New River-Tank concept.

[Martin Thoene]

I've not been around here too much lately. I've been busy with other stuff. Part of this is some experimentation I've been doing with a revised version of the River-Tank Manifold.

As users of these know the main disadvantage we've discovered is heat-sink from the big powerheads causing elevated temps in the Summer. I came up with an idea a while back for moving water using a modified version of the Continuous Pools principle but it really wasn't practical for a home aquarium.

A couple of months ago I met a guy who's seriously into electronics, particularly linear induction motors. We got talking and he told me that it's possible to make water move by linear induction. This uses high-power magnets to induce a movement....think magnetic powered monorails....that kind of stuff.

Anyhow, we got talking and he was interested in doing some prototyping using one of my manifolds. Long story short, he's come up with a system of a series electro-magnets that encircle the longitudal pipes.

Each magnet is encapsulated in an inert plastic and they are all wired back to a solid-state control unit. They are fitted around the pipe work. There's a slide control that controls the power delivered. As you increase the power from the "off" position a magnetic field is created that polarizes the water and creates a linear movement.

Just like my original design the manifold is hidden under the substrate. You just need a slightly deeper bed to hide the magnets. There are no big powerheads to hide. Water is taken in via sponges just like the original design but exits via a full-width pipe with exit holes that point down the tank length. We find that there's a good spread of water with no concentrated blast like from a powerhead.

Best thing is there's virtually no heat produced. We tried out the system in a room set at 75F ambient temperature and saw no discernable rise in the water temp.

The slide control allows a variable flow by stepping up the electricity fed to the magnets. It's really powerful and absolutely silent in operation. The amount of water movement seems only to be limited by the pipe diameter but with 3/4" bore pipe we are seeing a really good flow potential when the slide control is set up to 11. There's no moving parts requiring maintenance, so just the sponges will need cleaning periodically like the existing design or any other sponge filter.

I'm reluctant to show off any pictures of this yet because I'm seriously thinking this might be a marketable product. We are going to do some more long-term experimentation to refine the design concept.

Martin.

[Cup]

Uh...what?

Sounds cool, though, and if it works as touted, sign me up for a copy! ;]

[Jim Powers]

That sounds VERY cool (both literally and figuratively)!!!
I like the idea of being able gradually increase or decrease the flow with a slide control as well as the lack of much visible hardware and heat build up. Keep us posted.

[andre]

The Maglev of fishkeeping?

It sounds like an April Fools' Joke to me

[TeeCeeJay]

Sounds a lot like the magnetohydrodynamics featured in 'Hunt for Red October'.

If you're quick. You might be able to beat the Russians to it

See this article from the New York Times

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A966958260

[andre]

The positive thing about the new setup is that you can have the rare species of Syncrossus Magneticus Thoenii which is not feasible to keep in a traditional fish tank.

[Doc]

An attractive design concept.. Could this be made a Sticky? It and the previous River manifold design are Poles apart....

[palaeodave]

Very good, Martin

[LES..]

I am in awe!

Although i will never be able to get this to work myself as my sliders only go up to 10 )-: and in all honesty i doubt the newly discovered salt water hill stream loaches so suited to this pumping method would be compatible with my P.Cheni. Still given enough time i'm sure brackish conditions could be achieved ;-)

The last thing i shall say on this is, Huzzah for Mad Science!

LES..

[grizzlyone]

The Maglev of fishkeeping?

It sounds like an April Fools' Joke to me

Actually I was thinking that the it was more the "Rail Gun" of fishkeeping.

I'll have to admit I'm skeptical too based on the post date.

If it works, it would be cool....literally and figuratively..

It would be sort of the Poley Grail for cold water fish.

Kevin

[mistergreen]

sounds interesting. The military has a boat like this.. even a submarine I think.

fyi .... there is heat involved with these huge electro magnets as well..

[Tinman]

Has anyone seen my flux capacitor ? It was just here the other day.

[Martin Thoene]

We're still refining it at the moment. The early experiments showed an interesting side effect. It seems that it somehow makes iron more easily available to the plants because they've been growing like crazy in the test tank.
Never believing that "less is more" I added some iron supplement to the tank but then the plants gradually leaned toward the outlet end of the manifold. In other words counter to the flow of water above the substrate. Looks a bit weird. Maybe I added too much? I'm not really into plants that much anyway.
We haven't noticed any obvious ill affects upon the inhabitants of the tank. I put 4 P. cheni in there and 6 White-Clouds. I bet they actually like the quietness compared to powerheads.
I don't claim to be an expert in this field.....that's more my friend's forte.
I expect opinions of the validity of this experiment to be polarized until we've tested it more..................... But this one goes to 11.

Martin.

[Martin Thoene]

The positive thing about the new setup is that you can have the rare species of Syncrossus Magneticus Thoenii which is not feasible to keep in a traditional fish tank.

I like your train of thought andre.

Martin.

[jones57742]

Martin:

This seems like a concept similar to the superconducting supercolider vision.

I would be interested in what your friend says about the above assertion.

Unless I am way off base here, which I may be, what yall are doing not only is generating magnetic fields but serious electrostatic and electromagnetic fields as well.

Two Items:

• [1] This would explain to some extent free radicals which are inducing plant growth.

• [2] Although I do not necessarily believe in the current diatribe with respect to the adverse effects of electromagnetic fields I would not purchase a residence which is situated closer than 60 feet from the closest insulator on a transmission line

.

TR

Martin:

I do not understand linear inductance with respect to my under my under understanding (although rudimentary) of RLC circuits.

Could you or your friend post a link(s) which this linear inductance concept?


Ken: If you read my post and if your brain hurts please google as expansion of the the cranial cavity as well as expansion of your neural matter may be appropriate. I know that I am being "nasty here" but this comment is my reaction to to your comment in a previous post.

Morph: Same for you also. Obviously you were not not at Comdex when Dell and Intel were exhibiting a graphics board on a bus which was attached to the CPU bus (back in the 386 days) but was only 1/2 the cycle speed of the CPU bus.

Morph: According to your response in another post I guess that I must be a certifiable idiot but obviously your understanding of the dielectric constant is limited. Please google and advise me if your opinion has changed.

Folks: What I have described in my first Morph portion above was an intermediate development of the PCI bus.

TR

BTW Folks: Please excuse me for my comments to Ken and Morph as they are "old timers" but their posts were, IMHO, inappropriate.