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Spray bar question

E

Eltanko1982

Seedling
Joined
1 Mar 2014
Messages
10
Hi all, I've just been over and introduced myself in the other forum so here's my first question. I'm going for a spray bar an my tank and have ordered a glass inflow pipework (just to get me from the rear of the tank over in to the tank). From here I'm going to use flex clear pvc tube to connect to some acrylic pipe that I have ordered.
My questionis on the holes I'm going to dremel in to the acrylic, obviously the accumulative size of these cant be greater than that of the outlet pipe. I understand some surface agitation is good but too much can interfere with co2, so my plan is to drill 3 or 4 holes for surface agitation and the rest for tank flow, probably about 20 degrees from horizontal (slightly downwards toward the front).
How does this sound, good/bad/indifferent.....?
 
This is not a good idea. Uniform flow is the target. All deviations perturbs the flow. If the bar is mounted just under the surface it will provide the proper level of surface agitation.

Cheers,
 
Hi thanks for the reply, ok then point taken. Moving on then I can buy a glass spray bar that will leave a 3.5" gap either end or I can make a acrylic spray bar to fit exactly, also giving me customisation on hole sizes placement etc. would you say acrylic is the way to go in my situation.
Outflow size 13mm, 132mm2 ish area so I'm guessing 9 or 10x2mm holes at 12mm2 each...........?
 
Can I just sneak in here and slightly hijack the thread please, just to save starting another which is basically the same question.

I'm just about to drill my 1 metre spraybar but have no idea of size and amount of holes needed. I don't just want to randomly jump in drilling holes. The spraybar is 12mm OD which joins onto the 12mm ID outlet tube. Do I just work out the area of the 12mm outlet and then make sure all my holes match up to this?...or the area of the spraybar which has a 8mm ID? Thanks.
 
It's ok, I've jumped in and gone ahead lol (I can't edit the last post for some reason)

I went with the 12mm outlet, meaning an area of 113mm2 which equates to 9 holes @ 4mm. I may tweak this though, more holes smaller size.

Cheers.
 
DIY spraybars require a bit of experimentation. Start with a few pieces of cheap PVC and see what works, then transfer the hole pattern to the more expensive material.

Cheers,
 
@eltanko - Finished my acrylic bar and it is now in. It's absolutely perfect from every hole all the way along using the same input/output method. IMO acrylic is the way to go. Not only can you customise the size but also the type of flow.

If you end up going with acrylic, my advice would be to consider what type of flow you actually want before you start drilling. I know the same amount of water is coming out regardless, but I wanted/needed a more aggressive flow. My calculations led me to 9x4mm holes or 16x3mm holes. I went for the 16x3mm holes and the flow is quite tame TBH even though it's kicking out 2000lph (allegedly) I should have gone for the 9 holes to give me a bit more pressure/stronger flow and hopefully more movement where I wanted it.

Good luck with yours and if you need any help, shout up. I now consider myself a spraybar expert :lol: o_O
 
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