Another Fan Drive Wave Maker 10 minute DIY for Maxijet's

[Fishguru]

Ok, I was following another thread by author which i will credit when I find the darn thing, it got buried. This DIY Wavemaker has taken me longer to take pictures than it has to Do the project.

First off I started with this Fan from Target for $9.99.

[Fishguru]

Picture didnt post initially, here it is:

[Fishguru]

Here is where i took off the clip section:

[Fishguru]

Here are the Maxijet Pieces you will need, the hang on adapter,and the mount for the pump:

[Fishguru]

Take the Hang on Clip and line it up against the hole in the fan, with the clip side againts the fan (you need the other side out for height adjustment later) mark approximately where the hole is. I used a 3/16" drill bit to drill the hole, this makes it a bit snug, but that is good: drill the hole slowly in the center of the bracket as shown:

[Fishguru]

Attach it to the Fan with the screw that came with the Fan (If you want replace it with stainless, but i am just throwing this together quickly for now and will make upgrades later as i need:

[Fishguru]

Here is the Final product. I will take the cover off of the motor and make a mounting bracket (off the area shown with the area) when my canopy is redone. You may need to do this differently based on your canopy design.

[witness_creation]

how big is this after mod??? give dimensions, will you be using the fan blade part??? how much air does this fan blow?? how loud is it ?? is it variable speed? what is the frequency of the osselation sp? how much power does it consume??

how do you mount such a thing??
seem like you may be onto somthing!!
Lon

[Fishguru]

First off I'd like to acknowledge Totlxtc for the idea, here is the original creator, i just made a simple model anyone could do.
As for the rest of the questions i will check and get back with you:

[Fishguru]

OK, here ya go:

Dimensions with the rear fan cover left on, which im undecided if i want to keep it or not: the round is about 8.25" accross (w/o the casing the fan is 6" in diameter), 6 inches from casing back to just in front of fans w/o front cover. Bottom of rear casing to bottom of Maxijet mount is 6" so it is not going to be all the deep, but i dont run mine deep anyway.

I will be using the fan as im upgrading to 3 halides from VHO so i can use the air circulation.

The fan has 2 speeds and moves a decent amount of air, it does slow the fan down a bit with the maxijet in the water, but it has a low and a high setting, im still playing with which i like.

I am not sure how much power it will consume, and dont understand the frequency of the oscilator sp? Please rephrase it and i'll do my best:
Brent

[Fishguru]

oops forgot to mention:
The fan is almost unable to be heard inside the canopy and it takes about 5 seconds for the span of the 90 degree to be covered on low speed, and 3,5 on high. This fan as well speeds up considerably if the fan blade is removed and spans the 90 in about half the time even on low.

Also as for mounting, im going to remove the rear cover and drill 2 small holes in the casing itself, then attach 2 corner brackets. then attach it to my canopy. Mounting is so variable as it depends on your canopy-

[witness_creation]

the wattage or current draw should be moulded to the case of the fan or on the cord with a sitcker or on the box.
let me know what u come up with

the frequency of sweep you answered being 5 sec.

thanks man

Lon:D

[Fishguru]

.4 amps is the only thing listed-Brent

[witness_creation]

well lets see .4 amps x120v=48 watts.

For both a fan and a power head sweeper.

wonder if its worth it??


anyone have any idea if this is worth it??

Lon

[Fishguru]

Well, i'll only be running mine for 12 hours while the lights are on and wont need any other fans. this will help with calmer water at night also. It will cost me $2.80 a month to run 2 fans, 12 hours at $0.08 a Kwh. Brent

[qwuintus]

This looks like the first fan-swirl idea but less mods. basically it looks like u are going to mount the fan which is supposed to be the part that moves, and the clip area which is now the pump area is going to move instead.

