Closed loop

[Silverfish]

Since I haven't bought anything expensive for my tank lately, the urge has hit, must..spend..money.

Not really, but I do like the 1" Seaswirls and I think one would be a great addition to my 55g.

I could get rid of two Maxijets in the process, and have good current flow still, but that has got me thinking of how to get rid of the other two Maxijets?

The thought I had was, running one or two mag 2 pumps plumbed as a closed loop hanging off the back of the tank. Then run the mags off of my Wavemaster Pro to get the random wave action, and at the same time have less clutter in the tank.

I recently was reading of someone doing this somewhere online (can't remember where) and it seems like it could work.

The things that could be lame are the vibrations from the trusty old mag pumps driving ya nuts, and also possible leakage from the mags o ring down the road.

Could you run both mag's from the same inlet tube tee'd off to service both pumps? Or would it be a bit exciting if one was running, pulling water through the other pump, then the other pump comes on... I don't think it would harm either of them, but it could make bubbles and/or noise.

What do ya think?

[One_Divided]

Bruce I'm still gonna be needing more powerheads, so I'd be willing to take 'em off your hands..

sounds like a good plan though.

[DJ88]

Bruce,

Ever unplug then plug your MAG in repeatedly? Try it. You'll know why I am saying this when you do it. I know where your tank is in relation to your couch. :D

I am doing a closed loop with two MAG 7's in my new tank. By the time you take into account the bends of tubing and such I bet you might get 100 GPH out of your MAG2. Not worth it with a pump that small. Go for Mag 7 and put a ball valve if it is too much.

By the time I am done I will have one sea swirl(only beacuase I have it) and three 1.5" PVC outlets. One for a MAG7 and the other two from the MAG18 return.

Don't spend the cash on the sea swirl. Buy two MAG7's and run them closed loop into large diameter PVC outlets. Saves you the cash.

[Canadian]

And don't hook them up to a wavemaker. Those impellers will not do well with constant on-off cylces. You'll end up with a handfull of broken impeller shafts in no time.

[Silverfish]

Thanks guys, for the input.

Are there any pumps out there that could handle a wavemaker? I suspect that they would be too expensive anyways.

How about simulating a 6 hour tidal cycle with the closed loop? Timers are cheap. :D

Darren, are you going to run 1.5" pvc into the mag 7 as well as out? I suppose you could run smaller diameter pipe into the pump and larger pipe out.

[DJ88]

Don't worry bout the wave maker bruce. Just go with large diameter tubing. Silulating the tidal in a small tank will be a PITA.
I will run 1" into the mag's then 1.5" out.