"The Romaurie-Effect"

I tested the vacuum with a venturi some 2 years ago with a small commercial water pump with venturi.Posted the result as a video on youTube and "Alan Molstad" perfected the engineering for this.He can be found on YouTube with a good explanantion on how this works.Not so easily found is a system developed in North Wales by an aquarist using an aquarium air pump modified to suck air from 1 inlet tube to remove the air from the aqarium and then return the air at the bottom to provide air bubbles in the tank.How he prevents shorting from humidity I don;t know.I tried this idea as well by placing the aie pump on a ledge at the top of the aquarium.The ledge is still visible in my video clips of the inverted aquairum. I personally like the small vac-pump method most.I am able to utilise old refrigertion microprocessors that have "failed" on their thermost feature but the defrosting control works.This gives me the time options of how many minutes duration the pump operates at what hourly interval I want.. I have also been using this principal to make a garden plant sprinkler with a n old washing machine solenoid valve fed by this processor.In refrigeration/air conditioning if the processor fails on one important parameter, it is replaced.Another fault I have discovered with these processors is that cockroaches often lay their eggs inside which eventually cause a short.This can often be be cleaned with switch cleaning spray. This idea originally came from a S.African doctor who used a clear plastic tube with 90degree elbows at each end to link 2 aquariums.He was filling the tube in a bath of water, sealing the ends and lifting the assembly into place and then removing the end seals under water.I applied the vacuum idea to this to negate the lifting and filling part.I have sent him details of all my R&D but have never heard back from him. The posibilities are endless.It also graphically demonstrates the practical uses of a vacuum.When I was at school, it was something taught without practcal demonstration.Accept the heating of a tin can, closing the lid, and then plunging said tin can into a bucket of cold water and watching the can crush by the created vacuum.I believe the best demonstration of how this works can be seen on my YouTube video clip of "pulling the vacuum" without a vac pump.I use a semi-rigid plastic tube to suck the air out out the inverted aquarium thus filling it with water. Never a dull moment!

A standard aquarium air line non-return valve is used to prevent loss of vacuum.The non-return being in the direction of the aquarium.

I have tried by way of my video clips to lay-out all the moves to set-up either a linking-tunnel or inverted aquarium.The refrigeration pumps are not big expensive commercial vacuum-pumps that cost an "arm & a leg".This was the first thing I had to prepare after the company vac-pump nearly came to grief the first time I pulled the vacuum and the water shot back into the pump. Spent 3 hours flushing out the pump with special flushing oil.On my clips, I have shown how to use a small ex-refrigerator pump to do-the- do. First decide if you want to build a linking tunnel or inverted aquarium in a base aquarium. The latter is by far the more simple.Most glaziers balk at the prospect of buiding the tunnel without a CNC glass cutter to pr-fabricate the sides of the construction. Eventually I will prepare a step by step plan to make the simplest form of inverted aquarium.

The small compressors, 1/4h.p. or 3/8 h.p. are really quiet. most of the background noise on my videos is water flowing from the filter. And the feckin' neighbours! The Fishfreedom guy is a Mr.Ho in Singapore.He "welcomes comments on his system to improve it". I have sent him 3 emails detailing findings from compressor tests and air pump tests but have not received any reply.

I have built several air compressors using 3/8h.p. Tecumseh CAE4440. These little refrigeration compressors are real "work-horses". During the summer, if one of these starts "seizing", the policy is to replace them and overhaul the condensor rather than "feck" about with the old one.If I manage to aquire the removed compressor, as opposed to the toewrags who can't get to the scrap-dealer quick enough, I change the oil after flushing with WD40, and test run them. If the windings are intact, "bobs yer ferkin!" You can then assemble a base, resrvoir tank and pressure control. It is ideal for small paint spraying jobs. The choice of reservoir is a bit of a "sticking" point.The ideal choice is a discarded freon bottle.These are steel construction, with pressures up to 450PSI when filled with their original charge of freon gas.However, they come with a warning not to use as "air tanks". And in the US, it comes with a $25000 fine and incarceration if you're caught doing it. Fortunately in Eilat on the Red Sea where I live and work, most of the "locals" can't read English. So I have built and tested to destruction several of these.As the operational pressure is only 120 PSI, it is just a quetion of how long it takes for the condense, if not drained regularly, to "eat" thru the tank. 2.5 years of daily use. And then it didn't go with a "bang"! but rather a small hissing sound as it sprang a leak. I have to "dig" thru my video files for a clip of the unit. When I figure-out how to post this with my "destructable", I will post it. A question: I posted an "instructable" on the basics for building a "Romaurie Effect" aquarium. How do I link this to that? Romaurie

