Spray Bar Idea

[Hara]

I am wondering if this will work, or if anyone has tried anything similar. I had thought to get a pond size submersible pump (1200 gph?) and make a spraybar that went back and forth across the back of the tank. (kind of like the coils in a car radiator). I had thought that if we made the spraybar out of small enough pvc, there would be enough pressure to maybe have four rows. Would this be an efficient way to keep water moving through the rock?

Go ahead and shred away at this idea...point out the fundamental flaws if there are any and then I can adapt it to your suggestions

[maiceman]

This would work fine but it is more of how it looks vs the benefit. You would have to play with the hole diameter and number to get enough back pressure to fill the pipe and have all holes seeing flow.... Something you will probably have to do outside your tank. Remember the larger the total cross sectional area of the holes ... the lower the velocity of the water. I think I will stay with a couple of diversion ports and a couple of power heads on mine.

[Anemoneman]

I think a spray bar is a good idea and would work given enough flow (like 1200 gph). However, I don't think you want/need multiple stacked spraybars. One spraybar of sufficient diameter (1"?) with holes drilled at different positions along the bar, 45 deg, 60 deg, 90 deg, etc. would give flows eminating from the spraybar in all directions. I think it would work twice as good if you split the spraybar in half and used a SCWD to alternate flow from one spray bar to the other. Flow from the 1200 gph pump would cause the SCWD to oscillate quickly (I think) producing a pulsed flow of about 5 seconds in duration.
Here's a guy who actually uses a SCWD and loves it. http://www.lunchbucket.org/SCWD.htm

Mark

[reefrunner69]

I like Marks suggestion, I think in the scenario you put out, it would make maintenance a bear! Four rows would go way down the back of the tank, one thing about spraybars is the holes clog. I think with Marks idea of running two with a squid, the oscillation would prevent or slow the clogging.

[AmekaAquatics.C]

I run a DIY spray-bar in my system.

I got a Rio 1700 and about 10-14 inches of PVC. I cap'ed one end, than drilled 3 sets of holes. One just offset from dead-center, one just below dead-center, and one pointing straight down (to help with current along the back of the tank).

I choose the Rio 1700 because of two reasons:

(1) It comes with an adapter to easly connect to standard PVC

(2) My math figured it would be the best to supply a good bit of circulation, without blowing my fish out of the tank.


I've had it running for months, without any problems. I'm actually thinking of developing a simular system for a 130 tank I'm setting up. However, rather than using internal Rio's, I'm going to go with a larger external return pump (maybe the MAK 5) so I can have a powerhead free tank. Between this spray bar, and SCWD (aka: "Squid"), I'm thinking I'll be able to have a rocking circulation system.