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View Full Version : Surge - Take 2 :)


AndyL
06-16-2009, 03:04 AM
08/17 FTS:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0426sm.jpg

07/26 FTS:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0411.jpg

06/23 FTS:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0252.jpg

Ok, Before I cheese off the goddess running this contest :mrgreen: Let's get this thread started :)

Custom tank - unlimited budget

Here's the tank design:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/55contestsurgedims.jpg

It's been built and ready to go for a while...

Sorry - it's still in the basement storage room... The fiance thinks I should be concentrating on the wedding details (eek less than a month!) at the moment! Christie said no water until the 15th - so haven't been playing with the CSD while waiting for this day to come, Thus I need to get off my tookus get the daily stall eliminated...

Basically will be going ahead with the planned tank from the previous contest - with some changes; where it wasn't allowed :)

Tank will be connected to a Carlson surge (~3g capacity) using a 5g sump.

Lighting - will be a work in progress :) Likely going to be using about 15w of LED lighting - no budget so why the heck not go for broke? :lol:

golf nut
06-16-2009, 05:14 AM
Screw the wedding, you can get married anytime, tank contests don't come along that often.

Are they 3/4 holes or holes for 3/4 bulkheads?

AndyL
06-16-2009, 12:57 PM
Actually they got drilled for 1" bulkheads - one of these days I'll stop going 100% overkill on everything :D

christyf5
06-16-2009, 03:13 PM
Hey Andy,

You might as well put water in it, I think Randi already jumped the gun anyways, I was just reading her thread and it sounds like her tank is already cycling through a diatom bloom.

:biggrin:

AndyL
06-16-2009, 03:19 PM
Maybe on the weekend, gotta dig it out, clean it up... Make it pretty :) find some sand... mix some water... Yeesh, what did I get myself into? This sounds like work!

Snaz
06-16-2009, 03:24 PM
no budget so why the heck not go for broke? :lol:
If you were not already engaged I'd ask you to marry me. Congrats.

BlueAbyss
06-16-2009, 05:54 PM
I won't lie, I had water in by the 5th :lol:... I totally forgot about the no water rule, and I bought the stuff and had no where to put the rock.

I will hold off with the livestock for an extra 2 weeks to even things out. I was planning this anyhow, but this way I have a reason :biggrin:

AndyL
06-16-2009, 07:37 PM
LOL - actually no budget allows me to do things in stages... Plan is actually to get the arduino reef controller onto this tank (that'd really blow a budget) - if I had to account for everything It'd be a very messy tally sheet...

Rbacchiega
06-17-2009, 12:34 AM
Hey Andy,

You might as well put water in it, I think Randi already jumped the gun anyways, I was just reading her thread and it sounds like her tank is already cycling through a diatom bloom.

:biggrin:

no water till June 1st...so I waited till June 1st! No gun jumping! I had everything in the sump of the 90 anyways.... :P

christyf5
06-17-2009, 02:04 AM
Its my own fault, I thought it would go the way of the last contest. You know where everyone started their threads with a pic of their empty tank with something in it (like a beer can or a cat) and then progress from there.

My own fault for not stating it.

Let the games begin!

Sorry for the hijack Andy :redface:

AndyL
06-17-2009, 04:10 AM
Meh - Hijack away... The emails saying the theres a new post in the thread reminds me i've got to get off my tookus and get going :D

BlueAbyss
06-17-2009, 06:14 AM
I honestly can't wait to see this going! I remember watching the video and being like 'Wow, that's cool!'.

christyf5
06-17-2009, 03:11 PM
Meh - Hijack away... The emails saying the theres a new post in the thread reminds me i've got to get off my tookus and get going :D

Well here's another one :razz:

AndyL
06-21-2009, 02:43 PM
Well finally got off my duff and pulled the tank out of the storage room - redid the plumbing in a temporary form to sort out some of those fun challenges of the overall system.

Still using the herbie on the displays overflow - but the emergency overflow got a modified version of the stockman (reduces a bit of the noise from the surge). Playing around with the CSD to see if I can't find a nice borderline between a big surge & reduced syphon break noise. Looks like I'm getting about a 1.3g surge at roughly 40 second intervals.

Tossed some nice fine aragonite in it too - to see what kind of sandstorm I'd have going with the surge... Surprisingly not as bad as I figured...

I'll post up pictures later today of the revised system - with a video of the surge in action.

AndyL
06-21-2009, 04:03 PM
Ok... As of today - tank itself:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/DSCF7895.jpg
Setup for now on my 110g's equipment shelf (spacing of the shelves was pretty close to what I wanted) Ignore the mess :lol:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/DSCF7898.jpg
Revised overflow
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/DSCF7896.jpg

Video of the revised surge in action... I'm getting a bit happier with it's operation - but still sucking in a lot more air than I'd like (yet if I rework it to not suck the bubbles - surge is dramatically reduced - 1.5L).
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/th_CSDContestsurge.jpg (http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/?action=view&current=CSDContestsurge.flv)

Still have some finalizing to do then do a full rebuild of the plumbing and build the stand - but there is saltwater running through the system at least :mrgreen:

banditpowdercoat
06-21-2009, 05:37 PM
Looking good, But to noisy for me.

AndyL
06-21-2009, 05:53 PM
Get a minor sucking sound from the stockman as it knocks off the syphon; the big one's still from the CSD - might just have to add some insulation into the stand to see if I can't eliminate that one...

