Lily pipe or spraybar

[Tylermn93]

So i have a 50 gallon 36x18x18 tank high tech and for a couple months i stuggled with flow in certain areas. my lily pipe is on the right side about 6 inches away from the back and the flow is blowing on my one rotala bush which has been driving me crazy for some time. My filter is an eheim 2073 and completely forgot it came with a spray bar. The spray bar is mabye 15 inches or so long and i was thinking of swapping the lily pipe out and have the spray bar on the right side of my tank. Should this give me enough flow?

 

[EnderUK]

Maybe, try it, will take about 10 minutes to swap it out. The spray bar all along the back is th best soultion if your filter can kick out enough flowrate. I personally find the nozzles best myself as I find the flow less restrictive and I have some control over the output direction, this is important for me as I want at least a bit of a quite area on the surface for my Pearl Gouramis.

 

[parotet]

Hi Tylermn93, IMO if you want to have a good flow using lily pipes you really need a powerful filter, probably more that when you're using a spraybar. This is due to a less uniform flow (compared to a spraybar, so you need to ensure that the jet is strong enough to move the water all over the tank) and also due to real flow rate the pipes need to perform ok. Have a look to the online ADA catalogue, you will see that they are one of the few suppliers that recommend a flow rate for each lily pipe. It happened to me that I tried to use a lily pipe outflow (not ADA but similar) that needed at least 360 lph but the real flow I measured in my filter was lower...

However also notice that (if I am not wrong) your filter delivers around 1,000 lph, in a 50x4= aprox. 200 liters. If you follow the 10x rule, you'd need at least 2,000 lph. So, I would try to fix this issue before because it is quite probable that the spraybar won't deliver the flow needed (the jets must hit the front glass).

Coming back to the lily pies, if you have a look to some pro aquascapers, it is quite common to use two filters (each one with their lily pipes) in such tanks. This way you have plenty of flow and you ensure a proper water circulation by placing one outlet on the right foreground and the other on the left background.

Jordi

 

[Tylermn93]

Currently cant afford to upgrade my filter yet but how about if i moved my lily pipe up to the front right side and moved my powerhead right where to lily pipe is to add more flow? Currently i have my lily pipe back right side and my powerhead front left side which is working but the main problem is the lily pipe blowing on my rotalas. I did the opposite with lily pipe front right and powerhead back left which in turn just made the same situation but on another plant. Im gonna move my lily pipe to the front right and also add the koralia powerhead underneath to increased the flow so it wraps back around. Sound like a good idea?