External wave box?!?

[Luno]

So to make things easy I have an upcoming build which will be in wall with only one viewable side. The only upside to having one viewable side and the rest of the tank hidden from view is being able to make the outside the tank as ugly as you like without being an eyesore! Also side note the back and sides will be painted or covered to not see through so this could work!



I was thinking to make wavemakers as out of view as possible, what if I did this in the video but cut a hole in the side of the tank and had a box made up on the outside so the whole wavemaker was out of sight, no cords, no big wavemakervisible inside the tank.

Anyone done anything similar?
Anyone see a big issue with trying?
Other than cutting holes in a very expensive tank. I mean if it doesn't work worst case empty the tank remove side pane of glass and replace with new one.

 

[Luno]

Something like this I found on google

Except I would have say an acrylic insert to not see through the box and the rest of the external glass painted black to not see through aswell

 

[greg 45]

I did something similar . I used a 4 x 4 plastic fence post , put a tunze pump into it works perfect. It did look ugly but worked.

 

[Luno]

I did something similar . I used a 4 x 4 plastic fence post , put a tunze pump into it works perfect. It did look ugly but worked.

Thanks for the reply! Did it make vibration and noise worse at all?

See that's the benefit the tank will be in a room of its own so no one will ever see how ugly any wave box design will look! Well they probably will because I will want to show
People the "running" side of the tank but still from the one wall viewable side it would make everything cleaner looking

 

[grassy_noel]

This is cool!

What's the premise of a wavebox? Is the idea that you're effectively increasing and decreasing the volume of water in the tank so you get a bigger "slosh" than when you just recirculate around the same amount of water?

I once saw a video of a surge generator (I think it was called) at an ORA facility, where they filled a 55 gallon drum over the period of several minutes with a small pump, and then drained the whole thing into the display tank in like 10 seconds through a very large diameter pipe to create the effect of a big wave crashing. I've often thought of how one might simulate that in miniature in a home tank...

Excited to follow where this goes...

 

[grassy_noel]

Looks like someone posted the video on R2R at some point...at 16 minutes 25 seconds.

Hey guys, was watching this video, and they are using some other kind of method to create waves for coral growth. i saw the video 3ice, but didnt understand the exact method. Here is the video, check after 20 minutes:

 

[Luno]

This is cool!

What's the premise of a wavebox? Is the idea that you're effectively increasing and decreasing the volume of water in the tank so you get a bigger "slosh" than when you just recirculate around the same amount of water?

I once saw a video of a surge generator (I think it was called) at an ORA facility, where they filled a 55 gallon drum over the period of several minutes with a small pump, and then drained the whole thing into the display tank in like 10 seconds through a very large diameter pipe to create the effect of a big wave crashing. I've often thought of how one might simulate that in miniature in a home tank...

Excited to follow where this goes...

I'm not sure if it helps create a different wave or not or If that is better or worse than an in tank wavemaker, but for me it is to remove the wave maker from the visable aspect of the tank.

That is a really interesting video though!

 

[Greybeard]

Neat idea... you'd have to play with the timing to keep it from sucking air, but yeah, looks to me like it'd work.

I've always loved the old surge bucket systems. Use something like a toilet flapper, above the tank. Water pumped in, as bucket fills, it flushes, and refills. Have to have some space above the water line... with designs like mine, an open top, frameless setup, it wouldn't really work, but with the right setup, they're great. Unfortunately, I've never seen one that didn't SOUND like a toilet flushing, as well as working like one :P

 

[Luno]

Neat idea... you'd have to play with the timing to keep it from sucking air, but yeah, looks to me like it'd work.

I've always loved the old surge bucket systems. Use something like a toilet flapper, above the tank. Water pumped in, as bucket fills, it flushes, and refills. Have to have some space above the water line... with designs like mine, an open top, frameless setup, it wouldn't really work, but with the right setup, they're great. Unfortunately, I've never seen one that didn't SOUND like a toilet flushing, as well as working like one :P

I reckon your exactly on the money timing would be the hard part to stop it sucking air. but that's just a volume thing right? So because I don't care how ugly it looks I can make it say an inch even 2 wider than you'd think and have enough volume for it to be more adjustable on wave length speed.

 

[Larry L]

Dr. Bruce Carlson at the Waikiki Aquarium is usually credited with the surge device design, which is a big improvement over dump buckets:

http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/csm.html

 

[greg 45]

Thanks for the reply! Did it make vibration and noise worse at all?

See that's the benefit the tank will be in a room of its own so no one will ever see how ugly any wave box design will look! Well they probably will because I will want to show
People the "running" side of the tank but still from the one wall viewable side it would make everything cleaner looking

No noise . It was similar to the picture , It was something I was toying with. Also it was inside the tank . With a bigger box you could get more flow or bigger wave action .