyway, just the drilled holes in the rear. I will be machining the overflow out of black acrylic and slapping it together anyway so I can come up with anything I guess.

you got it.
What will happen with a flat bootom is all the tiny bubbles will collect under there,eventually they form very large bubbles which sooner or later make their way to the surface. Sometimes these bubble can get sucked into pumps etc which chop them up ,filling the tank with micro bubbles

 

[Kevin McG]

you got it.
What will happen with a flat bootom is all the tiny bubbles will collect under there,eventually they form very large bubbles which sooner or later make their way to the surface. Sometimes these bubble can get sucked into pumps etc which chop them up ,filling the tank with micro bubbles

Cool, thanks for the tip I will incorporate that I am assuming you slant the bottom towards the back?(back wall side being the lowest)

 

[Kevin McG]

I have had both closed loops and now Tunzes/Vortechs. Beyond what has already been posted regarding efficiency, elec cost, initial cost, hidden vs non hidden, etc. I have come to one approach I would use if I were starting from scratch.

My general thinking is that more little pumps is better than one or two big pumps and/or closed loops. The reason is that the ideal flow is low velocity, high flow which is tough to do with only a few pumps. With many pumps you can achieve low velocity from each pump but collectively create high flow from the collection of the flow from many small pumps. In addition, many small pumps allows better randomization of flow.

For the implementation of the pump array, I would use as many Vortechs as possible (or that you can afford ) possibly augmented by Tunze Streams. I am currently using 3 Vortechs and 4 Tunzes with the Vortechs' flow direction perpendicular to the Tunzes. The Tunzes flow runs along the length of the tank whereas the Vortechs' flows are from front to back and located invisibly behind the rockwork. The pumps are not run at thier max flow rates since it is not necessary given the number of pumps.

If you are concerned about appearance, you can build overflows that hide most of the Tunzes (except for the cowling of course) the way I did in my tank.

Yea, I think closed loops are a no-go on this tank. I was talking to Dave McReeferson today and he gave me a great idea of concealing a couple of vortechs under the overflows with a couple of pieces of acrylic with a hole to allow the flow through. Kinda hard to explain but I'll try and sketch something up to show this.

 

[Liam]

Cool, thanks for the tip I will incorporate that I am assuming you slant the bottom towards the back?(back wall side being the lowest)

If you slant it up towards the front it will create less shadow below the box.

 

[Kevin McG]

If you slant it up towards the front it will create less shadow below the box.

sweet! your a GENIUS!

 

[Dave McReeferson]

Using this Google Sketch-up is a real PITA

What are you doing with sketch up? You sit at a desk all day with Pro-E and then go home and draw your tank with sketch up?

 

[Kevin McG]

What are you doing with sketch up? You sit at a desk all day with Pro-E and then go home and draw your tank with sketch up?

Yea, this program stinks! I was going to redraw it at work when I get a sec, I just wanted to be able to do it at home.

Maybe I can ask for a Pro/E seat on my laptop

 

[Dave McReeferson]

Yea, this program stinks! I was going to redraw it at work when I get a sec, I just wanted to be able to do it at home.

Maybe I can ask for a Pro/E seat on my laptop

Yeah, I am sure they will order one right up for you. They like you Kev, but not that much.

 

[jbishop]

Cool ideas Kevin

 

[paulthomas]

One idea to consider if you are set on closed loops is to use 2 pumps.
You have your main pump that runs during the day,you then switch that off with a timer at night and run a very small pump during the night.
This cuts down on your consumption and allows corals some feeding time.

Damn Liam, you leave no stone unturned. You should start a reef keeping, energy conservation consulting firm.

 

[paulthomas]

I'm guessing you've done this before. It almost looks professional. Would it make more sense to have a tad more added volume by lengthening the overflow to cover the entire back?

 

[Kevin McG]

I'm guessing you've done this before. It almost looks professional. Would it make more sense to have a tad more added volume by lengthening the overflow to cover the entire back?

I was originally going to have the overflow the entire length but just threw something in there. I was actually going to possibly shorter. Any recommendation Liam? I am thinking the whole length will cause more surface skimming.