Eco-Wheel

Really? Sounds cool. Got a pic somewhere you can point too?

 

I will take some photos and put them up as soon as I can.

The bubble problem is related to the amount of tubing that you use to connect the Eco-wheel to the tank. I have absolutely no bubbles, but then my unit is in a room behind my tank.

 

Here are the pics of my wheel, please forgive the straps, when I first built the unit it ran for about three months and then one of the seams ruptured. So after repairing it I also put the straps in place for extra support. If I were going to remake it I would do the seams differently.

edit - bad link removed

 

Wow! Nice work Rich! looks great!
What kind of light is that?
Regardless, nice wheel!! ! !! !

 

Thank you very much...

The light is actually very cheap, I was going to go with a standard aquarium compact fluorescent but the prices were pretty steep. Then I went to Sears and they were selling these CF bulbs with a standard screw in base 45w = 300w roughly, for $7.00. It worked great it is just in a standard clamp shop light reflector. The design was really easy to duplicate, it just took some time to put together.

 

I meant to say the Eco-Wheel design was pretty easy to duplicate and construction was time consuming.

 

I bet! You did a great job. Hey thanks for joining 3reef! 8)

Should I worry about that light? Does it put out a lot of heat? Is algae starting to grow well?

[smiley=vulcan.gif]

 

Actually I thought that heat would be an issue, but since the actual reflector extends beyond the top of the hood, most of the heat just comes off the top into the room.

I had some algae in my main tank that i was able to "seed" the wheel with and it is spreading relatively quickly. Each day I can notice considerably more, I figure within a month or so it should be full as the light stays on 24/7.

 

That's great. I'd love to see more pics.
Do you have any of the pipes going into the tank?
When I saw one of these it had huge pipes.
Are you using an air-lift?

 

I do not have a drilled tank, so I have an overflow that comes from the main tank. Then I have a return line that pours into the main tank. I am using an air lift system which works well. I used 3" bulkheads on the wheel tank but then I reduced the pipes going to and from the tank, I should not have reduced it as much as I did, there would be more flow but that being said I think the flow is pretty good. I will see what I can do about more photos. I believe that I also have a set of plans that I created if you feel adventure-some..