Inspired by the Momotaro Air Explosive Shower(MAES) and encouraged by my first, experimental, trickle tower, I built a MAES knock-off. This page describes the design and construction of my version of the MAES. And any mistakes made along the way. ;)
Design goals:
more biofiltration -- processing 50-90 GPM
direct more water flow 'downstream'
additional aeration (and increased ORP)
needed place for activated carbon and calcium carbonate
need to be able to bypass for medicinal reasons
need to be easy to clean as possible
Materials to build structure:
8 10' lengths of 1" PVC
44 'T' fittings (1" PVC)
12 'street elbow' fittings (1" PVC)
4 4'x2' sheets of plastic pegboard
2 4'x2' sheets of diffuser panel ('eggcrate')
diffuser panel knife (similar to a boxcutter)
hacksaw
PVC glue
hot glue gun and glue sticks
Once put together:
The shape came together... organically. Orginally I'd planned on using something other than 'T' fittings and street elbows. This list above is based on hindsight. If you look closely at the above picture you'll note I used some cross fittings. Below are some pictures of the way the fittings are put together. I thought I use a single PVC fitting instead of these contraptions.
Future:
The whole thing should be in place in March-April of 2003. The delay is because I plan to use some of my current filtration in a side pond arrangement for just the goldfish. Until the goldfish ponds are built I won't be putting the trickle tower in place.
I plan to purchase activated carbon, media bags, springflo, fine (white) Matala, fine (green) foam matting, and chicken grit (calcium carbonate) for media in the top two chambers. The matting and Matala goes into the top chamber as a final scrub and some biofiltration. The rest goes into the second chamber for chemical (activated carbon) and biological (springflo) filtration. The chicken grit is to add KH and GH, and it'll probably form biofilm just like the other parts.
The bottom chamber will be filled with alphagrog and something else. Maybe plastic bits, maybe the dreaded lava rock, maybe something else. The weight of the alphagrog alone may force me to upgrade the bottom support pipes to 2" PVC. I'll find out once it is in place, or maybe I'll just upgrade beforehand anyway.
Water will be delivered via 2" pipe. I'll need to put a Jandy 3-way valve in front of it so I can control the amount of water that goes to it. I suspect 80% of the water will go to it, leaving very little for the return jets and waterfall. But the waterfall is going to be redundant and the jets don't do much anyway.