# my tanks with underwater waterfall



## jackyu1688 (Jul 28, 2009)




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## Galloyien (Jun 22, 2009)

I like the waterfall. Nice looking background too.


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## klc9100 (Apr 14, 2009)

looks very nice.

so how exactly does an underwater waterfall work?


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

How did you do that waterfall?! That is cool. Also, what is the striped fish? not the frontosa...


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## bacondaddy (Dec 6, 2007)

it's sand. i would love to know how they made that. it pretty awesome.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

bacondaddy said:


> it's sand. i would love to know how they made that. it pretty awesome.


 :dancing: Tiny scuba gear for the ants that carry each grain of sand back to the top. :lol: Or if the ants have unionized, maybe they did this:

http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007/10/cre ... water.html


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## jackyu1688 (Jul 28, 2009)

non_compliance said:


> How did you do that waterfall?! That is cool. Also, what is the striped fish? not the frontosa...


Tilapia Buttikofferi

http://www.cichlids.com/pictures/pic/Ti ... fferi.html


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## Joephish (Oct 28, 2005)

Can you please show me how you made that happen?
It looks awesome. :drooling:


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## Addesyn (Jul 1, 2009)

that is NICE! Share the love, how do you do it?


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## BioG (Oct 12, 2008)

Is this like when the nerd in high school carries a magazine clipping if cindy crawford in his velcro wallet claiming it's his girlfriend from another school? 

Fascinating though! I'm guessing it's sand with some kind of conveyor (Like the kids toy that picks up the penguins and drops them down the slide). I'm also betting that we'll never know because the camera did not zoom in and this seemed intentional. That tells me two things:

1- Close examination may divulge the "trick"
2- It's probably easy to make/accomplish because, why would the inventor attempt to keep the secret if it were very difficult to construct. Difficulty turns most away.

Of course the inventor could be working on a patent or product which encapsulates this system for purchase and want to therefore keep the formula under raps. :wink:


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Actually Mcdaphnia supplied a link that explains how to do it...


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Toby_H said:


> Actually Mcdaphnia supplied a link that explains how to do it...


 True. It's simply an air-operated airlift with sand being towed up along with the water and air bubbles. At the waterfall level, the sand is dumped out into the waterfall, the air continues up out of sight to the water surface, and the sand falls back to the base of the airlift where it is sucked up again. Besides its esthetics, this could also be a biofilter, if you could keep the effect in balance long enough for the right bacteria to be activated.

One way of thinking of the "waterfall" is, it's a fluidized bed filter with a sand leak. They look the same, just the FBF stops sooner. Except with the waterfall, you want it that way and you have it set up to recharge itself with the lost sand that is guided toward the intake by some kind of scoop or reservoir.

However my scuba-geared ant imagery probably was taken seriously by too many people when it was supposed to be a LOL! I do not sell trained ants, and I do not have ant-size scuba gear for sale. Please stop ordering them.


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## Joephish (Oct 28, 2005)

I see where you are going with it Mcdaphnia, but I watched the tape again, and it appears to be a free standing structure with no stream of air bubbles going out the top. Maybe the FBF idea was created with a powerhead, but I would think that the sand would have to stop falling before it hits the floor of the tank in order to get caught up in the upstream.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I have no clue exactly how the OP here did itâ€¦ Butâ€¦

The current could be supplied with a powerhead as opposed to bubblesâ€¦

You would just have to ensure the powerheads intake did not suck up sand (easy enough to do)â€¦

Since the sand flows out the front of the â€˜waterfallâ€™ and falls to the foot of the â€˜waterfallâ€™â€¦ having a hole in front of the â€˜waterfallâ€™ should allow the same sand to fall back into the â€œairliftâ€


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

i cant help thinking adobe afftereffects ..and until somone comes up with a more plausible answer thats all i can imagine.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

zazz said:


> i cant help thinking adobe afftereffects ..and until somone comes up with a more plausible answer thats all i can imagine.


 So you think it's a fake picture? Come on. These have been around at least since the 1970's and probably long before. The 70's is just the first time I happened to see one.

Here is a video that does not seem to have any photoshop alterations. You can see pretty clearly how this one is working.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEjz9cHj ... re=related


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

doing a search for "underwater waterfall" on you tube shows many examples that such a creation is possible...

Doing the same search on google gives a couple of ideas about the 'science' behind it...

Be a learner, not a doubter... look it up!


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## Tiberian (Jun 14, 2009)

cool


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## Zoon (Jun 29, 2013)

I am going to be putting a sand fall into my tank once I am done building my 3d background. Yeah really easy concept. What I need to know is what size sand works best? If anyone has made one of these please share your sand size.
thanks


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