# DIY Spray Bar



## dean (23 Apr 2019)

Hi all I’m putting a spray bar on my trigon 350 it will be situated along the front curved glass 
Making it from plumbsure 15mm pushfit pipe 
The pump is an Eheim compact + 3000 
Set on its highest at 3000 litres per hour 

I know the 15mm pipe is too small for the pump but it fits below the braces and above the water level so only bits of the fittings will show in the water which I can live with for now 

The pump is situated in the rear corner 
The spray bar with make a complete loop around the tank so pressure is evenly spread 

I need help with working out how many holes and what diameter they need to be so I just get a gentle flow down the front glass and not a high pressure jet that will cut fish in half 

The actual spray bar part is approximately 1300mm long 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Edvet (23 Apr 2019)

You could do a surface calculation with Pi squared R, but trial and error will be best in the long run, especially  with your tank ans the smaller pipe size ( which kills flowvolume)


----------



## zozo (23 Apr 2019)

Run the water trough the open 15mm pipe and see how it runs, sprays..Assume it's acceptable..

Than a formula you could use for example is:

measure the inside diamter from the 15mm tube.. Approxemately it would likely be 13?

Now convert that to square in mm²  with 1/4.π.d²

0,785x13x13= 132.665mm


Now since a hole is not a square, do the same with the intended hole..

example:

1mm hole -  0.785x1x1 = 132.6 / 0785=169 x 1mm hole

2mm hole - 0.785x2x2 = 132.6 / 3.14= 42 x 2mm hole

3mm hole - 0.785x3x3 = 132.6 /  7 = 18 x 3mm hole

Etc. etc.

Thus 18 x 3mm holes equals 1 x 13mm tube outlet square.

1300 / 18  =  every 72mm a 3mm hole

Very (very very) approximate results..


----------



## dean (23 Apr 2019)

Thanks for that guys 
It’s only temporary so it’s held it place with hot glue 






A bit messy held in place with string so I could get it level and hot glue it in place 

So I went overboard and put a 4mm hole every 25mm so a total of 44 holes was drilled into it 
And to be honest none of the jets has any force and can be stopped with my finger 
But the circulation in the tank is going to be much improved and that’s in a corner aquarium 



This was with the pump on its lowest setting 




This is on full power 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Edvet (24 Apr 2019)

These tanks are hardest to get decent flow in
Looks like you only have holes on the curved side?
Perhaps aiming them down and having two smaller flow pumps from the middle of the square sides aimed at the curved side can get you a circuar flow?


----------



## dean (24 Apr 2019)

Yes only the front curve has holes in 
Filter is at the back corner so flow gets stronger as it gets further back 
So more like a river with flow in one direction 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Edvet (24 Apr 2019)

You will need circular flow, which is hard to get in this shape ( easy in a square or elongated box).
 I would guess the best would be a horizontal flow around the middle. it would leave a dead spot in the middle, but get good flow in most other spots. Using unplanted hardscape in the middle could work.
Getting the classic flow ( over the surface nback to front, down the front, over the substrate front to back, up the back) is not possible in this shape.


----------



## Edvet (24 Apr 2019)

(getting a maxspect gyro vertical in a corner of the frontpane, pointing toward the curvature, would be a good option i guess)


----------



## dean (24 Apr 2019)

I’m waiting for lights to come on and get bright enough for a video 

The jets go down the front curved class along the whole length 



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Andrew Butler (24 Apr 2019)

Edvet said:


> You could do a surface calculation with Pi squared R





zozo said:


> Run the water trough the open 15mm pipe and see how it runs, sprays..Assume it's acceptable..
> 
> Than a formula you could use for example is:
> 
> ...



You read everywhere about this method but I found this to not work at all and had far too much area of total holes.
When I was working things out I was using a Fluval G6 filter which has a screen showing the amount of flow and if it is at 100% it would be 10,000 LPH actual flow.
The G6 uses 16mm hose so followed the above advice and there was not a lot more than a dribble came out.
The spraybar supplied with the G6 has 14 x 3mm holes which gives a total area of 98.96 (2dp) and a 16mm circle has an area of 201.06 (2dp) so the spraybar supplied by Fluval has around half the amount of area than of the supplied hose.
I think the best way is trial and error as others also advised me (and wished I'd listened to in the first place); but I had the luxury of an on screen display to help me.


