My new design

[ImagineAquatics]

What do you think of my design? Imagine Aquatics is a BRAND NEW company, and we are trying to research before we go mainstream, so any criticism is more than appreciated. Our manual is DISMAL, and that has been pointed out to me many times on this forum. I would LOVE to do a better job on it (our 'inches per gallon' system is trash, please ignore it), but I don't really have enough time to give it the attention it deserves. I will ammend it with any reasonable suggestions that I get. I've found this forum to be frank, honest, ethical, and best of all, straight to the point. I plan on doing my 'focus group' research here. If you want to influence what I hope will become the next great filteration/aquarium system, please let me know what you think.

http://www.imagineaquatics.com

I know the graphics look like a nightmare from the 1970s, as has been pointed out to me, but it's just me. I'm doing the best I can. I feel that our wall mountable design is WAY better than anything else out there. I'd LOVE to know what you all think! (Click on Products, literature gives some more info)

Thanks in advance!



Brad

[ImagineAquatics]

What do you guys think about having TheOldSalt test our tanks and (hopefully) write some sort of chronology of the experiment? I'm not exactly sure what 'testing' means here (there are a lot of possible setups and experiments one could run), so any suggestions would be appreciated!

[euRasian32]

OldSalt would be a great candidate. I think he's very thorough and knowledgable, and his opinion would hold a lot of weight if it came down to me buying one.

Thorough testing would definitely have to include longevity.

[Lexus]

I agree with euRasian.

[IloveCichlids]

Sounds like a great idea!

[TheOldSalt]

That looks really nifty. The tubeless tank-in-a-tank design is certainly unusual, and I can get a good idea of how it works from the pictures. Decidedly different! Where are the power cords?

[ImagineAquatics]

Just got back from the air port, so excuse me if I sound out of it. It's late here.

To answer TheOldSalt, There's one cord from the pump, it exits through a little notch in the acrylic lid (might be hard to see from the pictures..). The other is from the light. I did NOT put a switch on the light, because I think that all lighting should use a timer. Fish don't get weird lighting times in nature, and I don't think they should at home either.

The filtration works like this---

Water is pumped under the 'gravel plate' - the little acrylic plate with the hundred or so holes. It flows upward towards the dual overflows, and eventually spills over into the two filtration compartments. The water first flows through a coarse pre-filter (standard pre-filter sponge) and possibly a fine felt pre-filter (explained later). In our freshwater tanks (haven't tried them for saltwater yet), the water then flows into our unique (patent pending ) wet/dry media. The water flows through 12 rows of our material on each side (yeah, 24 total) before exiting. Whichever filtration compartment has the pump will have a slightly lower water level then the other compartment. This causes water from the other compartment (the one without a pump) to flow through a tiny channel that connects both compartments underneath the gravel plate. This way one can have one pump on either side, and some carbon (not included.. yet) if desired on the other side. This makes it easy to place the pump closer to an outlet. One could even put two pumps in the same tank (for those who like to keep the rare sauna fish The tanks run warm, 78F-82F depending on ambient temp). Clean(er) water is then passed backwards through the gravel keeping it much cleaner than tanks without this feature.

There are a few strange or unique components that I'll explain here:

Upward current - The holes in the floor plate (combined with gravel on the plate) provide enough resistance to water flow so that the current is directed upward somewhat evenly. The dual overflows help this upward motion by evening out the amount of water movement on each side (as long as the tank hangs level enough!) There is some amount of circular action, but it was not to be avoided in an aquarium of this size without some serious engineering. We feel that it is close enough. This even upward current reduces the 'mixing' action of waste/filter water. Most (all to my knowledge) filters simply mix clean(er) water with tank water. This reduces the efficiency of the filter (your standard Calculus 2 salt tank problem...). Imagine having an RO storage tank full of tap-water. How long would it take to reduce the PPM of the water to 8-10 (the output of the average RO filter under good conditions) if one simply pumped the tap water from the storage tank, into the RO filter, and allowed the clean RO water to mix in with the tank water. Answer: A LONG TIME....

