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RDTigger

RDTigger

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 28, 2009
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It amazes me the incredible builds and great creative minds here. The pics of huge and ornate tanks is awesome.


As I am studying and getting ready to work on my first "n00b" tank I cannot find an authoritative DIY for a sound Intake/spray bar combination for all the canister filters given away in the world. All I see are PVC wonders that sap the juice from a filters main power... Killing it prematurely.

I cannot find a proven way to build a nice spray bar and intake pieces fora 5/8 tubed fluval 403... Anyone willing to work with me will get a person who is willing to follow the instructional and incorporate the DIY guide into my aquarium plumbing...:)

Sick of looking at $20/each for an intake or spray bar...:screwy:
 
RDTigger;3198719; said:
It amazes me the incredible builds and great creative minds here. The pics of huge and ornate tanks is awesome.


As I am studying and getting ready to work on my first "n00b" tank I cannot find an authoritative DIY for a sound Intake/spray bar combination for all the canister filters given away in the world. All I see are PVC wonders that sap the juice from a filters main power... Killing it prematurely.

I cannot find a proven way to build a nice spray bar and intake pieces fora 5/8 tubed fluval 403... Anyone willing to work with me will get a person who is willing to follow the instructional and incorporate the DIY guide into my aquarium plumbing...:)

Sick of looking at $20/each for an intake or spray bar...:screwy:
Click to expand...
I don't understand what you mean by "PVC wonders that sap the juice from a filter's main power." As long as your intake is wide enough (probably at least 1/2" internal diameter), you won't be killing any pumps. A spray bar is just a tube with holes drilled in it. You'll just have to experiment with the size of the holes. You won't hurt a canister by restricting the output, only the input.
PVC will work fine for all of it.
 
If your making an intake from pvc parts to a canister you can just make the intake U shape bend and then put a barb and use flexible hosing down to the canister. Same for the return spray bar. As far as pvc pipes causing enough friction to heat up the water I'm not so sure about that. How much could that raise the temperature?
 
brianhellno;3199813; said:
If your making an intake from pvc parts to a canister you can just make the intake U shape bend and then put a barb and use flexible hosing down to the canister. Same for the return spray bar. As far as pvc pipes causing enough friction to heat up the water I'm not so sure about that. How much could that raise the temperature?
Click to expand...
It doesn't.

All the kinetic energy the pump is producing is being dissipated as heat one way or another.

You're not going to notice a bit of difference. Just use PVC.
 
brianhellno;3199813; said:
If your making an intake from pvc parts to a canister you can just make the intake U shape bend and then put a barb and use flexible hosing down to the canister. Same for the return spray bar. As far as pvc pipes causing enough friction to heat up the water I'm not so sure about that. How much could that raise the temperature?
Click to expand...

You explaination for using PVC and flexible hose connected with barbed fittings is spot on.
You are being very nice by saying you are not sure about PVC pipe causing enough friction to heat up the water though.
The point is irrelevent and is not a real and noticable problem especially when using a Fluval 304 which comes with ribbed hoses.
The point being that the standard ribbed hoses hinder flow more than the PVC would.
[FONT=&quot]Frictional heating from water flow in an aquarium would be a great problem to have but it has a minuscule effect in reality.[/FONT]
 
heat from pvc? i have never actually heard of someone being worried about that. :grinno: thats it, im selling my heaters and trading em for some pvc!
 
The heat from the piping of PVC came from an article i read. They may have been thinking more along the lines of a true pump instead of a canister filter.

I am worried about the 90 degree turns with PVC.. I have not found the right adapter to go from the smooth flexible into a PVC build. Mainly the barbs to create clean lines.


I have 5/8 hose on my 403 and have not found the build i like for a filtration piping from the canister to the tank...
 
If you're worried about the 90 degree angles restricting flow you could always make the bends larger than the rest of the tubing, but I don't think it's an issue. Canister filters are aided by gravity (from the intake) so as long as the PVC diameter is larger than the intake to the filter there should be no worries. I would think that the most restriction in a canister is actually in the filter itself. In order to remove small particles there has to be some restriction.

For a spray bar, you could either drill holes and use the trial and error method, or just calculate the area of the tubing and match that with the number and size of holes throughout the spraybar.
 
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