I did try a diaphragm air pump fitted into the upper part of the inverted aquarium on a glass shelf.It worked fine for 24hours by which time the condense had blocked the air inlet on the pump.Cleaning it is a fairly labourious job of pumping the water out into another container and so lowering the level of the vacuumed section until you can lift it off.I remember years ago seeing a twin pistoned air pump with a large silver-coloured wheel passing thru an induction motor.A friend had this on his aquarium set-up for many years requiring minimal maintenance.I believe a combination of production cost and oil contamination might have been the reason for this type of air pump to be replaced by the glut of low-cost diaphragm air pumps on the market today. I thought the twin-pistoned pump with a non-return valve could have been a viable soloution to the combination vacuum-pump/air-pump required for the Romaurie-Effect. I notice that video is "linked" to the "youTube" clip on this site by the title "Romaurie Effect": Revelation. [the "revelation" was the fact that enough air remained in the upper part of the vacuumed aquarium to "scavenge" and re-cycle into the bottom of the vacuumed aquarium thus not displacing water by introducig air from outside the closed circuit] This idea was suggested to me by Alan Molstad on youtube.He even enclosed a video response to "hammer-home" his idea that the space at the top must have air.I had been labouring under the theory that the water was held in by a vacuum, thus no air was present. I find the process of trying new ideas to further this effect most absorbing.Along the way I realise now I have hit upon "spin-offs" from my R&D like the home-made vac-pumps and air compressors that are useful to many other folks.Processes that I had been taking for granted in my "single-minded" obsession with my project.Thus it was a pleasure to stumble upon "instructables" where these "spin-offs" can be detailed for those that want them. "Col Ha Cavod", as the "locals" would say.

If the compressor is run "unchecked", it can produce up to 450psi. At this point, assuming you have not fitted an "auto-reset" low pressure control set for 120psi, it will eventually cut-out on its "Klixon", a bi-metal sensing switch activated either by excess current or temperature.

do-it -yourself vac-pump.

Latest {today} development on "Romaurie-Effect".

I went to the doctor and asked he could give me something for "wind" . He gave me a kite!

How do I post one of my videos here? I have them on my pc.This one included. It really is an on-going project. I have today, re-vamped the 1/14th.h.p. comp to suck the air from the aquarium thru a "jam-jar" and then thru a 1/4inch filter drier and non-return valve before returning to the base of the inverted aquarium.The effect is amazing! A "full- blown" curtain of air bubbles in the vacuumed inverted aquarium, with NO DISPLACEMENT of water. This is a question many aquarists have posted. Prompted mainly by a system marketed in Singapore and sold as a package under the name of "Fishfreedom".Nothing is "given-away" by Mr. Ho's videos on "youTube".However he "welcomes " comments on his very impressive system, but has, as yet to reply to my question if it uses the vacuum principal. I first assembled and tested this system in February 2004 and posted my findings on "Fiskeepers Forum". The idea was to guage response from aquarists. I followed this with a clip on "youTube" of my "aquarium-linking-tunnel".It is still there as " The Romaurie-Effect" Genesis SVCD.This details the work me and my son Rom carried out in January 2004 to test the principal, originally with copper-tube, and when this worked "forking-out" money to buy the glass and test the "real-thing". Well, it worked! Everything you see now, be it Mr.Ho's "Fishfreedom" or the "Romaurie-Effect", stemmed from that experiment in Jan 2004.I was "pressed" then to patent the principal. I was quoted $20,000 as a "minimum" figure to research and document this "effect" by a patents lawyer who would have had to call on the services of various proffesinals to produce this patent. It is recorded as my "intellectual-property". Its potential uses are far more than just the aesthetics of domestic aquaria.A simulated "tide-pool" and educational tool to graphically demonstrate the the fact that a full vacuum will lift a column of water, 30 inches or 76 centimeters to mention 2 "spin-offs" from the concept. Romaurie.

The upper aquarium sits in the open lower aquarium.Its large surface area allows for osmosis.The fishes movement from the lower to upper aquarium, displaces water and returns water all the time.There is also a 2000lt/hr. water pump directing a flow into the upper aquarium. The small pump at the rear re-circulates air from the partial vacuum at the top of the inverted aquarium.