Surge Device

[fecgoh]

Hi all,

Anyone build a surge device? Care to share experiences? For the past 2 years, I've been trying to build one that dont have bubbles and quiet. Most other plans on the net have some form of noise and all of them have bubbles. At last I've manage to build one that dont have bubbles and noise. You can see the plans at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/68328618YBcTjn/1

[arcanehacker]

Looks like some toilet flushing system.. you dismatle your cistern ah?

[ervine]

Interesting.. could you explain to us how it works? Also I see the float you have has a metal chain... rust??

[mohamed]

Bro, quite impressive device. But what does it do?

[fecgoh]

Mohamed,

A surge device is kinna wave maker. It is a tank located above the main tank water line. Mine is located next to my main tank but it is above the main tank water line. It created a strong and random water movement for your main tank. You can find quite a bit of info and plans if you do a search.

Ervine,

The picture you saw is an older surge tank (prototype) Yeah the chain is a metal base but later I change to nylon fishing line.

arcanehacker,

Actually the whole thing is made up of a large sink flapper, some PVC pipes and a plastic 7 gallon tank.

Joe_P,

The surge device I use is a modified version of Eric Borneman's surge device. He use a toilet flapper which I cant find here. So I DIY the flapper and overflow. The overflow is a safety incase the flapper do not open. All Borneman's or Carson's Surge Device have a overflow for safety. As for Borneman's overflow pipe, the top is not covered and it is flat. This open overflow will suck in lots of air when the flapper is open. Sort of like a venturi. Resulting with lots of bubbles in the tank. It also sounded like someone flush the toilet!

In my modified device, the top of the overflow is cut a bit slanted (just a bit) and it is covered with a Sera Test Kit plastic bottle. So when the flapper is open, it will suck in water rather than air. It is good news to me and as a side bonus, there is no noise like other surge device. Since the overflow have been use to get rid of bubbles and noise and can't be use as a overflow anymore, I need to drill a new overflow at the top of the surge tank.

One important note is, when water flow out of the surge tank and the flapper is closing, the water level must not drop below the SERA plastic bottle. If not it will draw in air. This is the trick. There are so many people on the net who have build surge device and complain about the bubbles and noise. As far as I know, I am the only one who manage to solve this. I have posted my design on Eric's forum at Reef Central but I am not sure if they take me seriously.

I have a new Surge Device now which have 2 flapper in one plastic tank that have been partition into two. They exit to the left and right side of my main tank. Imagine a strong surge coming from the left then the right Somestimes, both will surge together. Results??... A random strong turbulance surge. I have replace most of my LPS with SPS now. LPS would just fly!!!!

I need to update some photos. What you see are 2 years old photos. I'll take some pictures and I'll keep you guys updated.

Frankie

[Joe_P]

Excellent fecgoh,

I like the idea of the inverted sera testkit container....

Would be device also be self priming...(the removal of the trapped air in the sera container as the water tops the surge device???)

[ervine]

Mohamed,

A surge device is kinna wave maker. It is a tank located above the main tank water line. Mine is located next to my main tank but it is above the main tank water line. It created a strong and random water movement for your main tank. You can find quite a bit of info and plans if you do a search.

Ervine,

The picture you saw is an older surge tank (prototype) Yeah the chain is a metal base but later I change to nylon fishing line.

arcanehacker,

Actually the whole thing is made up of a large sink flapper, some PVC pipes and a plastic 7 gallon tank.

Joe_P,

The surge device I use is a modified version of Eric Borneman's surge device. He use a toilet flapper which I cant find here. So I DIY the flapper and overflow. The overflow is a safety incase the flapper do not open. All Borneman's or Carson's Surge Device have a overflow for safety. As for Borneman's overflow pipe, the top is not covered and it is flat. This open overflow will suck in lots of air when the flapper is open. Sort of like a venturi. Resulting with lots of bubbles in the tank. It also sounded like someone flush the toilet!

In my modified device, the top of the overflow is cut a bit slanted (just a bit) and it is covered with a Sera Test Kit plastic bottle. So when the flapper is open, it will suck in water rather than air. It is good news to me and as a side bonus, there is no noise like other surge device. Since the overflow have been use to get rid of bubbles and noise and can't be use as a overflow anymore, I need to drill a new overflow at the top of the surge tank.

One important note is, when water flow out of the surge tank and the flapper is closing, the water level must not drop below the SERA plastic bottle. If not it will draw in air. This is the trick. There are so many people on the net who have build surge device and complain about the bubbles and noise. As far as I know, I am the only one who manage to solve this. I have posted my design on Eric's forum at Reef Central but I am not sure if they take me seriously.

