Random Flow Generator issues

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

I believe @Vivid Creative Aquatics is a sponsor on here. Maybe they will chime into this thread now that I have tagged them.

Thank for looping us in on this - we don't alwasy see threads such as this unless someone tags us - so thank you!

Just an update, emailed them exactly a week ago and still haven't hear back.

I've looked through our customer support inquiries emails but don't see one that matches your issue. Not sure what happened there - I apologize for that. We definitely want to help, so if you could call us, that would be the fastest way to handle this issue.

You (or anyone with a questions or issues) can reach us at: 623-233-6908, M-S, 8am to 5pm MST

Alternately, you can also reach out to us at form your contact form at:

Contact Us | Vivid Creative Aquatics

vividcreativeaquatics.com

I also just want to put this out there - for anyone else that may have issue, no matter where you purchased our products, whether at an LFS, an online retailer or directly from us, we are more than happy to provide direct support. In fact we prefer it

Antonio….

 

[drukkosz]

Spoke with Antonio and he will provide me with replacements. Very nice and pleasant conversation. Thank you very much.

 

[Midrats]

You need to have a syphone break so it won't back feed to the sump.

I don't want to rely on a syphon break.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

I don't want to rely on a syphon break.

In most cases you don't need to worry about the siphon break. It really comes down to how you position the RFG nozzles. You could actually get them pretty close to the surface of the water By following just a couple of simple installation guidelines

Calculating Gallons needed for Drain Back
The other thing you want to do is you want to calculate how many gallons of water per inch your display tank holds, and then compare that to how many gallons of reserve space you have in sump.

This is pretty easy

Display Tank Gallons per inch
(L x W) / 231 = Gallons of water per inch

Sump Gallons of Reserve Space

In the sump area, it’s a little bit more complicated, but essentially the same process.

Here’s, how I calculate reserve space - I measured the sump length (L) and width (W) . Then, because the water levels are different heights within the various sump chambers I will usually just make a conservative estimate by take a visual average of the water levels across the entire sump. Then measure the distance from that point to the top of the sup (D).

The calculation is then:

(L x W X D) / 231 = Estimated Gallons of Reserve Space

 

[drukkosz]

Forgot to mention that Antonio mentioned to me that they received a bad batch of plastic around the time I purchased mine. So if yours broke give him a call, he is also expending so check out his website.
I ordered my replacements and am a happy future customer.
Thank you!

 

[CEReefer]

Forgot to mention that Antonio mentioned to me that they received a bad batch of plastic around the time I purchased mine. So if yours broke give him a call, he is also expending so check out his website.
I ordered my replacements and am a happy future customer.
Thank you!

Just wondering how expensive would it be to just injection mold them?

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Just wondering how expensive would it be to just injection mold them?

We have looked into this - what we have found is the patented internal design of the Random Flow Generator simply does not lend itself to an injection molding process. Injection molding has some limitations in terms of what can be molded and what can't. The most basic of which is you have to have two halves of the mold, or tooling, that can be separated to release the part.

The internal design of the Random Flow Generator (the parts that makes it actually work) just doesn't lend itself to this process.

With that said, there are other injection mold processes such as two-shot and multi process, and sonic welding of multiple parts that could “potentially” maintain the unique internal design of the RFG. We have had this quoted a few times. The closest we could get in terms of costs was at least three to four times the per unit cost of our current manufacturing process – and that was without calculating in the tooling for something like that, which was substantial.

If we could cost effectively manufacture the Random Flow Generator though injection molding, we absolutely would. As it stands right now, we constantly strive to make the best possible product via additive manufacturing that we can, and we stand behind it 100%. If anyone has issues, just reach out to us we'll do everything we can take care of you

 

[tsouth]

+1 to the support received by VCA. It feels incredible to support a company who stands behind the lifespan of their products and is willing to bring solutions to the hobby. Thank you @Vivid Creative Aquatics

 

[Cory]

Im having the same problem except it split where the seam is. I wonder if it could be 3d printed out of titanium? Id pay more for one that lasts a really long time.

https://m.all3dp.com/1/3d-printing-titanium-methods-printers-applications/

 

[drukkosz]

Im having the same problem except it split where the seam is. I wonder if it could be 3d printed out of titanium? Id pay more for one that lasts a really long time.

https://m.all3dp.com/1/3d-printing-titanium-methods-printers-applications/

Email VCA and they will take care you. awesome company.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Im having the same problem except it split where the seam is. I wonder if it could be 3d printed out of titanium? Id pay more for one that lasts a really long time.

https://m.all3dp.com/1/3d-printing-titanium-methods-printers-applications/

It woudl be pretty cool. IN fact we have looked into having a few RFGs printed in Titanium. We actually looked into for a project unrelated the aquarium hobby. it was exceeding expensive - at least at the time.

It was few years ago and pricing may have come down since that time, given recent advancements

In the meantime - please do reach out to us via DM or email and we'll get you taken care of with a replacement