Hypothetical reef tank

[michika]

Since my tank isn't really supposed to be in my apartment it will have both a canopy and stand, as well as a set of doors to cover the tank itself. In short everything can be hidden away to look like a cabinet or something.

I was thinking I woud make the water level even with the 1ft mark, and then maybe keep the glass taller, 15" or so. The canopy level could then come down, cover the extra 3" of space and then the manifold as well.

I still worry about how to keep the whole structure up and how to prevent it from bowing or dipping in the front. I'm also now trying to figure out how to make it asethetically pleasing while ensuring I have a crazy amount of flow.

[mr_alberta]

Rigid PVC should be more than enough to prevent dipping...here's my old calfo system:



Pic of what you see in the tank:

[michika]

I remember that system! What was the longest length you had to cover? Any problems with disturbing the sandbed (or was this tank BB?)?

[mr_alberta]

My tank was BB so no worries about the sandbed. The longest length was 45" with a 14" segment at the end (it was L-shaped). It wasn't a true calfo manifold as it wasn't all one continuous "loop". I split the manifold in half with a SCWD so that only half of the "loop" would fire at a time. Worked quite well, but too bad the SCWD adds so much headloss to a pump. In retrospect, an Ocean Motion 2 way would have been better as you can use much larger pumps with it.

[christyf5]

Uh, pardon my ignorance, but do you have to provide an "excess" of flow so that water makes it through to the final outlet at the end of the line (so that you don't have the most pressure coming out the first outlet, then less at the second, even less at the third etc?).

[michika]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Uh, pardon my ignorance, but do you have to provide an "excess" of flow so that water makes it through to the final outlet at the end of the line (so that you don't have the most pressure coming out the first outlet, then less at the second, even less at the third etc?).

Good question...I'm pretty ignorant too about this....anyone?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Couldn't you add ball valves to all the returns, and dial the ones closest to the return more closed, with the ones at the end fully open? Tweak until you get even flow? I've also wondered about this, and it's the only solution I can work my mind around.

[mr_alberta]

There's got to be a Mech. Engineer somewhere here that can explain why you don't need ball valves on a closed system like a Calfo Manifold...

Originally Posted by christyf5

Uh, pardon my ignorance, but do you have to provide an "excess" of flow so that water makes it through to the final outlet at the end of the line (so that you don't have the most pressure coming out the first outlet, then less at the second, even less at the third etc?).

[christyf5]

OK here is my theory, you shoot water through the pipes so fast that only some gets split off to any given tee. The rest of it is propelled super fast on to the next tee because it doesn't have time to make turns at the tee. However at the end tee either there is just the right amount of water that comes out or you could launch mysis from it at the speed of light!

[michika]

I'm about 90% sure that this is the way I'm going to go. I'm going to try and do an external overflow box so I can maximize the space in the tank. I don't want to go BB, so I'm sure that will be a problem I will have to deal with later.

I want a very random flow, so I guess I'll look into an Ocean Motion. I don't think I want to use a SCWD again, because, like you meantioned, of the headloss.

I guess that makes my next step figuring out what pumps to use, and how I may want to drill my new tank. Should I be looking at doing a few returns through the back of the glass?