On a side note, you can also blow air bubbles under the gravel (by lowering the water level a bit). This slows the pump down, but it can look neat, and occasionally it's nice to knock some tougher debris out of the gravel (yeah, some accumulates..) Also, when air bubbles excessively blow through your gravel, you know it's time to add water (though you probably guessed that one..).

Nice Big filter pouch - In the filtration compartment, there is a large half reflective media container (made from vinyl and polyester foam padding for bulk, with some Velcro straps and a handle) This pouch contains all of the pre-filters, and the wet/dry media. There pouch has an open top and a Velcro strap at the bottom. The reflective side faces the aquarium to hide the filters and add a small bit of virtual length to the tank. It gets algae on it from time to time, but it is pretty easy to clean...

Clean and Rotate wet/dry material - You probably noticed that the filtration compartments are a bit small for bio-balls or similar wet/dry media. With a standard drip tray, filling the compartment with bio-balls causes the water to channel massively towards the acrylic walls, and leaves the majority of the media dry (trust me, I've tried it...). We have eliminated this problem from our media. Our material is its own drip trey. It is essentially a drip trey with polyethylene prongs sticking out from the bottom such that the drops coming through the holes slide down (hopefully) every prong. We have four rows of this media bundled together in a chemically inert material, with plastic grating sewn to the bottom, and a plastic mesh sewn to the top (to tell the top and the bottom apart... Putting it in upside down will cause major problems). This is a wet/dry media pack. There are 3 of these wet/dry media packs in each of the two compartments. This allows you to remove 1/6 of your wet/dry media (not too much), wash it off (hot water, or hose for a few minutes), and place it in the top of the pouch. This keeps the bio-media clean and at peak efficiency (even after years and years of use, I'd expect). If one cleans one wet/dry media pack out every six months, every three years all of the wet/dry media will have been cleaned and rotated! That would be nearly impossible with standard bio-ball compartments (unless they were color coded, or in separate containers...). They are made from off the shelf material, but we hope to have them molded to a more efficient shape when we acquire the funds.

Acrylic lid - Yeah I know you're not supposed to use acrylic lids for fish-tanks, and I'm sure you know why - because they bow due to uneven heating. We solved this by running a very thick acrylic support across the top (acts as a nice handle, hinges in the middle for easy opening). The lid sits on top of an(unnecessary, but nice) acrylic support (a rectangle with with two holes cut out of the center). It pretty much seals moisture in. At first, I was worried that not enough oxygen would get in the tank, but to date, we've not had any problems at all. Must be some sort of diffusion action or something... On the upside, it keeps evaporation ridiculously low for a warmer tank. (cup or so per month, depending on humidity).

The cabinets are pretty neat. They open from the top (so mount it low enough to allow for easy access. I'm short, so that might not be a problem for most..). There are two doors, one slightly longer than the other (The longer door has the light on it). The doors are recessed into the cabinet and sit in a groove cut out of the top of the cabinet. They close onto some resistance stops. This reduces the 'slamming' sound you'd get without it (fish don't like that...) to a sort of muffled bump noise. There are two square holes cut out of the bottom of the cabinet to allow the cords to come out. It would also be very easy to cut a hole into drywall and run the cords out the back of the cabinet. It's fairly easy to mount. There is a wooden cleat that you screw into wall-studs (or whatever you have). Once the cleat is hung level, you simply place the cabinet on top of the cleat. We recommend you drive a screw or two through the hung cabinet into the wall to keep it from lifting off (VERY hard to do, but better safe then sorry!). Jofco makes these cabinets for us. They make furniture for the pentagon, and a host of other very recognizable companies. They only make the highest quality stuff (no ready to assemble, or rough pine here...), and I'm pretty sure you will be impressed with it. Our cabinet and aquarium both are made in the USA. Because of that they cost a bit more.

Oh, about the felt pre-filters, we have been placing felt squares under the coarse pre-filter in most of our own tanks, but have not really pushed them for our customers, as they require frequent replacement or cleaning. They are shipped with the unit, and I expect serious folks will know what they are and how to use them properly.

I probably made it sound confusing, if there are any questions or corrections, just let me know!