soft start for powerhead

[DJ88]

Oh titus.. You smart a$$.. lol

I fix your mistakes.. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] kidding.. how about we three get together and figure something out?

I'd love to.. In all honesty the level at which I am learning at in class right now is well belows what I have already studied. I think I might actually get soething out of this.

I should have taken exemptions.. Grrr..

[Gordoe]

If we all agree that powerheads are a shaded pole motor(not sure??) then here is a website that suggests using choke coils.
Universal/Shaded Pole Motors

Any input would be appreciated.

gord

[Troy F]

Well you guys are way over my head but from an actual observation when using one of the currently available "high end" wavemakers, there is no such thing as "soft start". Personally, I think that they need the power surge to get them going and without it they'd need to be extremely clean or they'd never get going. My opinion is that the powerheads we use are cheaply made and no amount of fiddling is going to make them quiet and long lasting while doing rapid start and stop applications.

I don't know what cost the components are for the project you guys are thinking about but you may want to look into the Tunze powerheads. My understanding is that they are rampable, put out huge flow rates and are air cooled.

[titus]

Hello Darren,

Sometime after my thesis is good. Whenever that is.

Gord,

I try not to read the article and get too involved in this. But my guess of the choke is just a simple inductor to prevent rapid current spike due to a step function for the voltage input. Yes it'd work but won't provide the level of sophistication of using a controlled current driver.

Troy,

Yeah just as I thought what the commercial hobbyist wavemakers are. But I wonder what the public aquariums use. Isn't that why we started this thread? Oh well it was a while ago so I forgot about it.

Hey I keep hearing these Tunze stuff from time to time. It always seem like they have very neat design. But you are right, powerhead are cheap. I was discussing with John and J&L about the reliability of Eheim pumps, which is supposed to be the best by the way, and me, him, and Precison Marine all agree that there are problems with these guys.

[clintyiu]

It's getting a little too technical for me...
I agree that the powerheads are cheap etc... But everytime the pump starts up the fish in the tank jolts because of the abrupt noise. This is especially bad with bigger powerheads like the aquaclear 5000.

Oh well....maybe I should just get the Redsea wavemaker.

[Aquattro]

Clint, I think you'll find the same problem using the RedSea. It will make your hagen power heads clunk.

[Troy F]

I agree with Brad, I think I have the RedSea Wavemaster Pro. It made both Hagen and Maxijet rattle pretty good. My fish didn't seem bothered but then I never bothered to ask them.

Recently Richard Harker was talking about how it is much more of a concern to have enough flow rather than variation. If you can point the flow of the powerheads so that they hit one another and bounce of the glass creating chaotic flow you'll be much better than intermittent random flow. His words (more or less) not mine, sounds good though [img]smile.gif[/img] .

[Aquattro]

Troy, so far I find the Maxijets are pretty silent. They're new though, so that could change in time.

[Reefmaster]

troy
i've come across a couple articles that have said something similar, and i completely agree. i think over the next while we are going to see a huge change in thinking about tank circulation and a trend where rather than three or four large ph's we are going to see 8 or 10 smaller ones which overall will generate better circulation.
shane

[Silverfish]

Hey guys, I am running four MJ's in my 55g and two in Meighans 15g on a Wavemaster Pro. They were loud when I first fired them all up and chattered and stuff but seemed to settle in after a few weeks and became quiet, just a click when they came on. As they became all clogged up with coraline and crap they got loud again, some more than others tho. I might try giving the loudest ones the old "couple o days" vinegar dip to see if that makes a difference.

Troy, I had a conversation a while back with Canadian about skipping the wavemaker and maybe running powerheads two on one side of the tank, two on the other side and simulating a tidal surge that lasts for about six hours. Kind of like what occurs on the reef maybe. I know that after seeing Superfudge's awesome coral growth without the random switching powerheads, just lots of flow, gave me some food for thought.

It would be nice to get rid of the constant noise from these powerheads, but then I would feel bad about not using this pesky expensive wavemaker!!