# custom spray bar help



## discusdan (13 May 2013)

Hey all

I made this DIY spray bar a few weeks ago.
see this thread
1 spray bar 2 filters. | UK Aquatic Plant Society

It was my first attempt at a spray bar and its working ok but I want to see if I can improve it.

To my surprise the heat shrink I used on my current spray bar is working fine with no problems at all.

But I've found some black 21.5mm pipe and fittings which I'll use this time round.

The main thing I want to improve with the new spray bar is flow intensity. but I'm not sure how best to go about it.

Do I need more holes?
less holes?
bigger holes?
smaller holes?
rounder holes........
or can it only be improved with a more powerful pump?

my current spray bar has 2.5mm holes every 25mm and the flow is ok but i'd like it to to be stronger.

To my thinking if I use more smaller holes this will give stronger flow?

so I was thinking of putting 1.5mm holes every 15mm?

have I got this right or do I in fact need bigger holes further apart?

any help is much appreciated.


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## foxfish (13 May 2013)

I would suggest you arm yourself with some electrical tape, a selection of drill bits & a few lengths of overflow pipe (21.5mm).
It is so cheap you can experiment by drilling holes & taping up holes until you find what you want.


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## brycie1978 (13 May 2013)

Could you not just make 1 spraybar & get a Y piece to connect the two filters onto the return.

This post should have been on your other post.

ooop's


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## Anthony89 (17 May 2013)

Sorry to hijack. But when using plastics elbows for the 21.5mm pipe, what product did you use to stick them? I plan on having ago on making a spray bar this weekend.


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## foxfish (17 May 2013)

PVC pipe requires a solvent glue, readily available at any pipe supply shop (B&Q for instance)


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## Anthony89 (17 May 2013)

Assuming its safe in the aquarium. How long would I leave it to dry before installing?


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## sa80mark (17 May 2013)

When I set up my fish room all the pipe work was glued using bostick solvent weld and I never had any issues in 2 years of use. just leave it 24 hours to dry 

Mark


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## biffster (17 May 2013)

i use hot melt glue gun


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## Anthony89 (17 May 2013)

Thanks mark


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## foxfish (17 May 2013)

I guess you could use various glues but polypipe is the standard method throughout the industry, the glue works by melting the two surfaces together to form a permanent bond. Polypipe Solvent cement 250ml on eBay!
It takes about 30 second to form a bond & is permanent withing a few minuets, I am not sure about the time required to become totally inert possibly 24 hours but personally I would feel safe after an hour.
Polypipe is the glue to use for all pressure fitting joints but for fittings inside the tank where a 100% watertight seal is not required then superglue is safe to use.
With 21.5 PVC overflow pipe you probably dont need to glue any joints that are underwater inside the tank as the fittings are quite a good tight push fit & this can help if you want to remove & clean the spray bar but this depends on the design?
Just make certain any external joints are solvent welded.


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## Anthony89 (17 May 2013)

Thanks im gonna get a few bits from the plumbeds gear on site. Free spray bar for me lol


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## discusdan (25 May 2013)

Right got the new spray bar sorted finally.

I went with black pipe and 90 deg elbows same as before. This time I used 2mm holes every 30mm apart. I also put two holes on the corner of the elbows as the spray bar doesn't quite fit the hole length of the tank so i'm hoping these holes will push water along the sides of the tank. I used silicone to hold it all together and used the green 16/22 tube to fit it to the fluval hose as before.

I also managed to not use a connection in the middle of the spray bar, instead I sanded a bit of bottle cork down so it was a really tight fit inside the pipe then pushed it into position to the middle of the pipe. Not a massive deal but it makes the spray bar a lot tidier.

Just finished installing it and I can already see the flow is better, the plants are moving about a lot more.

So it seems smaller holes spaced slightly further apart worked for me.

Quick pic of it before installing. I'll add another one later of it in the tank once the lights come on.


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## discusdan (28 May 2013)

just a quick pic from my phone.


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## foxfish (28 May 2013)

Nice phone camera!


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## discusdan (1 Jun 2013)

Haha cheers, though the phone is about 7 years old! surprised its still working to be honest


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## flygja (3 Jun 2013)

I'm working on a custom spraybar myself made of acrylic. From what I can gather, the total cross sectional area of all the holes combined should be equal to the total cross sectional area of the filter tubing to get similar water current. This is all internal cross section of course. If you want less water current, then drill more or bigger holes to increase the area to greater than tubing area. If you want more then drill less or smaller holes.

Hope that makes sense.


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