Hypothetical reef tank
 

I'm debating tearing down my 24g nano for a longer, and shorter tank. I want to get some feedback in regards to flow, and what options I may have with a smaller system.

The system I am thinking of creating would be approximately 3ft in length, 18" in depth, and 15" tall, but I would restrict the water height to 1ft. This would put the display at about 42g before the overflows are in.

I would like dual overflows, and possibly 4 returns. My goal is to get as much flow as possible through the system.

What would you recommend I do, or use to create a variety of random currents throughout the tank. The tank, as mine is now, would be SPS and clam dominated.

For a suggestion this might be a bit "out there", but what about an up/down style gyre tank? You'd need a taller tank of course but if you hid the bottom part you could have those dimensions and have a pretty neat flow effect..

tell me more...this sounds quite interesting!

Mainly, the idea is to capitalize on the idea of a whirlpool in a tank. If you put a divider in the tank then you get nearly-laminar type flow (or whatever the right term is) on each side of the divider. So, say if you had a platform style divider, you could build the reef on this part, but hide your powerheads in the bottom part, use a wavemaker and then you have something I bet the corals would totally dig.

try this link for some reading (hopefully it jumps forward to the right section, if not, just search on "gyre"): http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature#h5

Cool! Thanks. I now have a whole bunch of ideas that I didn't previously have.

I wonder how I could accomplish some of these, while maintaining a low system volume.

Have you ever built one yourself?

I haven't but I want to, if for no other reason than to put my gorgs in it because how-cool-would-that-be to see them wave back and forth like they're supposed to? :)

kwirky tried making one, here's the thread about it: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=31686

reply
 

You know, this has got me thinking again about the whole "wave pool" concept. Instead of having a massive pump on a timer behind the wall in a tank, imagine what a big piston actuated panel could do for flow in one?

A tank like that with a Wave2k unit on one of the short sides would be pretty neato..of course this is assuming that the Wave2k units work well....

So far I've looked at the Calfo manifoldsl, and while I like the idea I don't know how I'd execute it. Or at least I don't know how to do it cleanly, like your cube tank Harvey.

Gyre tanks, while looking awesome would eat up too much usable space, so I guess I'll be skipping that idea. I'm thinking I'll be using it on a future frag tank though.

I thought of waveboxes, hence why I initially mentioned a water height of 1ft, but a total glass height of 15". I don't know much about them, so I'm kind of in the dark. I did however note the release of the Wave2K, and took a quick look at the thread on RC.

My other thoughts were another closed loop system with educators, or a tank full of powerheads. Neither of which really appeal because of the aesthetics.

I remember that. I thought it was very cool looking, but had a hard time getting my head around the practical applications in a show tank. That is where I originally got my idea to do a gyre tank on my future frag system, but the idea never really went anywhere. Now with the article you posted I have a better understanding of how the tanks work.