Crazy new plan

My new and most elaborate DIY project.  The goal of this one will be a little extreme and probably take a couple months to complete.  I’m hoping to get rid of all my pumps but the return, Open my aquascape up for more room for fish to swim and corals to grow, while achieving better flow and lowering the temp. In the aquarium.

 

I plan on being able to do this with two four inch piston pumps in the tank.  I’ll drive these off a windshield wiper motor.  I figure that the pistons will move  .86 gallons on each half stroke.  Here is the formula pi x r sq x length of stroke x 2 / 231 cubic inches per gallon so 2x2x3.14x8x2/231=.8699 gallons/stroke including up and down this will be 1.739 gallons.

[size=3>[font="Times New Roman"] I also plan on putting these in some DIY LR and real LR mix to hide the pistons out of site in each corner while covering my overflow so it looks like I have a reef ledge on both sides of my tank and then put an island in the middle.  I’ll try to do my best to document this project as much as possible.  If anyone has any comments or questions on the way please express them.[/font][/size=3>[font]

Thanks

 

HOPE IT WORKS OUT FOR YA BEN MAKE SHURE TO TAKE PICS TO SHARE WITH ALL OF US BEST OF LUCK

 

Thanks Guys,
I also forgot to mention I really want to get an actual wave motion going in my tank versus a bunch of laminar flow from normal pumps. The only pumps I know of that can do this are Tunze and Vortechs on controllers. I don’t want to spend $700-$1000 for this type of flow. In theory the two pistons should be able to sync the waves up and be able to move the whole water column at once.

Well I just got back from farm-n-fleet. I picked up a 50# bag of crushed oyster shells and the 4" PVC for the piston tube. I figure the formula for the DIY live rock will be as follows.
1 part acrylic saw dust
1 part PVC shavings from my jointer
1 part Teflon cutting board shavings
1 part Oolithic sand
3 parts crushed oyster shells
3 parts Portland cement
I found in the past after making a few smaller batches of DIY LR that the cement does not stick to the plastic parts. This makes the LR more porous for the bacteria to colonize. The plastic also makes the LR lighter weight, covers in coralline algae faster, it is easier to carve shapes into and drill besides it then cures in less time.
Tomorrow I’ll try to get the forms made and get the LR started.

 

Posted By xroads on 05/16/2008 7:15 PM
I hate to ruin a good idea but you will burn up the wiper motor within 24 hours.
I would get a McMaster Carr catalog. You should be able to find a motor that is for continuous use & high torque.
GL
Craig
Thanks Craig, 
I'm going to try the wiper motor first.  I used to run them for weeks on end doing stupid annimated halloween crap and only had one go bad on me in 5 years.  Some of them can generate over 15 ft/lbs of torque so I'm hoping a wiper motor will be ok.  I'd kind of like to stay with a cheap DC motor so I can adjust the speed on it easier.  If it doesn't work I'll probably pull out my McMasters catalog.  Most of McMasters motors are pretty pricey so I hope I do not have to go that route.
Just thought of another problem maybe with a wiper motor too besides the duty cycle.  It might produce to much noise.

 

WOW! I really do not hope for that much of a wave maybe a 1"-2" wave. I think the wife would get alittle ticked with gallons of water on the floor. That is what I'm really hoping to do by magnifying the reflex of the waves off the glass ends.
I'm going to make the pistons out of a couple pieces of 1/2" plastic fastened together. Then hook them up through a linkage so they will go straight up and down in the 4" pvc. I'm planning on having some 1/2" pvc mounted into the DIY LR to tie the 4" into it so I'll be able to remove the sleeves incase I need to clean them.

 

Thanks for the idea.  I appreciate the help.  That sausage maker is very close to what I was planning. 
Right now my plan for the piston is a 1/2" schdule 80 pvc pipe.  I plan on threading it up around 4 inches.  Then attach the two pieces of half inch think plastic to it.
Here is a crude drawing I made on paint to try to show it. Granted, it is like a cut away drawing. The lightest blue areas is where I was thinking of having the flow go through.  I was thinking of having the sch80 threaded just for ease of adjustment.   What do you think?

 

I'm going to have to wait to do the rock until at least Thursday. I have everythng for the rock I just think the pistons should be the first things done. I'd hate to burry them in rock to find out they will not work correctly. I'll also need to wait until Thursday because the the plates for the ends of the pistons are still at the plastic shop. I guess it will just give me some more time to figure some this out.
Here is wha I was thinking of doing for the linkage to the pistons.  I'm hoping this way the wheel will be just like any gearing and I'll beable to adjust the speed and length based on where the pins are located

 

All I was able to get done today was the structural frame work for the LR.  For the holes in it for flow I think I'll just use different grades of salt.  I'll also use the salt to to shape the concrete.

 

ben looking good man keep the pics cumming ill have to stop buy your house and check it out when its done'

 

Well, already a change in plans.  I made some live rock that was just about the worst I've seen.  I decided to change from a 4" PVC tube to a acrylic box.  I found a few magnets that will be able to hold the box to the side of my aquarium.  The new box is 4x7x10.  I figure this will give me 1.2 or 2.4 gallons of flow on every stroke.  Also thinking just one box will be enough. Here are a couple pics of the box and piston.  The box is open at the top and bottom to allow for flow on each side.  I made the piston 1/4" smaller than the inside of the box.  This will cause some lose in water movement but will help to not build up to much torque on the motor.

 

Well I got almost half the DIY rock work done. I'm going to try minimizing the profile of the rock while still having options of where to put coral. The rock structure is 17" wide 10" deep and 17" tall. I'm going to get a 100g stack tank to put the real LR in for a sump/fuge. 

 

LOL, It didn't hold to the cpvc worth a darn. I ended up using some plastic mesh around the pipes to have it hold. The mesh helped very little. So far is has 4 layers of concrete on it. I'm not finished yet either. The last few layers will make it hae more of a rock appearance to them. I attached more 1/2" cpvc pipe to the structure so that I can place some frag pulgs easily on it too.
The Rock was made using a formula close to.
2 parts plastic shavings
1 part agronite sand
1 - 2 parts water softener salt of various sizes
2 parts concrete.
After a week long water bath I'm going to start addind an acid to it to lower the ph so it cures faster. After 4 weeks I'll add water change water to it along with sugar to keep the ph down and to have bacteria colonize it.