Hypothetical reef tank

[Delphinus]

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..

[michika]

tell me more...this sounds quite interesting!

[Delphinus]

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

[michika]

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?

[Delphinus]

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

[danny zubot]

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?

[mr_alberta]

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....

[michika]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

kwirky tried making one[/url]

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.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Catherine, I think the practical applications in a show tank would just require a little more planning. What if you made/ordered/had a tall tank, and built a stand so that only the top 2/3 of it showed (the gyre portion would be under the display area, hidden by the stand). Hmmm, not sure if this is making sense to anyone other than me!

[mr_alberta]

A calfo manifold on your tank would be pretty cool assuming you had a way of hiding all the plumbing (i.e. under a canopy). Using one of your PS4 pumps and having a 4 port manifold would be pretty sweet. I see you have a SCWD too which you can use if you wanted.

Gyre tanks...well, while the concept is interesting, they look kind of....gross to me Not my cup of tea.