Kayla's Nano! (complete with illustrations!)

[skeety]

Originally Posted by tabwyo

Kinda and kinda not. I am not totaly positive on how to caululate that. I'd just buy a beefier pump and make a bypass back to the sump with a valve to control flow back to the display without placeing unreasonable back pressure on the pump. You can sand acrylic as well. It's like polishing metal. Start coarse and work up to fine grit or just use a fine grit. You can buff it clear by hand with a scratch remover kit wich is a PITA. Or you can get it as far by hand as you can and hit it with a buffer tool on a dremmel. CAreful not to overheat the acrylic and warp it.

my bigger concern is that I don't keep each side level. I think I just want to sand the corners of each top lip off. make it round. DEFINIETLY won't use a dremmel. Sometimes, no matter how steady handed I am...that thing gets away from me! hahaha

I'll just use a medium-fine sand paper, and try to round the edge, just a little.

also...if we end up going with making our own acrylic cube...anyone have a good suggestion as to size? the tray is 15"x15" (minus 1/4" inch width of the acrylic).

I'm thinking 13x13x26 or something?

[512148048]

wanting so much height is going to kill you in the end so you will almost have to end up with a mag 9 if its 4 feet to the top of the water so may be make it a true cube of 13 square. that will cut the size of the pump drastically. this is a great idea i love it a lot and i can see a lot of work has gone into it. I知 thinking of copying it if you don稚 mind. But i believe these tanks also are more for top viewing for clams and things like that the water falling down the sides will distort the look threw and fish are almost indefinitely out of the question. I知 not sure if any of this has been said but wow I知 impressed. Good luck hope it works as well as you would like in the end and to cut down on the splash try a smaller drop like 2 or 3 checkers on top of each other rather then the large shot glasses. That will cut the splash down dramaticly.

remember 13 to 26 is cutting 1 foot and 1 inch of head preasure needed out of the equation

[yardboy]

Doesn't your plumbing have a check valve in it? That's likely where the head pressure is. Just remove it for the testing and you'll find out how well the overflow works.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by yardboy

Doesn't your plumbing have a check valve in it? That's likely where the head pressure is. Just remove it for the testing and you'll find out how well the overflow works.

so check valves DO reduce flow? I asked people at each of the MANY plumbing stores I went to, and they all told me a resounding "NOPE!"

which made NO sense to me.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by 512148048

wanting so much height is going to kill you in the end so you will almost have to end up with a mag 9 if its 4 feet to the top of the water so may be make it a true cube of 13 square. that will cut the size of the pump drastically. this is a great idea i love it a lot and i can see a lot of work has gone into it. I知 thinking of copying it if you don稚 mind. But i believe these tanks also are more for top viewing for clams and things like that the water falling down the sides will distort the look threw and fish are almost indefinitely out of the question. I知 not sure if any of this has been said but wow I知 impressed. Good luck hope it works as well as you would like in the end and to cut down on the splash try a smaller drop like 2 or 3 checkers on top of each other rather then the large shot glasses. That will cut the splash down dramaticly.

remember 13 to 26 is cutting 1 foot and 1 inch of head preasure needed out of the equation

sincerely...thanks for the info! I don't mind at all! I just hope you read the whole thread, so you will have learned from our mistakes!! hahaha

how much water would 13x13x13 hold?

[GruntSculpin]

Originally Posted by skeety

sincerely...thanks for the info! I don't mind at all! I just hope you read the whole thread, so you will have learned from our mistakes!! hahaha

how much water would 13x13x13 hold?

Just under 10 gallons. And cubes rock.

Chris

[skeety]

wow...you're right! 9.5 (not that I doubted you).


Just feelin' dumb cause I had the following link, and forgot:

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/vol.php

now that I can calculate it...I'm thinking that's too big.

want to stay around 5 glns...and need it to be a little tall, for LR/aquascaping, so I'm thinking we'll go with 10(l)x10(w)x14(h).

Which would put me at 6.1 glns.

[skeety]

btw...I'm starting to feel like we're hoggin' this contest.

If people don't start posting progress on those other threads...I'm gonna start holdin' out on status! hahahah

comon guys...lets see how EVERYONE is doing thus far!!!
progress reports, guys! Let's see it!!!

[Geoff]

what i was suggesting was to run the pump at the same level as the tank to see if that much water flow is enough to satisfy you. this will give you a reference point in which to say that is to much or not enough than back calculate from there with head pressure which pump to get. using that pump will let you know if you need more than 200gph over the edge to get the affect you want.

hey, i just come up with the ideas, it is up to you to figure out how to implement them. i actually would use sand paper. i would also use masking tape as a stop so you do not scratch the acrylic. run it around the edge where you want the curve to stop.

as for head pressure, not taking into account plumbing, it is the total height of the water column in which the pump has to push. in your case it will prolly be from pump to about 1/4" above the tank lip. you do not need to take into account the water volume just the column height. anything causes in increase in head pressure. the smaller the pipe the greater the pressure. the steeper the elbow the greater the pressure. most of these are minor, but if you have a wimpy pump it can be significant.

G~

[tabwyo]

I am curing rock in mine now ladies and gents. I am just lettin yall play catchup. That and I am too E-tarded to get the stinkin camera to talk to my PC. I am definetly impressed with this project. I like it so much I might just do it for myself for a clam tank. Thumbs up bruthas and sistas.

[yardboy]

Here's an interesting calculator for head loss:

http://www.monachos.gr/eng/calculato...y_weisbach.htm

A check valve is substantially more head loss than an elbow, but not so much as I thought. I'm used to big check valves holding back lots of pressure, which require big springs, and thus more back pressure.

[skeety]

Originally Posted by yardboy

Here's an interesting calculator for head loss:

http://www.monachos.gr/eng/calculato...y_weisbach.htm

A check valve is substantially more head loss than an elbow, but not so much as I thought. I'm used to big check valves holding back lots of pressure, which require big springs, and thus more back pressure.

I thought the spings only in effect when the pump turns off.

meaning...the water pressure/sypon pushes the spring DOWN. When the pump is on, the spring's laxed.

no?

[yardboy]

Without a spring, it'll seep and not hold, it closes the check

[skeety]

Originally Posted by yardboy

Without a spring, it'll seep and not hold, it closes the check

I think you misinterpreted my ?

I thought you were talking about the spring's factor in head loss.

My comment was that I thought the spring is only pushed on (contracted) when the pump is off. So while the pump is on, I don't think the water has to push the spring or anything...so only the friction of going OVER the spring would cause any head loss...not the actual force it would take to push on the spring.

[skeety]

also...one last question.

Anyone know how risky it would be to make a hood out of acrylic?

my lights are only a pair of 2x9wt PC's. so 36watts total. Would that be enough to heat the acrylic?

I'm thinking a solid black acrylic hood might look better on this. Was thinking of making an acrylic box (open in the back, and at the bottom, obviously).

Don't know enough about acrylic and it's "melting" point.

Any tips?