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UKnanonoob
12/13/2006, 04:30 PM
Im currently in the process of designing a large tank which will be housed in a seperate building at the end of my garden. AS i have very little spare space in the house i thought this was the only option for me and it will give me a chance to keep a large tank too.

The tank itself is going to measure 1500mm*1500mm*500mm. I have worked this out to be roughly 247 uk gallons. Im going to run a 40 or maybe 60 gallon sump with 7inch sand bed and also house all other equipment in here.

Seeing as im new to all this and only playing with the idea at the moment i think this is the best time to clear up all the finer details of the system as once i have the tank made and up and running anything overlooked could be disasterous.

My question is. Im goi use a pair of surge devices a bit like what you have in your toilet system to produce the main part of my flow. I will have small power heads too but feel that a surge device will look great in action and also benifit my livestock greatly. Seeing as the whole system will be housed in a seperate building noise from the flushing will not be a problem. Now as im employing this technique and as a result my water levels will be changing constantly will it be possible for me to use an auto matic water top off unit to top evaporated water up?:D

Stoney Mahony
12/13/2006, 06:33 PM
Yep:) Mount the float switch in your sump level with the water when the surge tank is full. When the S tank dumps, water in the tank/sump will rise which wont hurt anything, and when the S tank fills up again, the float switch should still be up. When water evaporates, the auto top off will kick in when the sump water level is the lowest and the surge tank is nearly full. It might come on a little more frequent but it will still work good. Hope that helps :)

RandyStacyE
12/13/2006, 06:49 PM
Stoney Mahony, that is exactly what I was thinking. In other words adjust the float where the sump will reach its lowest level (due to the fluctuation of the surge device).

UKnanonoob, you might want to look into the Carlson Surge device if you haven't already. A guy I know has one in a large basement setup that uses one and it impressed me. At first I was astonished and very confused as to how it worked. After looking into it I realized just how simple it truely is ... and cheap too. It has no moving parts to fail.

Stoney Mahony
12/14/2006, 08:50 AM
I agree with Randy, the carlson surge is awesome. I can't believe how simple it is and there are no parts to fail. The only problem I see with it is if it shoots a ton of bubbles into the tank at the end of the surge. It could be good in some instances to have the crashing, oxygentaing action but if it's close to any power head, you could possibly get micro bubbles.

RandyStacyE
12/14/2006, 10:56 AM
Don't all surge devices similar to 'dump buckets' all entrain air? I’m sure there are ways to drastically reduce the bubbles. The output of the serge device could be dumped into a baffled compartment before it enters the display tank. That’s just an idea that’s been rolling around in my head.

The basic idea:
http://www.randystacye.com/images/Hidden/surge.gif

Stoney Mahony
12/14/2006, 11:44 AM
Funny you say that Randy, my friend designed this huge baffling system just for that for a 300gal surge tank:) It works awesome but it is alot more equipment. AWESOME demonstration there! As far as bubbles entering, I have seen ST's that release no bubbles using electric ball valves. They close off about 8" before the water reaches the bottom and that way no bubbles are sucked in. It also acts like a check valve so that there are no bubbles in the return pipe :)