[Fishguru]

Yes, i took the idea from totlxtc, but didnt want to have to make a new box for it, as i have no tools to do such. the Fan REar Casing will be mounted to the outter wall you are correct, this allows the Bases to oscilate freely. It might not last as long term as the other one as it is almost completely enclosed, but i am going to see how it does. I am also going to seal the Bottom Air vents and drill some small vent holes on the top for heat. I am also going to take and remove the wiring adapter that comes with it as it is a Coiled cord. I am going to run the Wire out the top, instead of being run through the base, which could cause the oscilator to stop if it got snagged. This is just a very quick way someone could get the oscilator action of the powerhead without much Technical Changes-Brent

[Totlxtc]

It looks great and i know you'll enjoy it. My corals love the random flow provided from mine. I had to laugh when i saw how you attached the powerhead. I never knew what that part was for and had just cleaned out the fish cabinet about a week before i built mine. As a DIY'er i know i should never throw anything out as someday it may become useful. As so far one month later mine is still going strong 24/7.

[Fishguru]

I had no idea myself, i bought the fan, then was trying to figure out how to attach something to it to extend it in the water, grabbed out the box the maxijet came in and said Holy S*** this is gonna be too easy. the nice thing about that piece as an extension is you can adjust the Powerhead up and down a bit, without cutting the acrylic. Once again thanks for the idea chucke-Brent

[alpine]

I have to say this is a very awesome idea and is going to save reefers a lot of money.I currently have a scwd on my 25gal rr tank with a mag 18,but if I ever feel I need more movement,I will definately make a couple of these.Thanks to the both of you,chucke and brent for posting the how to's.

Jorge

[Duce]

How will it work if you hook that up to the Natural Wave Power Strip....???

[Fishguru]

Well if you hook the powerhead up to it, would probably be pretty cool as the powerhead will be turning on and off in different positions constantly. I dont know, made it so i wouldnt have to buy one-Guru

[reeferaddict]

Originally posted by alpine
I currently have a scwd on my 25gal rr tank with a mag 18,but if I ever feel I need more movement,I will definately make a couple of these. Jorge

Does the mag18 push the scwd too hard? I was considering the same pump. Also is this a closed loop or a return? If its a return, does the overflow have any problems keeping up?


Totlxtc & Guru- Thanks for the idea :rollface:

[Pauley Tang]

Forgive me - but I'm just not getting it from your description and pics. How does that contraption oscillate a power head like a seaswirl????

[Fishguru]

Do you know how a fan oscilates?
It is basically the same thing except you attach the fancasing to the canopy, and the base moves back and forth, i didnt have the powerhead attached yet as i need to modify my canopy for my new lights.
does that help explain it? Brent

[Pauley Tang]

OK - I get it. From the pic, it didn't look like that was an oscillating fan (looked like a simple clip on type). Good idea.

[Fishguru]

A Rebirth of the thread, had a lot of requests for this link lately

[szeth13]

y didn't u just get a power sweep?
i have a couple n they work fine

[TANGBOY5000]

Jeez when I first started to read this I wasn't real clear on what you were trying to do. At first I thought you were going to put the fan in the water like a giant TUNZE stream. Now that I get it this is a really cool idea. Thanks.

[horkn]

Originally posted by szeth13
y didn't u just get a power sweep?
i have a couple n they work fine

most people do not like the powersweep, since they dont seem to be built well

[raskal311]

sorry guys but I dont get it.... So how does this thing work? I mean all I can see in the pic is that the fan is moded with the clip from the maxijet. Is the power shared some how so that the fan takes away power from the maxijet to vary the speed? If so I dont see anywhere where it shows how to combind the two.

[raskal311]

ohh nvm i got it .. the fan moves the mj around .....

[cabenn]

Would be great to see a pic of this mounted in your tank. I would love to try it but it would mean a hood rebuild in order to fit the fan actually inside the tank.

I currently just have a piece of wood attached to the top jetting out for a clip on fan to sit on to blow air across the surface. Darn MH Spider reflectors take up too much room.

[Fishguru]

bump for the newbies

[seti007]

For those that worry about power usage, How about taking the fan blades off and using a light fader switch to "slow" down the fan motor and hence slow down the ossilation time. U could just "dial" the switch to the oscillation speed U like.The light dimmer works just fine with fan motors as long as U dont exceed the power ratings.

[seti007]

Wow I just noticed that this thread has been dead for a while.

[dhnguyen]

You guys might wnat to have a look at this DIY it's quite easy to do.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=799971