Bidirectional tidal flow

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by Red Coral Aquariums

Mitch;

To clear things up for me.

You want a higher flow pattern at the upper part of the tank with less flow on the lower part of the tank?

* to accomplish this with Vortechs you would need 2 x MP60s up top on each side and 2 x MP40s below.

* to accomplish this with a closed loop you would need 2 pumps and really good timers and ball valves on your output piping to control amount of flow. You would also need reliable check valves.

What is your closed loop hole placement in your tank?


Kevin

Hi Kevin,



There are 4 holes drilled in the top brace to accommodate 4 seaswirls, which were to be fed by the 4 holes drilled in the lower bottom back of the tank.
My original sump return was to be determined and because the tank is acrylic I have the ability to reasonable modify it.

What I would like to do is use only the front two top holes for the seaswirls and drop a couple supply pipes originating from the sump down the back two top holes.
The two supply pipes would alternate the flow, clockwise or counter clockwise in 5 hours one direction with a 1 hour rest followed by 5 hours in the opposite direction, 1 hour rest. Repeat.
The top zone would be kept moving through the closed loop full time.
I have 1 reeflo dart supergold for the closed loop and 1 reeflo dart supergold for the sump return.

Depending on the results of the final setup, I was leaving open the option of adding the MP60's. The price of them is giving me a lot of incentive to minimize how many (if any) I put in there.

Mitch

[MitchM]

It sounds like there is a design that would work from Oceans Motions, but since there are other suggestions coming up in this vendor forum I should probably continue this on my build thread.
I really appreciate everybody's suggestions so far!

Another issue I thought of is that as well as having the OM unit work, the pump supplying the OM unit would need to be synced to turn off and on at the correct time.

[mr.wilson]

Comment moved to build thread.

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by schroeder

I have not checked into this but maybe there is another valve type that you could use.

I do service work on commercial dishwashing equipment. These machines sometimes use a valve that has a servo actuated diaphram to close 1 outlet (say the outlet to the wash arms) while opening the other (the drain).

They typically have cast ABS or PVC bodies but I cannot attest to the materials used inside the valve. I can however guarantee that they are under $250 and usually operate on 120V.

I'll try to get some contact info at work tomorrow and post if I find anything out.

It is likely an Asco Valve solenoid, there is metal in them, I do work for them.