Ok some of you may have read about this on RC or even tried it.
here is the thread that inspired me.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1
And here is my contraption.
Having had Tunze for a while I really was of the camp if you can't beat them copy them so rather then settle for a smaller tube, etc. I tried to make mine look as much like an actual Tunze as possible with cheap plumbing parts.
Here is the parts list.
Dumas 1.75" prop
rigid tubing
flexible tubing
Carbon rod
(I won't go into the prop assembly as that is covered plenty in this thread)
1/2" piece of 1.5" tubing to turn into the connection to the maxijet
1.5" to 3" PVC connector
3" to 2" PVC connector
Lots of effort with the dremel which is the only tool I used
Onto the pics.
First just a quick pic of the prop assembly. Same as others!
Now onto where there are differences. As I said what drove the choices was to make it like a Tunze.
I first cut the 1.5" to 3" connector off right where the 3" part started. This left me with a cone.
I then cut the 3" to 2" piece off to within about 1/2" of the cone and also cut almost all the 2" part off.
This was all to make it as short as possible while giving plenty of room.
I then cut slots with the dremel every 1/8" or so aroud 3/4" of the 3"to 2" connector down to the 2" part. Here are those 2 pieces done.
And a closup of the top of the slotted piece.
OK that done I attached the center strip and "stopper" to the 3" to 2". I actually made the strip out of PVC laying around since I didn't have any acrylic! I sanded it a little after to make it smooth but a little super glue later here it was
After this was done I made the piece to attach the contraption to the maxijet out of a 1.5" sch 40 pipe. I used the same tool I used to cut the slots with the Dremel again!
After that I glued it all together and presto!
I tested it out. The only issue I had is the first one I did was very slightly off center and it would get off then fly up and hit the stopper constantly. After that I took it apart. Measured to the mm and built another doing the smae and they both have run like champs since. I've run them overnight a couple times and turned them on and off at least 20 to test the stopper and no issues!
Then to test againt my Tunze. I have to say without any actual testing by feel this was equal to my Tunze! I have to actually test and see but I'm very very impressed.
Last step was to paint them. I used Fusion textured black. It looks real good.
I can take virtually no credit for this as most was copied!! Hopefully this will help others. I'd like to test it against some of the other designs RC. Maybe once I get the flow estimate it will at least give us some idea. I mean mine is roughly 3" wide by 3.25" long so it's significantly bigger then some of the other designs but man the flow is awesome!!
