Fluval w/Home made spray bar

[mj98dakota]

I am new to aquariums (going on three weeks) and have never posted on a forum before but this forum looks so helpfull.

I have a 30 gallon 36 inch tank. I bought the Fluval 204, think it is an excellent filter. The guy at the fish store was not a fan of air stones, he felt it was too commercial and did not do much. He said the better way to provide the oxygen is to use the filter and surface agitation. That sounds like a good idea but the water return from the Fluval was too noisey, the splashing could be heard throughout the house, it was right at the water level.
Anyway I was reading online about a bunch of stuff and it seemed that a spraybar was the way to go. The problem is that I could not find one, no stores have them.
So I decided to make one myself after reading about something similar on antoher site. I used 1 inch PVC pipe that was made for potable water. I have the return from the fiter return on the left corner of the tank and the pvc run horizontal accross the entire lenght of the tank in the back except for manybe 3-4 inches on the left there the intake and returns are located. I drilled small holes (don't remeber the size) one inch apart the entire lenght.
The holes are pointed towards the fron of the tank and sliightly down, this creates good surface agitation and forces air bubbles into the water a few inches. I am confident the the water has good oxygen. The fish are fine, they actually look happier and are more active zipping around more now that i put the pvc spraybar up, I think the current from the Fluval jet was too much, the smaller fish use to hide in the coner where there was not much current and now they are all over the place.

I do have one queston however. How do I know if my current /circulation is adequate? When I feed them, the flake food quickly gets pushed to the bottom of the tank because of the water from the spray bar, is that a good sign? Also, how do I know if the current is good in the corners.

When I get a chance I will post a picture of he setup if anyone is interested.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[rvm]

I found that angling the spray bar up towards the surface is better as it directly agitates the surface then. I try to have all my filters disturbing the surface one way or another either by a spray bar or just by letting the water fall in from a couple of inches up!
Fluval 204's are rated up to 44g so your 30g tank should be no problem for the filter.
If you angle the spray bar up, then the food won't get pushed to the bottom of the tank which is probably better depending on what fish you have. and as for the current, you don't specifically need a current unless your fish require it, and a spray bar will move the water across the tank more evenly than a normal filter will anyway!!

 

[skyler]

you could also use the aquastop while feeding so the food doesnt get moved around at all