Mythbusters Inspired tank design.

[sevise]

So I was watching Mythbusters the other day, the one with the tailgate up or down. They had a test chamber the shape of a track, an oval with a central 'island' filled with water. The water would move around the tank in a circular pattern.

Well it got me to thinking, could something like that be used for a tank. With the water moving constantly around you could get very high levels of flow and shouldn't have many dead spots. To add variation you could change the direction of flow clockwise to counter clockwise to simulate tides.

[Ruu]

How would you safely do the flow? If I remember the episode correctly, it was provided by an outboard motor, and that's not all that practical. You could probably get some terrifying flow going with a bunch of streams, and have some high current fish just hanging out as if they were in a tidal channel.

Dave

[h2joe]

i saw that same episode and i have thought about doing that several times before. if i had the space to do it i would have already begun. i was thinking you could hook up a couple of seiros to be hiden in the inside of the wall or something and have them on a timer that changes the times of the tides daily just like in real life.for this you could use a computer and a couple of x-10 systems to control the changings of the tides. would be really sweet if you did it. please keep us posted if you decide to do it.

[BeanAnimal]

You could easily get the water to flow like that. It's the same as a lazy river at your local water park. You could do it with your return pump as well.

[sevise]

My thinking is you could build this by adding a divider about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way back in a normal tank, leaving gaps at each end about equal to the distance to the back wall. Although the corners would reduce efficency, it shouldn't be to bad in a larger tank like a 120 or 125.

I was thinking about trying something in the range of 10-29 gallons however I think the right angles may cause issues in a tank that small. I have a spare 10 laying around I may try it with, if nothing less to see what happens.

[bkwudzjeep]

Is that sort of similar to what they use for jellyfish tanks....something like a krusel (?) tank.....

[beerguy]

Yup - it's a cool idea. A few folks have built 'race way' tanks for frag propagation. It's basically the same idea. So go build one and show us pics. :D

[bkwudzjeep]

Here is one of the raceway tank builders.....I think he built a prop set-up (can't find that specific thread) that is more of what you are talking about....

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=476407

[BeanAnimal]

If you reverse flow it will need to be done at least once a day or so. Otherwise you will stir up a lot of stuff that has settled into the nooks and crannies over several days. I think this would tend to be rather messy.

Bean