Intertidal In-tank design

[jc85]

Hi All,

Has anyone of you ever thought to setting up a intertidal type of design with your aquarium tank? Something like Simon Garrett's Reef tank where the water level goes down during certain cycle. Anyone have experience on this type of setup?

Thinking of how I can convert my 5.5ft tank. Any ideas or advice will be most appreciated.

Cheers

JC

[sherman]

Wow something very new to me. Interesting

[tofubox]

Very interesting concept, Ill be camping here. Somehow wonder how this works if u are using an overflow system.

[Quas111]

Hmm I'm interested to see how it affects the breeding cycle of shallow reef corals. I saw in some articles that the tides and moon cycle are important for some types of invertebrates to breed

[jc85]

I've some idea but still figuring out what are the options available that have been tested. One basic idea is to have 2 level of overflows and 2 returns. One at a faster rate than the other and when the cycle happen, the faster flow rate pump will be shut down.

Cheers

JC

[tunicate]

But switching a pump on & off too frequently may shorten its lifespan.

[jc85]

Possibly but I believe failure rate can be prevented with a better build pump else maybe a variable speed pump like those use in fountain. However, I'm still exploring other methods thus open to any suggestions.

Cheers

JC

[tunicate]

You can have 2 overflows, one at a lower level with netting over it to keep critters away when water level goes over it. If there's a way to device an auto valve to close the lower overflow pipe at periodic intervals, then you probably only need one return pump.