Surge device

[mrfishdude]

Does any one have any experience with a surge device that is designed to be mounted above a display tank? They are wood construction,silent(?) and not to bad to look at.

 

[wombat1]

I have two DIY surgemakers on my tank. They aren't wood but plastic garbage cans. They hide in my hood so you can't see them and not very loud at all. The flow they create in my tank is absolutely amazing and keeps the corals waving in a natural looking motion. It also has the added effect of removing powerheads from the tank. If you do a search on metacrawler or yahoo for "DIY surge maker" you'll find detailed plans on how to build them.

 

[DK]

Wombat, How did you solve the problem of automating water additions? The surgemakers are fairly simple to make and I made one with my first 55G tank but it made it difficult to maintain a constant water level in the sump (or any where else).

 

[wombat1]

Well, the water level in the sump rises and drops in a predictable cycle. When both surgers are full the water is at it's lowest. This ends up being about 3 gallons (each one holds about 1.5 g before it surges) less than if they were both empty, but they never are because when the water from the surge is making its way down the overflow they're filling up again. It's hard to believe but the level only varies about half an inch in my 10 gal sump. I just put the switch for my topoff at the bottom of the cycle, which happens to be about an inch above where my pump would start sucking air. If the water drops too low, Kalk is added. I tie a knot in the line just in case something catastrophic happens. The real tricky thing is running two surgers off of one pump!

 

[Bubafat]

Best design i've ever seen is the "silent surge." I believe they went out of business (not because they didn't sell enough, but i think one of the owners may have died or gotten really sick or something like that). They actually are very silent and they don't release many bubbles into the tank like many of the flapper types do.

I know there are pictures of the insides floating around on either reefs.org or reefcentral.com....do a search.


Buba

 

[wombat1]

My flapper or Borneman type surges hardly create any bubbles--just a few big ones that quickly rise to the surface at the beginning. The Carlson surge device creates lots of tiny bubbles that stay in the water for a while.

 

[wombat1]

Hmmmm, all I could find about silentsurges was a thread on reefcentral about how to take them apart b/c they weren't working. And they're also N/A anymore. Go with a DIY and save yourself some money. Rather than buying ridiculously expensive seaswirls or wavemakers that require even more powerheads you can spend 15 bucks per surgemaker. The carlson type is even cheaper than this.

 

[reefland]

I have a 4 gallon silent surge I don't use anymore. I'd sell it $50 plus shipping (was over $100) Went with Gemini powerheads on a wave maker and closed loops for circulation. PM if you're interested.

 

[SPC]

Posted by Wombat:

Hmmmm, all I could find about silentsurges was a thread on reefcentral about how to take them apart b/c they weren't working.

-Yes Wombat, this is the reason they went out of business, they left a bunch of people holding the bag too.
Steve

 

[mrfishdude]

Thanks for the replys.The silent surge is what I was thinking of.I guess I will stay away from this since they are out of buisness now.I would build a 5gallon bucket type, but I am moving my system from my basement Frankenstien operation to an apartment and want it to look nice.

 

[wombat1]

You can hide them in your hood!!

 

[john f]

Have you seen these?

www.wave2k.com

 

[reefsRcool]

that is alot of money for one of those things. are crapper valve setups that loud? i wave been puttering around with building one but havn't gotten the right container yet so not actual operation so far.

 

[wombat1]

Not silent, but quieter than my overflow with a Durso standpipe and the hum of my pumps. It will be much quieter with a top on it. I don't understand why people buy these expensive gadgets when these things are so easy to build. ReefsRCool One of the biggest problems I had was leaks. If you buy a flapper valve, you have to flip the thick rubber ring upside down from how it should be in a toilet. Also, I had problems with the soft rubber flapper and had to replace it with a hard one. After dialing in the first one the second was easy. I've had them on tanks for a year now and only very rarely need to mess with them.

 

[highrpm]

Wombat, Do you have any more details on your surge device. Did you get the DIY plans somewhere? What are the dimensions of your surge?

Thanks

 

[wombat1]

If you can get a hold of "Aquarium Corals" by Borneman there's a blueprint, and also a site I'll post in a minute. They each surge 2 gallons over the course of a minute, then fill up in 30 seconds. These times aren't exact, and they're different for each one so sometimes a coral is getting hit by both at once, or just the left one, or just the right one.

 

[wombat1]

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevo ... evice.html
There's also pictures at the web address in my signature. I found all the parts at ACE Hardware. You can PM if you have any questions or post here.

 

[reefland]

Any issues with your standpipe processing the surge? Any issues with the overflow teeth spacing allowing the water in?

When I surged 2 gallons on my 180 it was ok. Surged 4 gallons and the center glass would go under water.

 

[berkeleyfishboi]

I made a surge using a rectangular sea-salt 5 g bucket. I used a 1 1/2" bulkhead at the bottom. It was really simple to make. The PVC 80 inside was 1" and in an upside-down U shape. I used a maxijet 1200 to pump water from my 60g main tank into the surge. I had to take out the Durso standpipe because my tank would have flooded if I left it in there. I also knocked out a few teeth to allow greater water flow.

I took it out though because I decided to go with a sea swirl but I might one day rehook it up.

goodluck.

 

[wombat1]

Rich--The standpipe accomodates the extra flow, the problem is the U tube can't handle enough. I had to add a second U tube to make it work. The teeth seem to allow enough in too. I think since the surge sits just above the tank level there's not a ton of pressure behind the water. The standpipe is 1" btw. Also it's the more compact design that can fit in an external overflow box.
berkeley wrote:

I made a surge using a rectangular sea-salt 5 g bucket. I used a 1 1/2" bulkhead at the bottom. It was really simple to make. The PVC 80 inside was 1" and in an upside-down U shape. I used a maxijet 1200 to pump water from my 60g main tank into the surge. I had to take out the Durso standpipe because my tank would have flooded if I left it in there. I also knocked out a few teeth to allow greater water flow.

Ever seen the ones at Tropical Paradise in San Leandro??? They have Carlson surge devices on all their coral tanks. The SPS tank has two 50 gallon tanks about 10 feet off the ground that surge a TON of water. Very cool to watch. I think they have like twice as much volume in their surge and refugium as they do in the display tank.