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Anonymous
Guest
seamaiden":2zsrq9v1 said:
Excellent, that's what I was thinking.
But hang on, how does this work with the water also leaving via the same route? Or does this assume two separate columns?
Excellent, that's what I was thinking.
But hang on, how does this work with the water also leaving via the same route? Or does this assume two separate columns?
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Anonymous
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Separate columns.
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Anonymous
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Dang. That would be too much real estate in a smallish tank. I think I may have to look at other options. 
Hi Tom,
Back to the spray-bar idea. If you painted the back glass black or blue or whatever you could conceal the spray-bar behind a piece of acrylic the same color as the background. If you positioned the lower spray-bar low in the tank as you mentioned the acrylic sheet would conceal any parts of the spray-bar that are not covered by the rock. Just make the acrylic shield a couple inches larger than the spray-bar diameter. Are you familiar with working with acrylic? If you weld a couple tabs onto the back of the shield and drill them the same size as the spray-bar you could pass the spray-bar through the tabs which would hold the shield in position and conceal the spray-bar at the same time.
Back to the spray-bar idea. If you painted the back glass black or blue or whatever you could conceal the spray-bar behind a piece of acrylic the same color as the background. If you positioned the lower spray-bar low in the tank as you mentioned the acrylic sheet would conceal any parts of the spray-bar that are not covered by the rock. Just make the acrylic shield a couple inches larger than the spray-bar diameter. Are you familiar with working with acrylic? If you weld a couple tabs onto the back of the shield and drill them the same size as the spray-bar you could pass the spray-bar through the tabs which would hold the shield in position and conceal the spray-bar at the same time.
seamaiden":2jioukg8 said:
You could always divide the column, and there's no reason why the return needs to use the entire vertical space. You can do it with a little fist sized piece of plumbing that could be concealed quite easily.
This is a Stockman standpipe.
http://www.randystacye.com/images/durso ... ptions.gif
Usually it drains water. Flip it upside down, remove the airhole valve-y thing, feed water to it via the smaller pipe, and voila, nice gentle flow dispersed over a wide diameter.
I can't see your picture, Mark.
Tom, spraybars are how I did it way back when. I'd aim them across the top of the tank, just under the surface. Additional powerheads gave me fairly decent movement. But then I saw how they did things at LBAOP, and there is something about the way a more diffused, yet still strong, flow can get the corals and everything to just expand and get so danged HAPPY. I think if you can sort out the overflow like Matt's talking about, you'd be most happy as well with the results.
Tom, spraybars are how I did it way back when. I'd aim them across the top of the tank, just under the surface. Additional powerheads gave me fairly decent movement. But then I saw how they did things at LBAOP, and there is something about the way a more diffused, yet still strong, flow can get the corals and everything to just expand and get so danged HAPPY. I think if you can sort out the overflow like Matt's talking about, you'd be most happy as well with the results.
The Escaped Ape":37ktsiql said:
Consider blasting the spray nozzle of a garden hose straight at the bottom of a small bucket--watch it fill up and overflow. An input of high velocity/pressure (due to a small diameter) is converted to a low velocity/pressure output (due to a much larger diameter). You just have to make the water do a U-turn so it loses its momentum.
I've got my head around the basic idea, thanks. I'm just trying to work out how to make it best work in a tank when I know of a tank maker that's open to customizing, but I'm not great at explaining things I have no idea how to build myself!
Oh, and Mark, apologies, but even at home I can't quite make out your sketch (the words in particular). If you were to explain what the captions say, that would help a great deal, thanks.
Oh, and Mark, apologies, but even at home I can't quite make out your sketch (the words in particular). If you were to explain what the captions say, that would help a great deal, thanks.
The Escaped Ape":3k6dey3u said:seamaiden":3k6dey3u said:
That's kind of the way I was heading, but not sure again how that would work with the return as you and Matt suggested and water overflowing in.
BTW, the angel food cake pan reference has gone over my head.
I would really try to avoid having the return dump out at the surface near the overflow at a low velocity. You'll get a short circuit where a relatively high percentage of the returning water will just go right back down to the sump. No bueno.
It is possible to have the water return down at the bottom of the tank through the central column, but it'd be tricky.
Can you elaborate on where you'd best like the overflow? Are any sides of this tank going to be concealed, say by placing it in a corner, or will it be viewable from 3 sides by placing it against a straight wall? Will the tank have an enclosed canopy, or be open-topped? Have you considered using an external weir box rather than an internal overflow?
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