Surge: Not just an old school soft drink but very beneficial to your reef tank?

[Karen00]

I have a severely modified 13.5 temperate (cold water) tank that I built an actual Surge sump that sits above. Powered by a Sicce 3.0 that pulls water from the 13.5, runs it down to the chiller and then up above into the mechanical filter chamber which includes a 4 inch sock with a custom built holder and a Eshopps Nano skimmer. the water then flows into a purpose built refugium. From there it trickles into the two "Surge" chambers. Each holds approximately 2.25g and through the use of a bell siphon dumps a chamber in about 20 secs. One chambers empties at the water line and the other below, close to the bottom. Also the chambers held Bio Balls and/or Bio Media which promoted a good amount of gas exchange for the aerobic bacteria, while rinsing and preventing detritus build up. My purpose of creating this system was to mimic a tide pool scenario.
I would make a few refinements if I did it again, but it has worked out really well. Although it does sound like a toilet flushing every few minutes, but I really don’t hear it anymore.

This is AMAZING! How come you have that setup on just your coldwater tank?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

This is AMAZING! How come you have that setup on just your coldwater tank?

Thank you very much! I saw at out local AQ (Cabrillo) in their Discovery center they had a primitive, but effective version using 5g Home Depot buckets. I wanted to do a refined version, so for me it was just a project of feasibility. Like most that replied one here, you can get the same effect (almost) with a programable wavemaker.
But for this tank, since it is a tide pool tank. I wanted to recreate as close as possible the constant rising and falling and flowing water of a tide pool.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I started with a siphon surge originally. But there were a couple of drawbacks to it. Taking into consideration mine was almost 30g and used all 2" plumbing.

When the siphon starts it starts slowly - you have to have a filler pump that's fast enough to raise the water level in the surge tank fast enough to push the air out of the pipe to start the siphon - If no you end up with a pipe that drains water back to the tank just as fast as water is being pumped into the tank. (This is not a surge - lol)

To start the siphon you have to get the water to push all the air out of the pipe and fill the pipe with gravity pulled water. All this air comes out of the pipe - into the display tank - as bubbles and then microbubbles.

Then the siphon begins and you have a woosh of water as the siphon runs full bore - This pushes all the bubbles across and around the tank.

Then you run out of water and as the water runs out the siphon starts snorkeling - This creates a rush of air bubbles at the end of the surge run - and also creates a snorkeling sound that ends with a belch when air replaces the water in the pipe. In my configuration with 2" plumbing, this sounded like a wave crashing on the beach.

If you have a 29g surge tank - The first 3-8gallons takes maybe 15 seconds to come down the pipe and start the siphon. Then the last 2-3 gallons takes maybe 5- seconds to break the siphon and drain the pipe. And in the middle for about 10 seconds you get a full gravity siphon for maybe 20g of water.

I ran this system for about 8 years. There are no moving parts - You rely on gravity - so it doesn't fail (unless in my case a rat knocks the top off the surge tank, falls in, get's stuck in the pipe, blocks the siphon, and then the pump pumps your tank out of your house and onto the balcony). Taking rodents out of the picture - there is nothing to fail - ever.

After 8 years I switched to a motorized ball valve - The technology had advanced enough to where a 2" ball valve had an open/closing speed of less than 2 seconds. There are many advantages to the ball valve:

1) After the first cycle of the surge system - the pipe is filled with water - the air has all been replaced. This means that when the surge occurs there is no air bubbles entering the tank, there is no air bubbles being blown across the tank, there is no burping from the tank as the siphon starts and no rush of bubbles at the end when the siphon ends. With a motorized ball valve the only way to know the surge was cycling was to see all the corals blowing in one direction and to watch an Achilles tang or a pipe fish or sea horse fly across the tank - Don't think of this as animal brutality - The seahorse and pipe fish would line up in front of the pipe outlet and ride the surge wave across the tank. The surge tank ran on set schedule throughout the day - when the surge tank was off no one would line up. But when it was time for the surge tank to run on fish would line up to be in the path. The Achilles most notably would sit right in front of the pipe outlet just waiting to be blown away and try to fight the current.

Also with the valve - without having to start and finish the siphon each time - But merely turning it on/off - the siphon is immediate - which resulted in all 29g of water being a siphon and all the water draining in just under 10 seconds.

With the ball valve you have to rely on the valve, a couple of float switches and a delayed relay timer. So there are multiple points of potential failure. However, after 9 years of running this system I had to replace one motorized ball valve (motor died - no leakage) and the rest of the system worked flawlessly.

If you start experimenting with a siphon surge system - do not experiment with a toilet valve style. While this seem so simple. It's also the loudest / noisiest - in both the movement of water and the mechanics of the ball **** float valve.

Dave B

I do like my Bell siphon surge, but yes it sounds like a toilet flushing every few minutes. Its a bit comforting though, lets me know everything is working...

 

[Karen00]

Thank you very much! I saw at out local AQ (Cabrillo) in their Discovery center they had a primitive, but effective version using 5g Home Depot buckets. I wanted to do a refined version, so for me it was just a project of feasibility. Like most that replied one here, you can get the same effect (almost) with a programable wavemaker.
But for this tank, since it is a tide pool tank. I wanted to recreate as close as possible the constant rising and falling and flowing water of a tide pool.

That's exactly what's cool about it... The tide pool effect. The wavemakers don't do that. I might have to try this.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

That's exactly what's cool about it... The tide pool effect. The wavemakers don't do that. I might have to try this.

If you do DM me I can let you know what I did and would change. Also I might be combining my temperate tanks into a larger system so the surge filter and modified fluval may be up for grabs

 

[Karen00]

If you do DM me I can let you know what I did and would change. Also I might be combining my temperate tanks into a larger system so the surge filter and modified fluval may be up for grabs

Nice. I certainly will get in touch because I definitely need guidance on a setup like this. If you do a larger system let me know if you decide to sell some of your current stuff. When you get a chance can you post a video of it in action if you're able to? I really want to try this. I think it's so cool.

 

[SillyReef]

Only time this happen is when I do a water change and pour in the freshy mix saltwater.