OVAS

Does anyone use a closed loop system for a salt water system. I was thinking of building one for beter water movement. Any comments ?

Gmack

I like the idea. I have seen a few different tanks with this setup. Water movement was excellant. I have only heard one common complaint...heat. When I added my skimmer, I added two pumps. These two pumps, a Reeflo Hammerhead and a MAG 12, made my system go from occasionally needing heat to never needing heat and always needing cooling.
Just a heads up!

If you have enough   LR in your tank.You can put the pump in the tank buried behind the LR.Just add some piping and your all set.
I have set up many tanks this way.Saves drilling the tank.You can cover the pump with a couple peices of LR.Make it close to the top of your LR so its easy to get to.Make sure that you put the plastic screen on the end of to prevent it from getting plugged with snail/crabs etc.

On my first tank, which is a 65g in-wall, I went a bit crazy on the closed loop. 
I've drilled 2 holes for the intake and 4 holes for the return. I've included an Ocean Motions Squirt in the return line to send the water to 1 of the 4 return holes.

(https://www.ovas.ca/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi161.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft229%2Fgroupie02_reef%2Fth_65g-9h-v2.png&hash=a407b00fa4131f4da16e50fc93cf0217f1728fb4) (http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t229/groupie02_reef/?action=view&current=65g-9h-v2.png)

(https://www.ovas.ca/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi161.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ft229%2Fgroupie02_reef%2Fth_019-plumbing_done_mostly.jpg&hash=1a507cfcc7ef7f2f92f1b517af8576a278b41d3f) (http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t229/groupie02_reef/?action=view&current=019-plumbing_done_mostly.jpg)

Water movement great. Whatever you decide to do, ensure that you can take it apart for cleaning. 

Agreed, be sure you can disassemble your closed loop setup for cleaning. The strangest things will find their way in their!

A closed loop is a fantastic way to get LOTS of flow and significantly reduce the amount of equipment in your tank.

I run a closed loop on each of my coral beds. Each system uses 2 x 1.5" intake and return through 3 returns.

And for our new display we are feeding a Gold Series Dart with 2 x 1.5" intakes and returning through 3 sea swirls for varying flow.

I will be putting one into my new display tank as well.  Though I have not done much research, basically, it's holes, plumbing and a pump...

The motion/squirt things sound really interesting,but I've been worried about noise.


If you've got a pile of rock in your tank (planned)then closed loop is just cool... if you're going for a minimialistic look in the tank, minimal rocks, no equipment, just opens spaces, then closed loop is about the only way to make it happen...

You've made the assersion that maybe CL gets you "better water movement".  I wouldn't say that....  There are many ways to get the same or more... that even offer better options... a few MP40's will create random motion/flows, allow for feeding cycles within the tank etc, which is something that CL cannt do... Tunze's digitial stuff has directional flows as well, which is cool and something that most CL's do not provide.

Also, to change the speed/output of your CL is painful, where in replacing a single pump, or moving a pump is easy...

CL = clean looking, visually unobtrousive...   Other than that, the other systems pretty much have it beat.

However, for my preferences, and many others, clean looking wins hands-down... ;)

Quote from: Hookup on July 30, 2009, 09:16:50 AM


The motion/squirt things sound really interesting,but I've been worried about noise.

There is no noise.