Eureka!

[Martin Thoene]

Well maybe........

I've been bouncing around in my head an idea for a completely new concept of River-Tank that will theoretically give vastly increased flow potential, with no pressure concentrations like with powerheads. It will also be truly unidirectional.

I knew basically how it can work, but not the required technology. Like the existing River-Tank manifold design I want it to be DIY and use easily obtainable parts.

Then I had a "Eureka" moment the other day.

There will be no heat-transfer problems and the system may be virtually silent in operation. It also doesn't contain a single piece of regular aquarium equipment. It has no external plumbing.

I may be totally off the wall with this, and it will require a custom tank to even experiment with the idea. Therefore it will never have the simplicity of the other design. However, for the hard-core amongst us it could be revolutionary.

I don't want to say any more now because I may just be seriously wrong with this idea. It may not work at all, and it may look unacceptable aesthetically to some. Also, it will only be applicable to larger tanks.

I'm going to do some research and calculations on this concept and eventually when I can afford to, bite the bullet and build an experimental system. Right now, there are some unresolved detail issues that I need to look into.

Watch out for R/T2.

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

I could'nt of timed setting up my large river tank, any better!!

R/T2 here we come! Hopefully!

[Martin Thoene]

Whoah there big boy! It's got to work first matey, and I said it's very unconventional, so I might have problems executing the theory.

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

Stop chatting, get working!

True. For now i'll stick to the R/T1

[Jim Powers]

Sounds interesting. I can't wait to see it.
Now get busy!!

[helen nightingale]

not very aesthetic but even better for the fish shouldnt be a problem for dedicated people.

maybe internal filters werent aestheticly pleasing when they were first invented, but we all ignore them now

[The Kapenta Kid]

That's what I call a tease.
When is the next instalment coming goddamit

[Emma Turner]

ooooooooooooh! R/T2! Need to know more, need to know more!!!!
What does it involve? C'mon Martin, you know you want to give us an ickle clue......sumps, multiple tanks, gravity feeding???????

[Martin Thoene]

ooooooooooooh! R/T2! Need to know more, need to know more!!!!
What does it involve? C'mon Martin, you know you want to give us an ickle clue......sumps, multiple tanks, gravity feeding???????

All of the above.....................

NOT!

I knew I could have some fun with this

Helen is getting Tom involved 'cos he's good with stuff like this apparently.
But she's sworn to secrecy.....but knows a little.

Martin.

[adampetherick]

My idea for unidirectional flow is as follows



The tank is going inside a wooden casing (grey line) so the filter in/outs will go behind the end baffles and will be out of sight so no equipment will be visable in the tank. The cut outs from the 5mm acrylic will be 2-3x the cm2 of the pipes to the filter/sump

[Martin Thoene]

That's nice Adam, and a good way of removing visual clutter.

Martin.

[adampetherick]

Should mean there's nothing un-natural in the tank, all the heaters etc will go into the sump, was also the best way I could think of getting water flow going across the tank at all heights in the water

[Jim Powers]

One thing I worry about in a setup like that (or any without sponge intakes) is young hillstreams being sucked into the intake.
Nice idea, though. I like the clean look. Maybe with the multitude of intakes, the pressure on any one would not be enough to threaten the babies.

[adampetherick]

I'm going for a slow "river tank" for Clown loach, tiger barbs etc rather than super fast

[Martin Thoene]

Wow! we're being very innovative today. You just invented the negative-positive thought process Jim.

Negative to trhink about baby Hillstreams being sucked into intakes, positive to have them there in the first place

Martin.