Gantry Water Ripple Generator

[hydrophyte]

Gantry Water Ripple Generator

Here's a new project I've started a continuation of a few related ideas. The basic idea is a ripple generating paddle held over the tank water with a gantry assembly and powered by a stepper motor v-slot linear actuator.

This is just a preliminary setup. The extruded aluminum gantry and moving parts seem to run well, but with some more work I can improve the paddle + bracket design. I currently have the paddle running with a simple forward & reverse motion, but there are lots of possibilities for stepper motor control for various water ripple effects. The most compelling visual aspect of these projects has been shadow patterns cast on the tank bottom and the reflection patterns on the room ceiling and walls; I also have additional ideas for the lighting setup.

The tank is just filled with water for now, but I have concept for stocking it and currently rounding up and QTing my live organisms.

I might have an updated paddle design pretty soon and I'll also have video on the way.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[hydrophyte]

I've made some more progress here.

There is sand in the tank.

The updated paddle design swivels on the rod spindle from the gantry plate. A short peg at the top of the paddle indexes with a part on the spindle to control the degrees of rotation through each paddle stroke. Here I set it up so that the paddle stops perpendicular to the V-slot for the forward stroke, but folds back to feather for the return stroke.

A lot of the energy gets expended with turbulent vortices around the paddle, rather than with directional water motion in the aquarium. But these mini whirlpools create their own interesting shadow and reflected ripple effects. When in operation there are also nice directional mellow ripples down the length of the tank to make a shallow tropical lagoon effect, which is what I have in mind.

I added stepper motor limit switches, but have not yet wired or programmed them with the microcontroller.

I hung a new 55-watt PAR38 over the tank for maintaining some of the biota I'm putting in here. This thing is super bright, like a street lamp, but with LEDs distributed all over the front of the reflector area, it is poor for ripple shadow and reflection effect. For better expression of the water ripples, I can swap this one out in the fixture for one of the other screw-ins I have with a single COB LED as a better point-source light.

 

[hydrophyte]

I think I have a pretty good plant concept for this setup. I've been researching and rounding up plants that grow in seagrass ecosystems, but more in the upstream areas of estuaries with moderate salinity around 10-15ppt. This is the kind of habitat and flora you might find in Indian River Lagoon, Florida, Chesapeake Bay and areas of the Black Sea. So far I have Potamogeton perfoliatus, Eleocharis parvula, Halodule wrightii and Ruppia maritima. Of these, the Halodule is the only actual true seagrass. The Halodule and Ruppia were collected in high-end brackish water and I'm currently reducing salinity for them a bit every few days. The Eleocharis and Potamogeton on the other hand were grown in freshwater and I'm increasing salinity for them in another seperate tank so I can put all four together in a few weeks.

The Potamogeton perfoliatus has about doubled in size since I planted it, but its growth seems to be decreasing with increased salinity. The Ruppia maritima also seems to be responding with a couple new leaf nodes developing. on several stems. The Eleocharis parvula and Halodule wrightii are still green, but seem to be just sitting there. I'll be happy if I can get just a couple of these to grow well. Fingers crossed.

Potamogeton perfoliatus

Eleocharis parvula

Halodule wrightii

Ruppia maritima

 

[Tim Harrison]

Love these innovative projects, they add a completely different dimension to the hobby and UKAPS.

 

[Little]

Looking forward to seeing a video of the paddle in action.

 

[netsukekoi]

Suspense is killing me - is this a completely daft and OTT project or the dawn of a whole new branch of aquascaping? Waiting for the video....

 

[hydrophyte]

Love these innovative projects, they add a completely different dimension to the hobby and UKAPS.

Looking forward to seeing a video of the paddle in action.

Suspense is killing me - is this a completely daft and OTT project or the dawn of a whole new branch of aquascaping? Waiting for the video....

Thanks for reading!

I'll get a video up at some point. I deleted my Instagram account and also managed to lose my phone somewhere, so I don't have easy video upload right now. But I'll get on it.

 

[hydrophyte]

Finally got a quick Instagram reel up. I decided to resurrect the old Riparium Supply account...



I still haven't wired the limit switches. The stepper motor seems to be missing steps, so I can't really leave it alone running. I need to figure out an Arduino shield option and then I can configure all that.

The plants are really very interesting. Salinity is at 15ppt and I will probably keep it right around there. Ruppia maritima and Potamogeton perfoliatus continue steady growth. The Halodule wrightii is also growing with new green foliage, although it has only approximately replaced the foliage it came with. So I'm not sure yet how well it is establishing. Eleocharis parvula has slowly declined and I don't expect it to adapt.

 

[Vardo]

Love the aquarium set up you've achieved with the ripple effect too

 

[hydrophyte]

Love the aquarium set up you've achieved with the ripple effect too

Thanks so much!