Spray bar ?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
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doomiedee

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Nov 13, 2011
5,429
3
62
Waterbury
Well I've been thinking of upgrading my filter a little. I have a sponge filter running on an air pump. My wife has been complaining about the bubbling sound from the air so I've been trying to think of something quieter. I do realize buying a hob will be a lot better but I don't want to use a hob cause this tank is a breeding / fry grow out tank. So here's my idea. I'm plan on get and connecting a power head to the sponge filter then the outflow will be cover with a PVC spray bar filled with bio-max filter floss to collect bb and bio filter. Will this work?


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Just take a piece of square filter sponge (like aquaclear sponge) and make a little starter hole in it. Then place it over the intake of the HOB filter, making sure its snug, like putting on a sock. Then voila, no more fry suck up. :)
 
I thought of that and have done it before. I like the ability to customize the spray bar is what I like.


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doomiedee said:
W
..connecting a power head to the sponge filter..
..outflow will be cover with a PVC spray bar..
Click to expand...

At first thought I would say you couldn't do both. On one hand you would need to use a very small power head in order to ensure the flow rate is slow enough through the sponge, if you're using the sponge the way it was designed. On the other hand, a power head this small would likely have too much head loss and would not have enough force to push through the spray bar.

On second thought, a MaxiJet 400 (110GPH) might be too fast of a flow when connected to a sponge, but connecting a perfectly sized spray bar to the top would add enough head loss to slow it to the optimal rate.

The trick would be finding that perfect size. So when you make your PVC spray bar, don't glue it together, you'll not have enough pump force to break it anyway. Use 6" sections connected with with unions. This way, you can add, or remove sections to increase, or reduce the flow rate.

This is actually a great idea to reduce noise in sponges. I hope it works.
 
sincebeen said:
At first thought I would say you couldn't do both. On one hand you would need to use a very small power head in order to ensure the flow rate is slow enough through the sponge, if you're using the sponge the way it was designed. On the other hand, a power head this small would likely have too much head loss and would not have enough force to push through the spray bar.

On second thought, a MaxiJet 400 (110GPH) might be too fast of a flow when connected to a sponge, but connecting a perfectly sized spray bar to the top would add enough head loss to slow it to the optimal rate.

The trick would be finding that perfect size. So when you make your PVC spray bar, don't glue it together, you'll not have enough pump force to break it anyway. Use 6" sections connected with with unions. This way, you can add, or remove sections to increase, or reduce the flow rate.

This is actually a great idea to reduce noise in sponges. I hope it works.
Click to expand...

I planned for the flow and all that. Sorry I didn't really explain but it's basically sponge prefilter with the intake of power head then out to the PVC filled with filter floss and filter media. So the pump would have to be strong enough to push the water out thru the media. This tank is ment for fry so I don't want a very fast flow rate.


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