gyre tank and video

[kwirky]

After reading last month's article about water flow in advanced aquarist, I decided to build a little gyre tank.

It's a 33g (36Lx12Wx18H) with a 2' pane of plexi used as a horizontal divider. The lower region is to allow buildup of momentum, and the results are outright astounding. Currently it's just two MJ1200's on the one side for cycling the new liverock. When the rock's cycled, I'll add 2 more on the other side, and switch them 2 @ a time using a 15 minute timer.

the water column above the platform is one solid moving mass of water. normally powerheads give a waterflow that's "death by squirt gun", while the gyre's water movement is much more like the ocean's. I just love the effect, and I'm anticipating the point where it's ready to put SPS in it. I'll be tapping it into my current 120g system.

Download video here: http://www.kwirky88.com/video/gyretank.wmv

 

[Anonymous]

Can anyone see the video? I am on dialup so it wouldn't be unusual for it not to load for me. I wanna see!

 

[kwirky]

Can anyone see the video? I am on dialup so it wouldn't be unusual for it not to load for me. I wanna see!

right click it and choose "save as". it's 6mb, so couldn't take longer than 30 min on dialup.

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet. One suggestion. Cut a piece of 4" PVC that is a little less than the length of the tank's width into quarters longwise. Take one quarter and underwater epoxy it to the bottom corner of the downstream side, so instead of your sheet of water hitting a hard corner and going up, it has a nice, sexy, curvy path to follow. Make sense?

 

[bookfish]

I'm doing my gyre tank right now. 6'x2'x20". Truvu installed the rounded corner inserts too.

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[Anonymous]

Ah, Jim! I was about to email you this link!

 

[Anonymous]

Granted I don't know much about gyre flow in tanks, but is there supposed to be a huge dead spot right in the middle? It looked like the powder (salt mix?) you dropped in simply piled up right on the acrylic pane with very little of it whisking around.

 

[bookfish]

Tank is currently empty of water. That will all change tonight! I will test the flow configuration tonight and make adjustments tonight/tomorrow.

 

[Anonymous]

Those look really cool. Don't tempt me to build a new tank. I like the vertical divider gyre tanks.

The weight of the live rock looks very precarious on those small legs. There is not a lot of surface area for weight distribution between the legs and the bottom pane of glass. How is it holding up so far?

 

[Anonymous]

Knowing Jim not much live rock will be put on there But I agree, they do look a little thing for long term support.

 

[Anonymous]

Tank is currently empty of water. That will all change tonight! I will test the flow configuration tonight and make adjustments tonight/tomorrow.

Jim, just curious, why don't the platforms fill up more front to back space? :?

Do you plan on covering up the bottom half of the aquarium?

 

[bleedingthought]

So, gyre just means 'dynamic'/circular build of momentum for increased flow?

 

[bleedingthought]

Tank is currently empty of water. That will all change tonight! I will test the flow configuration tonight and make adjustments tonight/tomorrow.

Please keep posting pictures! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

So, gyre just means 'dynamic'/circular build of momentum for increased flow?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature/

 

[bleedingthought]

Ok, we definitely need updates (including pictures) on these tanks! The plans for a dynamic/gyre flow (provided by an OM 4-way and a Sequence Dart) on my display is still in the plans but now I'm thinking of doing something like this for the frag tank!


Anyways, updates I say!!! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Watch the story unfold and catch up on the progress up to the date here:

http://reefhobbyistmagazine.com/discuss ... opic=30.15

 

[Anonymous]

oops, that was page #2

here's #1

http://reefhobbyistmagazine.com/discuss ... topic=30.0

 

[bleedingthought]

I already read through that! Wanted some more updates!

 

[Anonymous]

I suspect you'll have to wait until the next issue comes out.

 

[bleedingthought]

Not that far away, I suppose.

What about you, kwirky?