Lowering Filter Current?

[Andy-lee]

Hey everyone, my tanks is a juwel vision 180 and i have a aquane 1050 external filter with a spraybar for the output along the top of the tanks. I was just wondering is there a way to lower the current as its quite strong and the fish are having to battle against it at times (swimming forward facing upwards just to keep level). I have the spray har facings straight out towards the front of the tank.
Anything i can do?
Cheers
Andy

 

[SensesFail]

Hey everyone, my tanks is a juwel vision 180 and i have a aquane 1050 external filter with a spraybar for the output along the top of the tanks. I was just wondering is there a way to lower the current as its quite strong and the fish are having to battle against it at times (swimming forward facing upwards just to keep level). I have the spray har facings straight out towards the front of the tank.
Anything i can do?
Cheers
Andy

I aim my spray bar up towards the top of the aquarium causing surface irritation is that the way you have yours? or is yours further down may be worth a go. Thats a good question because could you not just alter the outgoing valve on the canister? On my external filter you can close the valves for maintenance etc. Dont do this though until its confirmed as it will cause added pressure in the cannister with the restriction on the outgoing side. Just thought of that and can this be done?

 

[Squidward]

Not sure about your make of filter.
But I have a Fluval external which has a lever which you can use to reduce the flow rate.

 

[Andy_G]

Hi, you could use a longer spray bar, or make your own one with a piece of plastic tubing. If you increase the surface area of the water coming into the tank, ie longer spraybar with more holes, you can reduce the pressure without having to change the force of the filter.

Andy

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to reduce the flow of a canister filter, the best way to do so is with a throttle valve on the return flow path. Placing a flow restriction on the inlet side of the filter can damage the pump (impeller) by starving it of needed suction pressure. I find that throttling a return up to about half of the original flow rate can be done safely on most aquarium pumping systems. Any more restriction than that can cause some heat build up in the impeller itself and can cause possible long term damage to the impeller.
I have seldom found it necessary to restrict the flow of a filter unless I had placed a far too big filter on a tank. You can often find an angle of the return that spares the fish too much problem with flows.

 

[Andy-lee]

Cheers for the help everyone I didn't really fancy reducing the flow on the filter itself incase over time it damaged it, but Andy_G gave me an idea, what iv done it made the original holes in the spraybar larger so now it flows out easyer and much slower, the tank seems a lot calmer but still have a slight current to keep the water moving
Cheers again everyone
Andy

 

[SensesFail]

Cheers for the help everyone I didn't really fancy reducing the flow on the filter itself incase over time it damaged it, but Andy_G gave me an idea, what iv done it made the original holes in the spraybar larger so now it flows out easyer and much slower, the tank seems a lot calmer but still have a slight current to keep the water moving
Cheers again everyone
Andy

Good Idea!! Plus if you ever want to go back spray bars are not expensive to buy Glad its all sorted now!

Sometimes i think my cats are working hard to swim in places but they seem to get where they want to be they just need to work for it haha

 

[redbug]

Cheers for the help everyone I didn't really fancy reducing the flow on the filter itself incase over time it damaged it, but Andy_G gave me an idea, what iv done it made the original holes in the spraybar larger so now it flows out easyer and much slower, the tank seems a lot calmer but still have a slight current to keep the water moving
Cheers again everyone
Andy

That was what I did to slow it down you could also add extra holes along the bar and keep the flow up