StirCrazy
06-21-2009, 09:19 PM
pretty neet, how does it work, although I think the sound of the toilet flushing ever 30 to 40 seconds would drive me nuts haha

Steve

AndyL
06-21-2009, 09:27 PM
Physics :)

Basically just a U tube; surge bucket fills until the U tube is covered, once water pressure is high enough - air's forced out of the u-tube - syphon starts... Syphon drains until sucks enough air to stop it - and process begins again...

Not quite toilet flushing, but yeah, there's a syphon break that's either rather annoying or rather soothing depending on how you feel about surges :)

AndyL
06-24-2009, 04:23 AM
Current FTS - 06/23:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0252.jpg

Ok, Think I've got things mostly sorted out... Truck was broken into last night - and the good camera walked away - so appologies for the crummy P&S pictures...

For the record - hardware I'm using:

Custom built 5g tank (Colby @ Elite built) - 50$ (?ish? been a while)
Standard 5g Sump - 25$
Sterilite Brand plastic file cabinet (roughly 5g capacity) - 5$
Older than god mag2 pump w/ mag3 impeller - ???
Won Bro's 150w heater - bought in 2004 think it was 20$(Christian's big group order back from the days) <fingers crossed>
Old Odyssea 180 Skimmer body I had lying around - ???
Odyssea 250 needlewheel pump - 13.99 (thanks Red Coral)

Lighting - To be determined... Right now using some old flourescents I had kicking around - if I can scrape up some $ I'll be doing some LED lighting... Darn weddings - take all the spare $ away.

Current stock... Little bit of live rock from the main system; tossed in a hunk of digi & some colt (it'll look sweet in the surge) :)

If you are wondering - skimmers up in the surge tank as it displaced water - thus less time between surges (down to about 15 seconds now) also reduced surge down to ~ 1gallon.

Still need to do a final revision of the plumbing - thinking about doing a pair of locline nozzles for the surge outlet.

Overall system:
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0255.jpg
Yeah I really need to clean up don't I? :lol:

Delphinus
06-24-2009, 05:26 AM
Nah, looks pretty tidy to me. I don't know what mess you're talking about. (I have kids. Shaddup.)

I don't mind the bubbles. It's just reminiscent of .. an actual wave crashing. :lol: If you wanted to reduce the bubbles, have you tried drilling a small hole in the pipe just above the water surface so any air trapped in the pipe can escape out there as the pressure increases? It won't eliminate them altogether but can work to reduce them. The only thing with so many bubbles, methinks, is the salt creep potential.

BlueAbyss
06-24-2009, 05:43 AM
Hmm. If you put an open riser somewhere on the surge outlet of the CSD before the surge reaches the tank, would that give the bubbles a chance to break? It would probably work best if it were just before the tank (on a horizontal length of pipe)... but I have no way to verify this, I don't have a pump lying around to test my theory.

AndyL
06-24-2009, 06:14 AM
There's actually a small hole just below the water level (if you look you can see some bubbles coming out of it) gets rid of the big "bloop" from the surge. Above the water line would act as a venturi (tried that) I'm good with the bubbles as is - i know many hate them, and yes salt creep is already a royal pain in the arse - but the surge motion is really neat in comparison to the more laminar flow patterns we're used to seeing in a tank...

Tony - you'll notice you never see shots of the rest of the basement :lol: the other 500 sq feet is the 6yr olds playroom... I'm contemplating buying a nice skidsteer so I can clear a path to the tanks :)

I could play - but I don't think a T'd riser would help out - in fact with the rush of the surge - I'd almost bet it would act as a venturi... If I really wanted - I could switch to the toilet bowl style surge system - eliminates the tail end bubbles of the syphon breaking; but I like the simple physics operation of this configuration.

BlueAbyss
06-24-2009, 07:04 PM
Ahh, I hadn't thought of the venturi effect.

AndyL
06-25-2009, 03:38 AM
Ok... So a quick 'tuning' got me in trouble tonight... :cry:

Drilled a new hole in the stockman, and 'waited, listened and watched' to see how it would change the system... Seemed like 10 minutes went by... Well that was 8 when I drilled the hole - I come back upstairs - it's 9:30 and the fiance is ****ed :lol:

Hmmm Maybe I should play a stop smoking hypnosis tape in the background or something when I stop to enjoy the tank :lol:

AndyL
06-27-2009, 12:30 AM
This weekends project - the new stand...

We'll see how it turns out... Going a little - um... Different (Yes it's me - y'all should expect that by now) :mrgreen:

AndyL
07-14-2009, 11:44 PM
Updated FTS later this week... Been a little hectic with the wedding and all - went extremely well, currently chilling in fairmont BC :)

AndyL
07-26-2009, 05:51 PM
Well I'm dogging it as usual :) But Heading down for a topoff I suddenly realized - better get a shot up... Didn't get a chance to clean up or anything - but it keeps me in the contest :)

Added some locline to replace the big fugly 90 - 32$ (plus/minus change)

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0411.jpg

christyf5
08-16-2009, 03:48 AM
FTS due!! :biggrin:

AndyL
08-18-2009, 04:08 AM
Gah! But I'm not ready yet!

Can I have a day or two to finish one or two things... And give it a cleaning? :D Wont get around to the fragging from the 10g that I was planning to do... But at least get me into the less ghetto range :mrgreen:

Yeah it's been a heck of a summer...

christyf5
08-18-2009, 04:28 AM
Excuses excuses!! Get moving!! :razz:

AndyL
08-18-2009, 04:40 AM
well fine then :P
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i277/cgyreefer/contest/IMGP0426sm.jpg
Yes it got radically brighter :D But that's as much as I'm letting on until I reduce the ghetto'izing of the work...

Having a big fight with keeping salinity up lately - I've got the auto topoff running about 1.010 to keep it in the range...