spray bar

[leaffish75]

Right now i have my return line Ted off and dual return. since i got a modified AC filter ill be putting that on one side and will make my return into a single spray bar. my question is what size holes should i drill in the 1" pvc ill be using or should i leave the single duck tail?
im doing this to free my sump up. right now its a refugium and i have no room for a phosban and skimmer. the sump will house all extra pumps.

 

[dragon79]

What is the main purpose and or function of a spray bar? I tried to follow a thread once on another thread from a different forum, but there were over 35 pages + so I never made it to find out it's exact use. I was able to see a picture of one being made with little holes in it, but that's about it.

 

[Anonymous]

its a question of pressure verses flow - a spray bar will not give pressure but a mellow flow of water instead
Some people like spray bars and others not - I like them - in the archives somewhere is a pic of the "suround sound" spray bar I have on my 20 gal. This allows me to put a 400gal/hour power head on it so I have high flow (20x) but low pessure - it doesn't blow anything around just moves a lot of water.
I use 1/4 inch holes and calculate the # using simple math A=3.14r^2 x #holes to = area of PVC size ie 1" PVC = Area of .785sqin so you need about 16 holes 1/4 " (.05sqin) diameter to equal that size. hope this helps

 

[dragon79]

that sounds awesome. Would be neat to have one in my 6 gallon, but I hate DIY, lol. I had to recently repair my own Nanocustoms hood, as one of the fans failed, in the short amount of months I've owned it. Doh! Luckily I have another that I was able to put on there, but it's a real PITA to take off the hood, and get all that crap from behind my desk (wiring) and to my other working table where I can take it apart. I had to cut the fan, place the new one in, sauder it, use heat shrink rubber, and then patch it all back up for testing. Luckily I did it all right, and to most this is very easy, but to me, it was just a bummer as I'm not all into that with fans, and wires, and stuff.

Anyway, going back to spray bars, would like to see it up and going, and some video would be nice to see that good flow. If you have any johnanddawn, let me know, I'd like to view that video as well.

 

[leaffish75]

thanks.

 

[incysor]

I actually used 1/16 inch holes in the spraybar I had on my 55g, but then I had quite a few holes as it went the entire lenght of the tank. I started with 1/8" but didn't feel like it gave enough flow to help keep detritus from collecting.

I say just start with 1/16", or 1/8" holes. Test it and see if you like the flow. It's easy to make the holes a bit larger. More of a pain to start over if the holes are too big.

B