Surge Tanks
- Thread starter james s_
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con-they make a TON of bubbles.
They are pretty easy to make, though.
They are pretty easy to make, though.
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And they attract indian vampires.
I cant determine thats a pro or a con.
The "http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/surge_device.html">Borneman Surge Device</a>" which was published in his coral book is an easy to build and reliable device. It's a derivative of the Carlson Surge Device design from the Wakiki Aquarium. I haven't built one but by all reports it cuts way down on the bubbles entering the tank to where they are not an issue.
At any rate, it's cheap to build a prototype to see.
At any rate, it's cheap to build a prototype to see.
I like bubbles! After doing some research on this Im not sure I can get the reservoir high enough above the tank for this to be beneficial. It would be kind of cool having one running, but Im not sure it would be worth my time. I guess once my tank is actually up and running then maybe i can spend some time playing around with this and seeing what I can come up with. Im not sure if a 33 gallon surge would have much of an effect on a 600 gallon tank, but who knows.
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Looks cool but I think it would be a pain to get my ATO to function properly.
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Its all manageable. It depend on the size of the surge, the rate of fill, the plumbing size. I think the bottom of the suction would just need to be higher than the typical tank level. Let me know if you wanna hash it out, we can figure it up.
I had this exact idea for my next tank. I'm going to try it out with a sea grass refugium.
The only overall problem I see with surge devices is that unlike waveboxes, they simply can't move enough water to satisfy the needs of an SPS tank. So you'd have to have lots of flow devices anyway, so then you get only marginal input from the surge and marginal aesthetics.
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I disagree completely. Depending on the size of the surge vessel and the siaze of the plumbing, you can have a significant surge from them. Heck, Waikiki uses them on their SPS growouts.
Wakiki has a HUGE surge tank running into a specifically designed display tank. Most people would find that fairly impractical and a tank would require significant modification to the standard overflow systems used in most purchased tanks.
For example, the current megaflows in an All-Glass aquarium are rated at 600 gph each. The best ratio of volume to overflow they make is a 120 which has 2 megaflows. 1200 gph is at best 25% of the kind of circulation you'd need for a healthy SPS tank. Nevermind that the pipe(s) on your surge device would have to be huge.
I don't deny it can be done (obviously Wakiki has for years), but to really get the effect and have a healthy SPS tank, you have to go for it by design from the start.
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George, you're right, if we're talking about a AGA overflow, dont bother. In James' case, we're not. Even if you have a 5 gallon surge into the tank in 2 seconds, on a 8 foot by two foot tank, the water levekl would rise minimally. Now, think about dumping a 5 gallon bucket of water into the tank in 2 seconds. That can be quite a surge. The plumbing diameter is probably the biggest constraint.
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