Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~ 209~746
S~ecification
This invention relates to innovations involving fish tank design
and associated water filtration methodology, in order to remove
waste matter from aquariums easier, faster and more efficiently.
Most fish tank systems available to hobbyists are difficult to
keep clean. Even when filtration equipment is used, the build up
of waste matter from decaying food, rotting vegetation, and fish
eliminations freguently reguire the hobbyist to carry out messy,
time consuming cleaning procedures such as washing the tank's
gravel and/or completely stripping the tank down.
Water in tanks that cannot be kept clean, becomes contaminated.
Tho resulting toxicity puts the fish under stress, spawns disease,
and eventually leads to deaths. Also, accumulations of waste
matter on tank bottoms is unsightly.
While filtration units trap some particulate waste matter, most
sinks to the bottom of the tank where filtration eguipment cannot
remove it. There it accumulates, and decomposes, and before long
begins to foul the water faster than the filtration unit's
clean~ing agents, or the beneficial bacteria living in the tank can
detoxify it. This occurs even when fresh water replacement
programs are employed in conjunction with filtration eguipment.
e.g. one third of tank water replaced every three weeks.
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In this invention, waste matter is quickly, easily and
efficiently removed from the tank before it accumulates, and before
the toxicity produced by decomposition overloads the tank's
filtration system and causes water quality to break down.
In this invention, the obstacles to tank cleaning and filtration
described earlier are largely overcome by:
. Altering the traditional fish tank design by replacing the
flat bottom with one that is contoured downward at an angle of
degrees thereby causing waste matter to accumulate in the
catchment basin so formed, from whence it can be removed
quickly, easily, and efficiently by a gravity fed drainage tap.
The re-designed tank bottom could be constructed of clear
plastic material formed using injection moulding or
related technology or it could be made from pre-cut pieces of
glass siliconed together using conventional aguarium
building technology.
. Suspending the gravel which normally covers the tank bottom
on a false bottom, positioned where the tank bottom would
otherwise be, a site which is above the waste catchment
basin. The false bottom is perforated throughout, to ensure
the gravitational pull on waste matter, downward through the
gravel and the perforated false bottom to the catchment
basin, is enabled and not impeded.
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Positioning the filtration system's water intake below the
perforated false bottom, so that the flow of water and waste
matter is, like the gravitational pull downward, through the
gravel and the false bottom into the catchment basin.
Positioning the intake as described contributes significantly
to the removal of particulate waste matter in the aquarium.
A filtration unit with an 85 imp. gal. per hour flow rating
normally used on a 10 to 15 gallon tank, would, in the course
of a week, move 14,000 imp. gal. of water and suspended
particulate matter, downward through the gravel and the
perforated false bottom, into the area of the catchment
basin. A constant flow of this magnitude ensures no
particulate waste matter remains long on the tank bottom or
imbedded in the aguarium gravel but is guickly drawn into the
catchment basin where its removal can easily be accomplished.
Shielding the filtration system's water intake from taking
up, into the filter, most particulate waste matter coming
downward through tho gravel and the false bottom into the
catchmont ba~in, by a bell shaped device which shelters it as
an umbrella protocts against rain. In this manner the load
on the filtration system is reduced so that it will operate
up to the de~ign capacity for longer periods without
replacemont of filtors and water purification re-agents.
Installing a relativoly high flow gravity drainage tap, ie
approximately 450 imp. gallons per hour, to significantly
^`~ 20957~6
increase the inventions filtration efficiency. When fully
opened, during removal of accumulated waste from the
catchment basin, the normal flow of water and waste matter
through the gravel and the false bottom into the catchment ~-
basin, is greatly increased. The result is a powerful
flushing action that moves into the catchment basin area
any waste matter the continual downward flow created by the
ongoing operation of the filtration equipment may not have
yet moved.
~' ',',
Fitting the contoured sides of the tank's bottom above the
waste catchment basin with devices to enable it to be cleaned ~`
without emptylng the tank or suspending its operation,
should the continuous downward progress of waste matter over
the 45 degree inclined surface, be impeded for any reason.
To accomplish this, needle like pieces of non-oxidizing metal
are attached by nylon line to the contoured sides of the
tank's bottom, at a point just under the false bottom. The
nylon line is of sufficient length to permit movement of the
metal devices over most of the inclined surface above the
waste catchment basin. Using magnets, they can be
manipulated and moved over the inclined surface in such a
manner as to re-start the downward progress of any
immobilized waste matter into the catchment basin. The nylon
line ensures the metal cleaning devices are always
immediately accessible to manipulation by the magnets,
being at all times somewhere on the inclined surface above
2095 7~6 C
the catchment basin. Further, the nylon line ensures the
devices do not fall into the catchment basin where retrieval
with the magnets would be difficult and perhaps impossible.
