Diy Wavebox

[Crazy fishes]

I live on the coast and yesterday while looking out over the sea the crashing waves got me thinking about wavebox for my future marine setup. The tunze wavebox looks really effective at creating alternating water movement but it has a steep price tag as well. I was wondering if anyone has designed a DIY wavebox? I have been thinking about the most efficient ways to generate that alternating surge pattern that is so familiar. I have come to the conclusion that a piston would do this very nicely, but then there is the problem of getting the piston to move. I thought about a motor with a threaded shaft extention which by alternating the motors direction of revolution one could effective have a piston that 'floats' up and down the wave cylinder. I also thought of a cam kind of linkage. What are other peoples thoughts about this; DIY wavebox?

Another question which I can't seem to definitively answer is why is the water around reefs so clear and the water say in the English channel so oqapue and dirty-looking? I thought that it must be related to the nutrient content and sediment agitation but can't come to an answer which explains it all? Does anyone know?

Regards

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I see where your going with the DIY wave box and it seems logical. The problem would be building it out of reef safe materials (not easy). Also a motor big enough to pull water in a vacum is going to be big and loud.

If you have space above the main tank you could have two small surge tanks. These would fill alternatly and be on either side of the display tank.

So left tank half filled filled, Right tank valve open to surge into display, Right tank fills and by the time it gets half way the left tank vlave opens to surge into the display. Would be a hell of a lot of hassle getting teh timing right though and require at least two tanks to be above the display tank (probably cheaper just to by a wavebox ).

If you have a smaller tank then a couple of good powerheads and a wavemaker powerstrip would give you the same effect. If you have a larger tank then a wavebox doesnt cost anymore then 4 or 5 good powerheads anyway.

 

[ox5477]

The motor with a cam idea isn't bad. If you could set up a hinged wall/panel/wave creator, whatever you wish to call it, and attach a short shaft connecting to the cam which is attached to a motor, that could work. I doubt it would have as much stress as changing the direction of a motor using a lead screw and you dont have the power surge problems with using pumps and just turning them on and off. It would still prob put a lot of stress on the assembly when pushing the water, but otherwise it should be fairly robust. This could be interesting DIY. I would love to see if you could work something out like this

 

[andywg]

If you have a smaller tank then a couple of good powerheads and a wavemaker powerstrip would give you the same effect. If you have a larger tank then a wavebox doesnt cost anymore then 4 or 5 good powerheads anyway.

The wavemaker powerstrips just cause water to be pushed around the tank from powerheads in differing amounts. A wavebox moves all the water in the tank. That is a subtle, but important difference. Also, the wavemaker powerstrips are not entirely helpful to the longevity of any powerheads attached to them (all Tunze controllable powerheads run ion DC).

The problem with the DIY idea is that by the time you have spent money on researching a system and buying one off sw safe materials you will have spent as much as a wavebox. The main issue is being able to tune the pulse length to the size of the tank, not an easy thing to on a DIY by any means.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I like the idea of a body of water moving as opposed to a fast stream in a relatively still body of water. I am beginning to think that is certainly the best water flow for corals; less chance of the tissues being damaged. While I know that it is still possible it is just less probable. I certainly see the difficulties that andy is highlighting and I am still thinking about what the options are, but am also beginning to think that people don't bother with DIY waveboxes LOL.

Regards

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, they're really hard to make, and unless you're a master machinist and electrician, its prolly not worth it. Surge tanks as mentioned above are great, but they are more suited to BIG tanks (think 500+ gallons).

As for the murky versus not murky... Two things here, number one, the grain of sediment in the channel is more like mucky clay. Very fine, and very easily suspended in the water column. On the reef, sand doesn't stay in suspension as long. Second, the presence of filter feeders. Sponges, soft corals, clams, and tons of other organisms are constantly filtering the water on the reef, removing the fine detritus there.

 

[jeasko]

murky v not so murky is mostly down to whats on the sea bed ie sand or gravel, but also in the UK we experience a high tidal movement and some pretty rough weather which stirs up the fine sediment which hangs in the water column, if we have about 2 weeks of good weather (approximate length of time for sediment to sttle) the sedminet settles and the water colour and clarity changes, but also we have very strong currents around our coastline which seem to run like a train in some areas which will always cause some sediment to stir up hence we never have as clear water as other parts of the world

Also if your a diver (quite a few of us are) you will no doubt have noticed that some of the best uk diving is where there is less fine material on the sea bed as the viz seems to be a whole lot better.

 

[andywg]

The worst of the UK viz tends to be at the shallower areas (where the tide can have more of an effect). I am told by our DO that once you start hitting the 50m wrecks the viz is a whole lot better.

 

[SkiFletch]

50m, wow, must be cold down there

 

[andywg]

It's fairly cold higher up too.

Water temp at the surface was 4 degrees on Sunday, but the lake warmed to about 7 degrees once you got to 20m.

All it means is you throw an extra layer on under the undersuit (and if, like me, you dived the day before and forget to bring your gloves in to dry off you buy some dry gloves).

 

[SkiFletch]

Hah, or if you're like me you strap a multimillion dollar wetsuit, tubesuit, and perfusion prototype on your back and still curse for those first 5 minutes... Can't wait to try this in a drysuit