Fun project - new plumbing for sunsun 302 canister

I really like my sunsun canisters, but its no secret that the spraybar and intake tubes are disappointing

My goal for this project is to make a sturdy pvc spraybar and intake set, incorporate a pair of inline heaters, and spend nearly no money. I've got plenty of old heaters and pvc fittings laying around.

If anyone has a good idea what size heaters I should run please chime in. 2x sunsun 302 canisters 264gph (150-180 with media) on a 40b tank


We're gonna start with the intakes. I've got a pile of old tetra whisper 60 / second nature 4 filter parts. So instead of buying neat little strainers from a reef supply website, I'm getting creative.

I like using grey pvc conduit for intake tubes, if the krylon paint chips off, there isnt glaring white spots on the tubes. Conduit is weaker than sched40 plumbing pvc, but for this application it doesn't matter. Don't plumb your house with conduit. Unless you want to, thats cool too.


The whisper intakes slipped nicely over the 1/2" pvc, I put a dab of silicone in between the two pipes to ensure years of carefree service.

So my main challenge was the inline heater.
I got one of these 1/2" pvc compression unions. The outer diameter of my aqueon glass heaters is about 3/4" and fits snugly with the rubber bushing of the union.


Do some fine machining to get the manufacturing marks off of the butchered union

Next we'll get our happy little dremel out and "machine" (I use the term loosely) a slightly larger hole in this bushing. The bushing is 1.25" to .75" I chose to use 1.25" for the body of the heater because 1.25" is the unsung hero of the pvc world



Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Just a heads up I had to drive around a little to find a solid pvc bushing. Charlotte pipe and foundry makes one. The "skeleton" bushing just wont cut it.


The bushing and the union mated. It took some messing around, the purple primer swells the pvc a little bit and made things not fit as good as the dry fit. So I had to machine it a little larger to account for the glue.


I had to trim the rubber bumper on the top of the heater, you can take it off, but I chose to keep it for the temperature numbers by the thermostat. I also had to remove the rubber bumper on the bottom of the heater which just pops off.


There you have it, a water tight pvc fitting for a heater.

I decided to make mini spraybars. Flow and distribution isnt a huge issue, its a planted tank, its a small tank, and its massively over filtered. The 1/3 size spray bar has 3 rows of 3/16" holes which should break up the flow good enough

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

I plan to attatch everything to the stand because I hate suction cups.


The heater/spray bars finished. Left and right side

I used 3/4" pvc for all the 90* bends to cut back on any loss of flow. Nice unions and ball valves for servicing.

The bodies of the heater modules are long enough to take a 200w heater but I think for trial purposes, I'm going to use 2x100w heaters. So even if one canister goes down, I should be able to keep the 40gal near optimum temp. I may upgrade heaters in the future, thats why I made them long.


Inside the tube.


One awesome thing is that the metric tubing 16/22mm? I dunno it's like 5/8" slips nicely over the 1/2" pvc. With some hose clamps itll be good to go. I don't have to bottle neck the flow down by using threaded hose barbs. This metric tubing also fits nice on fluval 106,206,306,406 aquastop valves. So in the future if I want to upgrade it'll require minimum effort. I believe a 2217 would also fit the bill too

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

xraycer said:

Cool DIY, Mud!

Wonder how much flow that heater installation actually impedes?

Click to expand...

Thanks

As for the heater,- I'm thinking not too much. The heater has an outer diameter of 3/4" the pipe is 1-1/4" so theres a good gap around the tube, probably more volume than the supplied tubing. I used 3/4" pvc for all the whacky Dr. Suess bends to get over the rim of thr tank.

The oem spraybar has even tighter bends and is very small, maybe 3/8" id, and it flows pretty good.

I'm actually expecting to see a gain in percieved flow over the factory piping.

Any ideas on heater sizing? I've got piles of aqueon heaters from my old man's fishroom. It looks like I robbed a fish store

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Little update.


I added threaded couplers in the body of the heater module so I can disassemble it and clean out the inside. Got the hoses on.

Everything is ready to go, just waiting on some glue and paint to cure another week before I do anything in the water. You can't be too careful



Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Geeeeeez, this is the slowest going project of my life! Ive got a 3 week old daughter so I'm limited to sneaking in 15 minute "basement sessions" while I'm supposed to be doing the laundry. And by laundry I mean a million soiled tiny sets of clothes.

All in all progress isn't too bad considering I've got about an hour of free time a week haha.


As a little insurance policy, I used some 2 part NSF potable water safe epoxy putty (jb water weld) inside the pvc heater compression fitting. Its inside the bushing against the inserted and glued half compression union.


Decided to paint the body of the heater modules. The stand is green, so this will be super cool.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Super sneaky. In this planted tank, nobody will be the wiser.


Drilled holes and attatched the intakes to the stand with a single conduit strap. I wrapped the bottom portion of the pvc pipe in electrical tape so the intake tubes couldnt rotate or slide against the stand or strap. I'm really surprised how sturdy and firm the plumbing is with only one strap holding each side on

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Success!

Camouflaged outlet mini spraybar

This stand is actually a 3 tier rack from the 70's. I restored it a few years ago. Gotta love the upright supports for attaching equipment or hoses


Im running the regular 150w heater in the tank for a while. I want to leak test the heaters, and make sure all the air is out of the tubes. This weekend I'll plug them in when ive got some free time to monitor the temperature. it may take some to dial it in correctly since ive got 2 heaters, and I've never used an inline heater before.

I had one leak from the body of the heater where I had a threaded coupler, it leaked even with teflon tape so I added a big fat oring.

Mission accomplished

Sent from my SCH-R950 using
MonsterAquariaNetwork App