. Fitting the catchment basin with a device designed to ensure
its waste matter content is completely expelled when the
gravity drainage tap is opened. The embodiment of this
device is as set out in the attached drawings. The device
could take several forms but its sole operational -~
requirement is to ensure the flow created by opening the
drainage tap is along the floor of the catchment basin.
The embodiment of the invention could be physically supported
and operated in such a way that all of its structure and component
parts would be visible or it could be built into a cabinet or stand
in such a manner that its appearance would be indistinguishable
from a conventional tank or aguarium.
20957~6 ~ ~
~5. A fish tank ~ guarium as def ~ n Claims 1, 2 ~ nd 4 /
¦fitted wi ~ a device to en ~ water currents c ~ ted by op ~ ng
the dr ~nage tap are ~ cted across the ~ r of the ~ ste
ca ~ ment basin t ~ lly expel its con ~ s when was~ is being
hausted. / .
..
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Other A~lications
Thi8 invention, with modifications, might al80 have application
to municipal/regional water filtration and purification processes.
The advantage would be that the process for removal of particulate
waste matter could operate continuously without the downtime
reguired to backwash the sand used for filtration. Swimming pool
filtors might be another possibility.
Performance Testina of the Invention
A prototype of the invention wa8 built and its performance
tested against conventional aguariums in the following manner. The
prototype and two conventional control tanks were 9et up, and
operated identically. The prototype contains approximately 15
gallons of water although only 10 are acces8ible to fi8h. One of
the control tank8 wa8 a 10 gallon and the other a 15 gallon. The
same number and species (6-3inch goldfish, a dirtysome variety of
fish), were placed in each tank and fed the same food in the same ~;
20957~6 ~'~
amounts. Normal water replacement guidelines were adhered to,
i.e., 1/3 water replacement every three weeks. Actual water
replacement was .6 of a gallon twice weekly. Critical water
quality indicators, specifically PH and ammonia content,
were tested every second day. Water replaced was collected, and
suspended sediment and particulate matter allowed to settle out, so
that the cleaning and water filtration efficiencies of each tank
could be assessed.
Test results clearly showed that the performance of the
invention called "THE THINK TAN~" was significantly superior to
that of the two control tanks.
The PH of all 3 tanks started out as unacceptable, being at the
top of the PH test range. Replacement water was regulated to be in
the "ideal" PH range. Fairly quickly the PH of the prototype moved
into the "ideal" range and stayed there. There was never any
improvement in the initially unacceptable PH test reading obtained
for the 15 gallon control tank. The 10 gallon control tank briefly
approached but did not achieve the "ideal" test reading and then
went back to unacceptable at the top of the PH reading and stayed
there.
The ammonia content of all three tanks started out at zero. The
prototype reading slipped briefly to a reading of good but quickly
came back to zero and stayed there. The ammonia content in the two
control tanks progressively increased, with readings ranging from
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good through fair to poor, eventually fluctuating between fair and
poor.
No fish in the prototype died. Fish in the prototype tank
stayed healthy throughout the test period and remained so at the
time of this writing. Fish in the 10 gallon control tank
contracted fungus infections within a week, and although medicated
on 3 separate occasions, all died within 2 weeks of treatment being
initiated. After 3 weeks fish in the 15 gallon control tank
contracted a bacterial infection which was not treated. Within
another week all fish in the 15 gallon control tank died.
Waste water exhausted and saved from the prototype tank had very
significant amounts of waste matter settle out on the bottom.
Waste water saved from the 2 control tanks had almost no waste
matter settle out. The results show that amounts of waste matter
equal to that which settled out from the prototype's waste water
were still in the aquarium gravel of the 2 control tanks.
In the 2 control tanks its accumulation and subsequent
decomposition eventually caused water quality to break down and the
aquariums' fish to become diseased and to die.
Performance testing will continue to thoroughly validate initial
findings. The two control tanks will be stripped down, cleaned,
rostocked with goldfish and monitored in relation to the continued
operation of the prototype.
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All indications are however, that the prototype will emerge as
far superior to any aquariums in the 5 - 25 gallon capacity range
that are currently available.
