Bidirectional tidal flow

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

Looks like you made it work. I built automation equipment for many years, Never minded puting products on that have been tested to run for millions of cycles in horrible conditions, even if they where made for something different. Why re-invent the wheel when someone has made something to work.

You have however found a way that will not have any issues with salt water buildup and should run great. Good thinking with the mag. sensors.

I've been looking at doing something similar to my return, but i have a PLC on my tank, so should be much easier.

If you have a plc then you are correct, it is a no brainer as long as there are enough timers in the plc to give you all the random moves you require, a couple of units I have out there are programmed to change daily so that they actually match what is happening the same day in that part of the world where the corals came from, others are simply a real time repeat scenario, same thing every day with no tide influence.
If you ever have an questions feel free to email me, it is likely running somewhere, only to happy to help.

OM is a fun thing for me to do, I have many CNC's that produce product for large corporations which allows me to design build all I want, I couldn't program a plc if I tried, and at my age I have no intention in learning, I need more time on the golf course.

Paul

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

I am actualy planning this for my next tank.. I have been looking into it for about 4 years now. you need two valves, one pump and a bunch of plumbing to do it right. this also includes drilling both ends of the tank with several holes.

what I am planning is about 6- 1" bulkheads on each end which combine into a manafold on each end. then 2" line splitting to two actuated valves one on the suction side and one on the discharge side of the pump.

with this set up you will actualy get complete lamaner flow across the whole tank so when in operation the bulkheads on one end are the discharge and the ones on the other end are the suction, when the ballvalves change this suction and discharge change ends.

this is the ball valve if you notice the one configeration has no "off" so during change over water flowes through both outlets.
http://www.haywardflowcontrol.com/pd...Way_Valves.pdf

here is the actuator
http://smsnet1.smsmktg.com/~hayward/...s_Actuator.pdf

the only other thing to do would be to come up with a controler that would alternat power on a timed basis to open one as it closes the other, then after a set time reverse the process. this could be done with an adruno based micro processor or what ever.

Steve

This does exactly what you describe with one pump and one valve,same controller as on the previous video, both suction and discharge are reversed as you wanted, I happen to be moving it quicker than advised to show just how much movement can be achieved with just one pump, please remember this video is 5 years old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCgLY0baPOk



Paul

[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.

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by MitchM

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.

If you simply want the water to flow from left to right every 5 hours,then I can show you how to do this without an OM unit, do you plan on leaving the pump off for a one hour period or do you want the water to go elsewhere during that period?

[MitchM]

Hi Paul,
I was originally looking to incorporate the switching and rest setup with a single sump return. The pump would be off during that rest period.
The 5/1/5 setup was to replicate natural ocean currents in the main tank.
I don't have anywhere else for the water to go....yet ..

[golf nut]

This is a standard revolution (albeit upside down)I dreamed this up to get more random flow with a 4 or 8 way, it indexes 8 times to 45 degree firings, each time the flow goes off it rises, or in your case would fall (by gravity) and part index, when pressure resumes it would be forced up and rotate again, you can see the 8 position cam in the pic below, you need a similar version to this that you might be able to build yourself.

You only need 4 position index, pump runs and water is sent to the right, pump turns off shuttle falls and partly indexes, 1 hour later pump turns on forcing spool up to the left output location and stays there till the pump turns off again.

If I get a moment I will sketch up a quick paint picture to make it clearer.

Paul

[golf nut]

and a quick sketch to show how it would work...

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by golf nut

This is a standard revolution (albeit upside down)I dreamed this up to get more random flow with a 4 or 8 way, it indexes 8 times to 45 degree firings, each time the flow goes off it rises, or in your case would fall (by gravity) and part index, when pressure resumes it would be forced up and rotate again, you can see the 8 position cam in the pic below, you need a similar version to this that you might be able to build yourself.

You only need 4 position index, pump runs and water is sent to the right, pump turns off shuttle falls and partly indexes, 1 hour later pump turns on forcing spool up to the left output location and stays there till the pump turns off again.

If I get a moment I will sketch up a quick paint picture to make it clearer.

Paul

thats not going to give you a left/right flow though.. to get that you would need a 2 position index and the angle would be to shallow requiring a huge force to switch it. with 4 positions it will rotate 90 degrees each time the pump starts.

Steve

[golf nut]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

thats not going to give you a left/right flow though.. to get that you would need a 2 position index and the angle would be to shallow requiring a huge force to switch it. with 4 positions it will rotate 90 degrees each time the pump starts.

Steve

You are looking at a cross section, there are four ports, 2 are not used and the drum has a port all the way through, it all works fine.

I could do it with just a 2 port switch you just change the approach angle and make the shuttle longer.

Paul