I mentioned in a couple of my earlier posts that I had come up with a new idea for some old concepts. My plan was to coat the overflow lip and mesh tube with a special secret mystery rock layer that Garf and Floyd helped me with. I will mount a 12" strip fixture above on the sump lid that has 10 x 660nm deep red and 5 x 450nm royal blue LEDs. I'm having the LED fixture custom built by 'Build My LED'. Let me know what you think...
wow, this will be TURBO!
editing:
can't wait to see the results! please, keep this up to date!
Interesting, I imagine that the drum will spin from the water falling on it? Or do you have a turning mechanism?
Just the water, no motor. The axle is Delrin and man will it spin! Delrin to acrylic is slicker than snot on a glass door knob! An then lubricate it with water and WOW! You can almost make it turn by just looking at it. I can only imagine what the friction coefficient is here, I'm certain it's astronomically low. This also means I'll never have to replace/repair the axle supports. The weight of the water will not only create movement but also limit the RPM because the weight of the wheel itself is so low combined with the friction caused by the water. No stored inertia. Its RPMs will be limited by the water flow itself. That being said, I don't have to worry about it spinning out of control or slinging water everywhere.
I have 48.75 sq in of surface area on the diagonal acrylic lip and I haven't calculated the surface area of the wheel but I'm sure it's double that of the lip. So to be conservative I'll just go with 130 sq in until I have the time to calculate it. Granted when the algae begins to grow on the wheel I will have to limit its growth length otherwise it would eventually become stationary from algae weight. Do you think that's enough surface area? I'm not sure how much I'll feed when I make the transfer to this new 150g. I'm going from a 72g at an avg of 1 1/2 - 2 cubes a day to ??? What do you think?
Yeah, Delrin is UHMW (ultra high molecular weight plastic), super super slick...
I'm intregued!
Whats the rock layer that your using
please update
I apologize for the delay with my updates. My wife and I had triplets on the way…unfortunately we lost one at 26 weeks. She is in the hospital about 2 ½ hours away from home. So it has been quite the challenge spending time with her, going to work, moving forward with my scrubber design/tank build and simultaneously building now two Brazilian Cherry convertible cribs. All while planning a move from Florida to Arizona in October. Yes…chaos! I know…
To answer your question donkey, I plan to use ‘Carib Sea Dry Aragonite Special Grade Reef Sand’.
I’ve had plenty of time to study and improve on my design while sitting in the hospital 3 to 4 days a week for the past 6 weeks. I have formulated some more ideas that yet again will take it to another level.
Oh man! We think my wife lost a "twin" but is was a lot earlier than 26 weeks, wow. You have a lot on your plate man!!
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