shallowreef
Well-known member
Is a surge tank worth it? or can you get the same effects from powerheads? Does anyone have any pictures of their surge tank?
Surge Tanks
- Thread starter shallowreef
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Krish
RF STAFF
I've never seen a surge tank before. Is it like a tunze box? I'm not sure how they are priced so I can't really say. However, powerheads have been around forever and has been doing their jobs (especially the tunze stream) so I guess it will all depend on the pricing.
shallowreef
Well-known member
same purpose as a tunze box but it sits above the aquarium. Water gets siphoned out from a bucket and drops down through PVC to create a massive surge in the tank. I've only seen it in a 350 at a LFS but it was amazing. Unfortunately my tank is to small for one at least thats what i heard. I have a 90 and would eventually like to have a 210 or if i'm lucky a 350. All SPS with a surge.
reedman
Well-known member
Surge tanks are nice, but have draw backs. They cause your water level to rise and fall so if you have an overflow that can cause a problem. They also cause a lot of salt creep due to the spray. Finally, for the home aquaria they are loud. It is difficult to make them quiet enough to be practical in the home aquarium (unless you like the sound of a flushing toilet 
).
All that said, they produce some great random flow that corals react well to. It is also fun to watch the fish play in the "surf".
). All that said, they produce some great random flow that corals react well to. It is also fun to watch the fish play in the "surf".
Krish
RF STAFF
I would assume they are made for 6ft tanks and longer. A 90 gal @ 4ft may be really loud and you would probably have to drop your water level quite a bit so it doesn't spill over the side. Just a thought...
Maxx
Staff Housemonkey
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2003
- Messages
- 2,935
Actually plumbing in a surege tank isnt that hard...ya just gotta think about it.
I know reedman has an engineering background, so he can probably post up the specifics needed......but...you really only need to keep a couple of things in mind when plumbing something like that into your system.
1...size of the surge.
2...duration/frequency of the surge
3...size your overflow bulkheads large enough to handle the increased water volume caused by the surge.
4...size your sump large enough that it can handle the both the increase and decrease of water volume caused by the surge, (filling the surge bucket and dumping the surge bucket) without sucking air or overflowing.
It sounds more complicated than it really is.
The biggest hassle w/ surge devices IMO is the noise caused by them. It is pretty much like a toilet flushing...
Nick
I know reedman has an engineering background, so he can probably post up the specifics needed......but...you really only need to keep a couple of things in mind when plumbing something like that into your system.
1...size of the surge.
2...duration/frequency of the surge
3...size your overflow bulkheads large enough to handle the increased water volume caused by the surge.
4...size your sump large enough that it can handle the both the increase and decrease of water volume caused by the surge, (filling the surge bucket and dumping the surge bucket) without sucking air or overflowing.
It sounds more complicated than it really is.
The biggest hassle w/ surge devices IMO is the noise caused by them. It is pretty much like a toilet flushing...
Nick
They have beautiful surge tanks at Waikiki Aquarium. They are outdoors and for lighting they use, well, the sun.
See http://www.waquarium.org/vt/coralfarm/coralfarm.html.
See http://www.waquarium.org/vt/coralfarm/coralfarm.html.
