I agree, but if it's more efficient why not ?No way this would be easier than "old" style.
And it's just an idea anyway.
And it's just the assumption of "the water will drain out no matter what " that upsets me, and according to our current laws of physics about pressure equilibrium in fluids it will not drain.
So, finish for me about this "single brain storming" development idea.
I guess if you sealed it perfectly, including all bulkheads/etc, thumbscrews, etc that it might work. I still think though that with a pocket of air at the top, your box it going to at least partially drain, and if the seal isn't 100% then the only time you will find out is when the power goes out. If there's a slight leak in the seal, and the box is running, the water level won't be affected because the excess air would just get pushed out by pressure and water would go down the drain. When the power goes out, your box drains.
Also I just thought of this. If you have a 100% sealed box with a drain at the top, and you push in an air/water mixture, you're going to create an air pocket at the top. This air must go somewhere if you want to continue with flow through the box. With the box sealed, there is only one place for this air to go: down the drain. Your drain is not going to be full of water, it will be full of air, as the air will never get fully purged from the box.
Eventually, the air in the box would collect and pressurize and one of two things would happen: The air would get pushed down the drain pipe and "blurp" out every once in a while (during which time, little water would flow) or the box would get "airlocked". This is what happens to household sump pumps when they are improperly plumbed (I know). The pump pushing the water ends up fighting air compression, and cannot pump any more water. To minimize the risk of airlock, you would need to terminate the drain pipe just below the sump water level. The problem here is that when you lose power, the drain pipe is mostly air and this will try to suck up water as the pressure in the box drops from the water wanting to fall. This will cause a rapid suction up the drain pipe and if there's air anywhere near that termination point, it's going to suck it in until the water level in the drain pipe is at the level in the box and a balance is achieved. So to minimize that, you have to terminate the drain lower in the water, but then you run into airlock.
The solution to this would probably be to snake an airline down the drain pipe all the way to the sump, so that the air had a lower-pressure route to escape when this situation arises. I'm not sure that would work or not, but it makes sense.
I still think that it's more trouble than it would be worth to make a sealed box than it would just to do what I did, which is just pump it into the top and use an airstone. You could also just put in a check valve to prevent backflow instead of sealing the box and relying on that. But, either way, you're relying on something functioning properly to prevent the box from draining.
So what are ya saying Dennis? LOL
I came up with this general box design (1/4" black acrylic light blocking on all 4 sides extending out from the core center) over a year ago, but never started building them because 1) I was too busy and 2) screen sizing guidelines changed and 3) I got hinted about the new design so I held off. This is my type-I L2 scrubber box converted to a type-II. It nearly completely blocks the LED light with the lid on. On the tank, with the room dark, my monitor on my PC outshines it 20 to 1 easily.
The side outlet is standard on the type-I box (emergency drain), I just didn't drill the bottom drain and I sealed over the slot tube notches, drilled a hole for the pump input, and a hole for the airline through the lid.
Great minds think alike mate.
The only difference is that my box is 18" long to allow it to rest on the sump dividers, but I did drill 2 drain holes in the base
Dennis
Anyone have any pics of a uas in action?
Why not just do a test tank to start with.
I think I'm picking up a 5g tank.. light it up from both sides... and drill an over flow.. done!...
Any specs on how close the spotlights have to be to the scrubber?..
None yet. I believe however that lights will be able to be placed closer, with higher power, but we'll have to see.
on mine, the screen drifted in the box so it's literally right against the acrylic with the LEDs 1" or less away. No difference in growth between the sides. After the screen starts, it's looking like you can put the lights as close as you want which is very interesting.
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