Maintenance-free pico design (gravity-driven)

[djnzlab1]

HI,
if your adding saltwater there may be a build of salinty in the tank, if its fresh you will have to meter to additon.
Pretty neat idea, I have seen one new filter sump that has autmatic water adding built in neat neat..
Doug

[Matt Rogers]

Originally Posted by seamonkey

Am I doing something wrong with my air lift? Or, did you mean using an air lift in a different way?

No that is what I was thinking. I recall hearing that you need a strong pump. You might want to dig up the old 'Eco-Wheel' thread I posted a couple years back as that filter ran on an air-lift. Perhaps that will give you some more ideas. I like the idea of air-lifts too, perhaps its better suited for larger applications.

[seamonkey]

I was doing some research on airlifts and found some pond and hydroponics sites that explained a bit more. Apparently, smaller bubbles and a smaller diameter lift tube are important for maximizing the lift distance. And the maximum lift distance is apparently half of the submerged length of the lift tube, so deeper is better. Therefore, it seems that a tall, deep container (like a large vase) with a thin-diameter tube submerged deeply would give greatest lifting capability of the water.

However, I'm unfortunately close to forgetting the whole idea because ambient temperatures are close to 100 degrees with 95 degree water temperature, and I can't come up with a cheap/elegant cooling solution and don't want to blow a couple hundred bucks on a chiller. I thought my gravity-driven design was elegant, simple, and complete, but I neglected the temperature element. Adding an electric inline chiller and the complexity of pumping water around would negate the simplicity of a pico.