# Splitting the outlet



## Chris Stokes (31 Mar 2017)

Evening all,

Has anyone ever tried splitting the outlet hose from a canister filter in two and running two lily pipes into the tank? I should imagine it could be beneficial in terms of increased flow providing your filter is powerful enough.

Cheers.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (31 Mar 2017)

Not totally sure but I think many people have tried this before. I think rather than doubling the flow one cancels out the other so not a good move.


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## Ed.Junior (31 Mar 2017)

They would not cancel each other, but it is way easier to just add a circulation pump.

From my experience, it is not worth it. Too much work for so so results. 

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## Zeus. (31 Mar 2017)

Yes and no, I have split the outlet to enable it to fit to my inlet for a 500l room divider tank. They rejoin on a 25mm spay bar, then the fitting supports the spray bar. Plus the spray bar can easily be removed and can have two 25mm returns - which I plan to be trying out soon.
Setting up the plumbing has been a bit off a challenge to say the least but flow is good, but I have a fluval FX6 plus an Ehiem 3000+ on independent line.


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## akbar19942k10 (14 May 2017)

Ed.Junior said:


> They would not cancel each other, but it is way easier to just add a circulation pump.
> 
> From my experience, it is not worth it. Too much work for so so results.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk



I agree not too mention that you'll have an additional hose and lily pipe to clean on top of the cost of a lily pipe which don't come cheap!
Get yourself a Hydor koralia nano circulation pump instead, better yet get yourself a second hand one if you can for a fraction of the cost.


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## zozo (14 May 2017)

It could benefit circulation even tho it might cut the actual flow speed in half.. But over all the L/H will stay about the same.. You should only make sure to use a Y splitter and place it as close as possible to the lily pipes and make both pieces the excact same length and follow the excact same route. Water takes the route of least resicstance, so this should be equal to both outlets or otherwise one will give more than the other..  

How it will work is trail and error. Could do the same with the inlets..


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## akbar19942k10 (14 May 2017)

On second thoughts i guess you could save yourself the running costs of the circulation pump in the long run by doing the split.


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## AverageWhiteBloke (15 May 2017)

AverageWhiteBloke said:


> Not totally sure but I think many people have tried this before. I think rather than doubling the flow one cancels out the other so not a good move.



Just realised op was running two lilly pipes off one filter. For some reason I thought it was one lilly pipe off two filters


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## Bowman (3 Sep 2020)

zozo said:


> How it will work is trail and error. Could do the same with the inlets


Old thread but if I did 2 inlets via a y splitter would I have to reduce the pipe diameter to keep decent suction as I think I read somewhere that if you increase diameter you lose velocity. Would this be true as you would have for example 2 19mm pickup points feeding the same 19mm inlet?


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## hypnogogia (3 Sep 2020)

Your overall flow will remain the same, albeit 50% at each intake.  I’m not sure that velocity is of concern at the suction side, whereas on the pressure side it often is to ensure a jet of water that creates more turbulence for co2 distribution.


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