DIY carlson surge device

[spoon]

this is a container above the main aquarium display into which water is pumped. when the water level reaches the top of the syphon tube a syphon begins and drains the container quickly creating a surge in the tank below .

you can kind of time the surges by changing the amount of water pumping in but only to a certain extent - too much water and the syphon wont stop the water level will just go down then keep going up the syphon tube and not enough water and the syphon wont start but just trickle down the syphon tube.

the other method of control is the size of the syphon tube the bigger the diameter the faster the surge and the smaller the longer the surge lasts but not as powerful also if you go too big the syphon may not start.

The whole idea of it is that its meant to create a wave like surge which is beneficial to the reef environment a convenience of it is that it has no moving parts (aside from the pump used to fill it.

for mine i used a 4.2 l klip klap container and drilled the bottom to take two bulkhead fittings one is a 15mm male with a standpipe slip-fitted (the green pipe in the photos) the other is a 20mm female fitting with a threaded pressure pipe adaptor a syphon u-tube is made from pressure pipe and nearly reaches the bottom of the container. in my design a third bulkhead fitting is used as an inlet for the pumped water although this is not necessary. the photos show the container draining then starting to fill back up i have this set up on my 5 ft african tank at the moment so it has little effect on the level of the water however in the sfter photos you can see the outlet pipe under water and the bubbles and ripples its making but the photos are not very good

start

+1 sec

+2sec

+3sec

+4sec

+5sec all drained!

filling back up

+10sec

+20sec

the pump filling it back up is a jebo cannister filter rated at 1100lph but its a lot less because of the media and also the height its pumping to.

here is whats happening under the water

the outlet is the black tube to the left of the wave maker it this photo the syphon is just starting

here it is well under way i guess we are looking at the water level although its hard to see due to my excellent photography skills and dirty tank notice its way more rippled than before at the front pane of glass

and again in this picture it does create some bubbles which some people may consider a eyesore in a reef environment

to explain better how the whole thing works here is a link

http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/csm.html