Who has used 'surge' devices and what kind?

[steve fedyk]

You could plumb it to your tolet but, make sure you have lots of crabs to clean up the mess.

[Doug]

My turf scrubber is of course surge based. Its not a huge surge like a bucket dumping but certainly a lot quieter and very nice looking from one of the original scrubber units, which were built to look good sitting on your aquarium.

[don.ald]

Originally Posted by Doug

My turf scrubber is of course surge based. Its not a huge surge like a bucket dumping but certainly a lot quieter and very nice looking from one of the original scrubber units, which were built to look good sitting on your aquarium.

any pics doug? sounds interesting

[Doug]

Originally Posted by don.ald

any pics doug? sounds interesting

Posted a couple here,

http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showt...t=46908&page=2

The scrubber in the pic is what they look like when new and in one piece. I did buy it used from an acquaintance in the US and thats the pic he sent me when I was buying it. Mine arrived smashed to bits. Great delivery service. Without getting into it, getting any satisfaction from the delivery was hopeless.

So we built an ugly glass body for it, as was behind a wall on my tanks anyways. Worked exactly the same. I would have to go find some pics of it working on my 225g, as I no longer have them but would guess they are on the boards out there.

The screen pic is from my use. Anyways, for the surge, the screen sits on a pivot and when it fills with water, tips and dumps out the chute pictured on the scrubber. They were designed, so they could be used as the main and only filter sitting on top of something like a 120g with a halide hood in the front of it. No sump needed.

Of course they could be used in any application. including being run into a sump, but then the surge benefit is loss, which is what this thread is about. When we discussed them, back in the days, , many of us, including Eric, thought the surge could have been a lot more. I ran it with several pumps, including one that had it dumping twice/min. which made for an interesting little surge.

[BlueAbyss]

Yeah I looked into dump bucket types and understand they are really bad for salt creep? And they can have a notoriously short life span also... But for an algae filter, surge is the way to go.

Moving parts scare me

[Doug]

Yes, I agree with the moving parts. The tray dump design is very simple and basically break down and fool proof. That would be even more so if no algae was growing on the dump tray and was used just for a surge device.

[golf nut]

If you can build a valve like this, you will be able to dump large amounts of water with very little power to operate it as is the big issue with toilet flappers. even though the barrel is only an inch in diameter the hole through has the capacity of two 1 1/2 inch pipes.

[tang daddy]

My freind built a surge system that is very simple and mechanicall it can't fail have a read on this article I found which is basically what he built.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

My freind built a surge system that is very simple and mechanicall it can't fail have a read on this article I found which is basically what he built.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den

Unfortunately it can fail, even so it is noisy and prone to salt creep and lots of air. there have been a few mods over the years but there still has to be a better way.

[BlueAbyss]

Originally Posted by tang daddy

My freind built a surge system that is very simple and mechanicall it can't fail have a read on this article I found which is basically what he built.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den

This is a Carlson Surge Device... and yes, even these with no moving parts can fail. IF they get plugged. I'll be using a modified version that will take up much less space. If it works

I like the idea of using a system that's not passive, but have been scared away from it because I've read that they are unreliable... I think I'll stick with the CSD and manage the bubbles.