Custom Spray Bar help???

[CraigG]

So I have a reef ready 75 with a sump. With Plants, Discus and other fish as well.

Powering my sump is an Aqua Rio 2100 Plus (output 692 GPH). So i'm trying to slow down the flow. I have a ball valve on it but I'm not sure if having it turned down for a long period of time is going to put stress on the pump.

So I'd like to make my own spary bar to try and spread out the water so its not as strong of a current.

I already tried making my own spray bar. I bought a 5ft piece of PVC. Cut it so that it was across the whole back of my tank from the return pipe. I drilled holes every inch.

It worked except that it was too noisy since it was splashing into the tank. With the overflow the PVC wasn't in the tank so it splashed down.


Well I came up with a new idea not sure if anyone has tried it to give me pointers or let me know if this would work.

Use the same length PVC that I had but this time put it onto my table saw and cut a 1/8 inch line all the way through one side with a cap at the end (think of it "C" with a cap at the end).

Would this spray across or would it just trickle into the tank?


I currently don't have anything visible in my tank other then Plants,Discus and driftwood and am trying to keep it this way.

Everything is in the sump, or overflow box.

The picture is my current setup on the output.

[tcfish]

Don't drive yourself nuts , power it down if you want they used to come with a crappy valve that you could put on them if you wanted to power them down ,just make sure you do it on the return not the intake.Also keep your eye out for a good pump like a mag drive or a quiet one ,rios # well I wont go into the quality of them but I would keep my eye open. Your slit all the way across the pvc will not work, better off with holes drilled down it ,better off just throttle it down let return go against a side wall to were you think you are running enough though your filter.Also don't believe that rating there is a lot of factors that will slow that rate down ,also don't forget if you want plants you need a flow to go across the tank to nourish the plants

[DiscusOnly]

Did you direct the holes to the back of the tank (on the glass at an angle)? Don't direct it straight down.

My only pointer with the 2nd way is if you are going to do a cut with the table saw, I would angle it a bit.

[Tropical Haven]

Go with a smaller pump, if you use a valve at the end of your discharge to turn it down you could possibly dead head your pump.