since we're talking about what we want... i want this open bottom tank setup... i believe this person is the only person who is able to achieve this, and the more u think about how it could work, the more you'll go crazy... and want one, hehehe:
One kid is enough right now bud. Oh damned! Now I see the open bottomed one. How do they do that with the bubbles? They must pump air out of a reservoir at the top, and the weight of the water and the strength of the air pump balance each other. Way cool!!!! >>>>
ok i finally looked it up, someone recently did a similar project with the open bottom. Basically...
you put a tank upside down into a pond type setup... it has to be a custom tank so that three sides sit on the floor of the pond, and one side (the front) is shorter than the rest, allowing access from pond into tank. Then you take your siphon and stick one end up in the cavity of the top tank and the other end of your siphon into a power vac and start sucking out air, within a minute the water will begin to rise to the top. There will always be a small air space at the top, but a very small one. Now, to get the air going up... since air bubbles rising to the top would make the water level sink again, you must take this new air out constantly... well, they have a powerhead with venturi running at the very bottom, but the venturi tube runs up to the top. It will suck the little air up there, then spit it out at the bottom, sending the just captured bubbles rising to the top, and the cycle goes over and over.... pretty inventive!
That sounds really good and if the water goes in the tube it wouldn't hurt any thing as it would if water got into an air pump, but I think you're wrong. A venturi on a power head isn't strong enough to pull that much water up. I think the air must be getting sucked out at the top with an air pump. The water never gets all the way to the top because the level of the lower, right side up tank, is low enough. I bet there's a space at the top of the upper tank and water never gets that high. I think I'm going to try to make this. I've got enough stuff for it. It just won't be as big. The bubbles in this case are coming for air leaking under the edge by the plant. This is amazing!!!!!
Amazing isn't the word - -I'm baffled by the shear logic of it!!!! the theory of hydraulics that is being twisted here is incredable, I don't know the size of the top tank but there has got to be hundreds of lbs of hydraulic pressure there - -the top has to be sealed with a vaccum system of some sort {a very sierious one at that} pulling the head on the water, very, very, very touchy balance. to be able to figure the head pressure and weight of the water AND to figure out how much vaccum it takes to pull that and the air he is introducing - I'd invest in an imeadiate ON generator .....one little pin hole leak or one little brown out in the power will send that column of water crashing into the bottom tank - -WOW VERY IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!! risky as hell but impressive
wait - -i guess a heavy duty check valve would hold the head pressure in the event of a power outage, no?and the bubbler would be stopped in a power failure as well, so the entire system would go "static" until the power came back on. be like putting your finger over the top of a straw - -................. afterthought .....man my head hurts trying to wrap it around that thing, lol, snowboss
I saw a video on how someone made the open bottom tank. There is no special equipment, its quite simple actually. Air in the top tank is sucked out using a vacuum and tubing... once u suck the air out, the water level will rise. All the powerhead does (and u dont even need the powerhead part of it, rather the venturi)... is take the little air left at the top and recycle it to the bottom where it floats back up to the top only to get recycled again. If anyone is seriously going to try to make it, I will gladly link the video where it shows how, just let me know.
You are sooo right!!! I didn't think a venturi had enough suction to do it. I have a either 1 or 1/2 gallon tiny tank and I'm going to try this. I didn't think there would be enough suction because when my power heads are too deep, when I've just topped off the tank, sometimes there isn't enough suction to pull air down even 6 inches. I guess there is too much resistance to water getting pulled through my deep gravel and that is why I can't get enough suction. Very very cool idea! I'll let you know when I get this done, and I'll take pics of it. Thanks Spongebob!
