Sea Swirl Elbows.

[M.E.Milz]

I will borrow the dig camera from the office to take some photos in a few weeks when the stand/columns are finished and the SeaSwirls are hooked up.

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

1) replace the 90 degree elbow with a 45 degree elbow.

Milz, does the manufacturer sell these or were they talking about going out and looking fr one to fit?

 

[M.E.Milz]

1) replace the 90 degree elbow with a 45 degree elbow.

Milz, does the manufacturer sell these or were they talking about going out and looking fr one to fit?

The guy at SeaSwirl (Eddie??) told me that you can get these at most plumbing supply shops. He had a name for the manufacturer, but I forget what it is. They are similar to what you would buy at a Home Depot, but are made to closer tolerances. This is important so that they fit snugly and won't slide off (since they should not be glued on the SeaSwirl unit). He was kind enough to offer to pick a coupl up for me and will include them in the box when he sends me my corner brackets.

I did, however, think of another alternative (that I may use anyways). You can just use a HD pvc fitting. But to make sure it does not fall off, I would drill a hole in the side of the fitting and thread a nylon thumb screw through it. Snuggin the screw against the SeaSwirl outlet tube (the vertical pipe) should keep the fitting from falling off.

 

[Ddddrgnfly]

you can get something I believe is called spiders or spider arms,Dont remember the name but where you bought them from or your LFS should know about them.They are black,have balled ends that snap on to each other to get diff lenghts and angles.I have this setup on my two SS.Mine come out of the elbow,then split into two arms that I can position anywhere I want.I have one arm on each pointing down and the other going across the surface.Splitting them in two also cuts down on the force of the water exiting them and you can get diff size and shape nozzles for it.
I will try to get a pic of mine.

Just my two cents worth.

Roger

 

[SPC]

Posted by Dddrgnfly:

you can get something I believe is called spiders or spider arms

-Does this come in 1"?
Steve

 

[M.E.Milz]

Update:

I hooked up the pair of 1" Sea Swirls a few weeks ago, and I am very pleased with the set-up. Each SeaSwirl is mounted to the front corner of the tank so as to sweep back across the front of the reef. Since my tank is 37" tall, I replaced the 90 degree elbows with 45 degree elbows (1.25" fittings).

Each SeaSwirl is on a closed loop with an Iwaki 40 RXLT pump. I would not use a larger pump, and a smaller pump may have been enough.

I phased the 2 SeaSwirls so that one is pointing towards the back of the tank while the other is parallel to the front glass. This results in the a strong flow of water sweeping from left-to-right, and then from right-to-left, with every oscillation. The water movement is visible across the entire width of the tank (78").

The only problem that I have had is that the top of the DSB has been disturbed near the back corner of the tank where I don't have any live rock to deflect the waterflow. I should be able to fix this with the addition of a few well place rocks.

Mike

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Mike, I have the same problem with mine. The two 1" sea swirls are mounted on the back glass pointing forward. The flow hits the front glass and travels downward violently and 2" off the top of my DSB has been pushed to the back. Haven't figured out what I'm gonna do yet :?

 

[hossfly]

I'm assuming that these "sea swirls" rotate the water current. is that right? haven't read anything about them. I've seen filter pumps that do this and they are around $75 a pop. whats the scoop on these?

 

[Anonymous]

Milz,

Sounds great. I am gonna do the same on my 150 - when I get the time to set it up!

Are your overflows in the back corners of the tank? Have you noticed any issues when the SS's point at them?

Also, Eddie at SS said I could paint white 45 degree elbows black with Krylon. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

RR

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Why not just leave the PVC white?

 

[Anonymous]

Because the back of the tank and the overflows are black. A white elbow in the front corners of the tank would stick out like a sore thumb.

RR :mrgreen:

 

[M.E.Milz]

I have a single overflow in the center of the tank, so the flow from the seaswirls does not directly hit the overflows (although it does hit the rocks stacked against it).

Eddie told me the same thing about painting the pvc fittings. I didn't try it since I had already installed several (8) other returns along the back of the tank, all of which are white pvc. If I could do it over, I would probably try painting all the pvc. As it is, algae tends to grow on the pvc anyways.

hossfly, you should should be able to find plenty of info by doing a search for "SeaSwirls".