I have a new Surge Device now which have 2 flapper in one plastic tank that have been partition into two. They exit to the left and right side of my main tank. Imagine a strong surge coming from the left then the right Somestimes, both will surge together. Results??... A random strong turbulance surge. I have replace most of my LPS with SPS now. LPS would just fly!!!!

I need to update some photos. What you see are 2 years old photos. I'll take some pictures and I'll keep you guys updated.

Frankie

show show show... still confused

[ben]

huh? as the word said wave-maker. have u been to the beaches? have u seen beaches/or sea? in tv? the wave in the sea is the same as this meaning so same concept.

[terryansimon]

huh? as the word said wave-maker. have u been to the beaches? have u seen beaches/or sea? in tv? the wave in the sea is the same as this meaning so same concept.

I think you can be a little bit less sarcastic?

[Joe_P]

show show show... still confused

Hi Ervine,

I will try explaining....

A Surge device is basically a overflow unit with a auto water release valve. once this valve is activated, water would be able to gush out of the Surge device, therefore creating some really strong water movement in a reef...

Such unit is to be placed above the main reef water line as it works on gravitational pull...

From fecgoh design, you will see a plastic ball (seen in cistern units) this ball will float above the water line and attached to it is the so called DIYed flapper..... water is pumped into this container and as the water level increases, the plastic ball as it floats eventually lifts the flapper and therefore allows the whole volume of water in the device to gush out through the piping... what is unique in fecgoh design is the inverted container .....

as most Surge device when releasing water into a reef will also drop air through suction... therefore as long as the overflow which is linked to the main piping remains under water without any access to air, therefore eliminating the introduction of air bubbles and the suction noise.....

Hope you understand.....

[Alentino]

awesome concept fecgoh, i'm also thinkin of building a borneman surge device, but i like your design. but i have a question though, what do you use to mount the surge tank above your main tank? thanks

[Golden Tooth]

Good job fecgoh.

[Golden Tooth]

huh? as the word said wave-maker. have u been to the beaches? have u seen beaches/or sea? in tv? the wave in the sea is the same as this meaning so same concept.

Wat r u trying to say?

[FuEl]

Such creative minds.

[typrobin]

hey bro, i'm not too sure bout surge devices but this one looks simple and i think theoretically it should work....

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/o...om%2Fsurge1.htm

[Joe_P]

hey bro, i'm not too sure bout surge devices but this one looks simple and i think theoretically it should work....

http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynamic/o...om%2Fsurge1.htm

well, that will work but you would have lots of bubbles introduced into your reef which would result in saltspray...

[fecgoh]

Hi Joe_P and all,

I'll describe the workings of my surge device.

This is the basic workings of surge device.

1. Surge tank is located beside my main tank but it is higher.

2. Water is pump into the surge tank.

3. As the water rise, the float ball will also rise.

4. After the float ball rise to a certain level, it will pull the sink flapper open and release a sudden rush of water (Surge) to your main tank.

This is an advance workings of my surge device.

1.As the float ball and water rise, the sink flapper will open a bit. This will let some water to flow through. In other surge design, this will also pull in air from the overflow and act like a venturi. So what you'll see is a small flow of water and bubbles entering your main tank.

2. In my design, I have a plastic bottle covering the slanted overflow. If you have a flat top overflow, the plastic bottle will block water or air from entering the PVC pipe and what you'll get is a back pressure that prevent the sink flapper from opening at all. So my design have the top of the overflow cut slanted a bit. This allowed some water to enter the overflow. Since the bottom of the plastic bottle is always submerge in water, when the flapper open a bit it will pull in water rather than air You can say it's a water venturi rather than air venturi

3. When enough water enter the PVC pipe, there is no more back pressure and the float ball will lift the sink flapper wide open very quick.

4. Huge rush of water enter the main tank without bubbles and noise.

This surge device can be scale up or down to get the flow you wanted or according to your main tank size. From my exp. if you use a wide opening PVC bulkhead for the surge tank, you'll get a quick rush of water and faster. If you use a smaller PVC bulkhead, water will surge out slower and not that strong. Also, the pump you use need to have a ball valve to control the amount of water entering the surge tank. If water enter too fast, the water cant flow out fast enough and the flapper will remain open. If water entering the surge tank is too slow, the sink flapper will open a bit and let the small amount of water to flow through the PVC pipe and what you'll get is a surge tank that never fills up.

I'll try to draw for you guys my latest surge device and post a picture of it too. Maybe that'll give you guys an idea.

P.S. : Sorry for all the spelling and grammer mistake