----------



## dean (24 Apr 2019)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## dean (24 Apr 2019)

I’m happy with the circulation as you can see all the plants even in the far back corner are moving 

Most of the plants were added in the last week or so from sales in this forum 

I took out a big piece or wood that’s now temporarily in with my stingrays 



So it left a big hole to fill 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## zozo (24 Apr 2019)

That's why any calculation is very vague, not knowing the true turn over.. Next to head pressure is even more important.


----------



## Andrew Butler (25 Apr 2019)

zozo said:


> That's why any calculation is very vague, not knowing the true turn over.. Next to head pressure is even more important.


I've come across this video before and I questioned it then.
I'm not trying to take over the thread or argue the Fluval G6 is without its faults by a long way.

I do know from first hand experience it is by far superior to the Oase filters and a lot easier to use - just my opinion of course.

I'm also not trying to argue with this blokes findings as you can see them but I do question how he has the filter set up and several other things.......
According to Fluval the filter should be at least 50cm below water level but never more than 1.5m - as you can see in this video it is nothing like within those parameters.
If you look around 1:15 into the video you will see the aquastop lever valve (silver bit, right of the pipes) is up which means that the flow (triangle to the bottom right of the filter display) should be zero as this shuts the filter flow off, however it's showing full flow on the display - something that should not be so I think there is quite probably a fault with his (reconditioned) filter. - This does of course make you question the accuracy of the on screen flow.
Fluval say the G6 has 2460 lph pump performance and 1000ph actual flow which I think shows how much a filter looses on advertised flow rate.

As for his comments on media; well it's not that expensive by a long way.
The mechanical filtration you simply take out and rinse it under a tap with the brush or a hose. - A pressure washer from time to time sorts things out.
If you want to replace the chemical media then you simply open the canister and replace the carbon with new carbon or use Purigen.

Andrew


----------



## webworm (25 Apr 2019)

Andrew Butler said:


> I
> If you look around 1:15 into the video you will see the aquastop lever valve (silver bit, right of the pipes) is up which means that the flow (triangle to the bottom right of the filter display) should be zero as this shuts the filter flow off, however it's showing full flow on the display - something that should not be so I think there is quite probably a fault with his (reconditioned) filter. - This does of course make you question the accuracy of the on screen flow.
> Fluval say the G6 has 2460 lph pump performance and 1000ph actual flow which I think shows how much a filter looses on advertised flow rate.



I think the aquastop leaver is just being used a mechanism to enable the flow in a single action, later in the video it's clearly down.


----------



## Andrew Butler (26 Apr 2019)

webworm said:


> I think the aquastop leaver is just being used a mechanism to enable the flow in a single action, later in the video it's clearly down.


What I'm saying is on the screen it shows full flow on screen around 1:15 into the video with the aquastop lever valve up (no flow) which should not be the case.


----------



## webworm (26 Apr 2019)

Ok this is interesting, looks like there isn't actually a flow sensor.
From the Fluval FAQ

"The system measures the water flow by reading the electrical parameters of the pump, and it has been calibrated by referring to a standard application, i.e. intake and output hoses of the same length 1,5m, telescopic stem + strainer + regular cross rim device at intake, twin nozzles + regular cross rim device at output and AQUASTOP valve fully open. Different configurations may introduce different hydraulic circuit losses and consequently delay or accelerate the indication of flow reduction. A too early water flow reduction may be also caused by:

Accidentally squeezed or collapsed hosing
AQUASTOP valve lever not fully lowered
Clogged hosing or cross rim assembly
Solids, debris or bacterial mud, block water passage inside the filter or at pump outlet.
The valves of the priming system are dirty or blocked
The chemical cartridge is still inside the protective poly-bag
Filtration media block pump inlet"


----------

