New River-Tank concept.
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:33 am
I've not been around here too much lately. I've been busy with other stuff. Part of this is some experimentation I've been doing with a revised version of the River-Tank Manifold.
As users of these know the main disadvantage we've discovered is heat-sink from the big powerheads causing elevated temps in the Summer. I came up with an idea a while back for moving water using a modified version of the Continuous Pools principle but it really wasn't practical for a home aquarium.
A couple of months ago I met a guy who's seriously into electronics, particularly linear induction motors. We got talking and he told me that it's possible to make water move by linear induction. This uses high-power magnets to induce a movement....think magnetic powered monorails....that kind of stuff.
Anyhow, we got talking and he was interested in doing some prototyping using one of my manifolds. Long story short, he's come up with a system of a series electro-magnets that encircle the longitudal pipes.
Each magnet is encapsulated in an inert plastic and they are all wired back to a solid-state control unit. They are fitted around the pipe work. There's a slide control that controls the power delivered. As you increase the power from the "off" position a magnetic field is created that polarizes the water and creates a linear movement.
Just like my original design the manifold is hidden under the substrate. You just need a slightly deeper bed to hide the magnets. There are no big powerheads to hide. Water is taken in via sponges just like the original design but exits via a full-width pipe with exit holes that point down the tank length. We find that there's a good spread of water with no concentrated blast like from a powerhead.
Best thing is there's virtually no heat produced. We tried out the system in a room set at 75F ambient temperature and saw no discernable rise in the water temp.
The slide control allows a variable flow by stepping up the electricity fed to the magnets. It's really powerful and absolutely silent in operation. The amount of water movement seems only to be limited by the pipe diameter but with 3/4" bore pipe we are seeing a really good flow potential when the slide control is set up to 11. There's no moving parts requiring maintenance, so just the sponges will need cleaning periodically like the existing design or any other sponge filter.
I'm reluctant to show off any pictures of this yet because I'm seriously thinking this might be a marketable product. We are going to do some more long-term experimentation to refine the design concept.
Martin.
As users of these know the main disadvantage we've discovered is heat-sink from the big powerheads causing elevated temps in the Summer. I came up with an idea a while back for moving water using a modified version of the Continuous Pools principle but it really wasn't practical for a home aquarium.
A couple of months ago I met a guy who's seriously into electronics, particularly linear induction motors. We got talking and he told me that it's possible to make water move by linear induction. This uses high-power magnets to induce a movement....think magnetic powered monorails....that kind of stuff.
Anyhow, we got talking and he was interested in doing some prototyping using one of my manifolds. Long story short, he's come up with a system of a series electro-magnets that encircle the longitudal pipes.
Each magnet is encapsulated in an inert plastic and they are all wired back to a solid-state control unit. They are fitted around the pipe work. There's a slide control that controls the power delivered. As you increase the power from the "off" position a magnetic field is created that polarizes the water and creates a linear movement.
Just like my original design the manifold is hidden under the substrate. You just need a slightly deeper bed to hide the magnets. There are no big powerheads to hide. Water is taken in via sponges just like the original design but exits via a full-width pipe with exit holes that point down the tank length. We find that there's a good spread of water with no concentrated blast like from a powerhead.
Best thing is there's virtually no heat produced. We tried out the system in a room set at 75F ambient temperature and saw no discernable rise in the water temp.
The slide control allows a variable flow by stepping up the electricity fed to the magnets. It's really powerful and absolutely silent in operation. The amount of water movement seems only to be limited by the pipe diameter but with 3/4" bore pipe we are seeing a really good flow potential when the slide control is set up to 11. There's no moving parts requiring maintenance, so just the sponges will need cleaning periodically like the existing design or any other sponge filter.
I'm reluctant to show off any pictures of this yet because I'm seriously thinking this might be a marketable product. We are going to do some more long-term experimentation to refine the design concept.
Martin.
