Spraybar For Fx5

[chokko]

Been playing with making a horizontal spraybar for the FX5, similar to tutorials on other forums, for my 5' cory only tank. I am using "20mm" PVC (even though the inner diameter measures 25mm, whats the go with that??). Given that the inner diameter of the fx5 pipes is about 1 inch (25mm)...i calculate the cross-section area to be 490mm square. Should I be aiming to have the area of all the smaller holes along the PVC, to add up to approx 490mm square also ? I note that the stock fx5 output has 2 holes, each about 22mm in diameter resulting in 760mm square area. Excuse the lack of carriage returns...my enter key isnt working in this 'post a new topic' window with windows8/ie10..bizarre.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I currently have a 22mm plumping elbow hooked up to my FX5, using the rubber connector that would normally hold the standard double nossle in place.

I've had a 22mm pipe down in the garage for months with one end sealed with a speedfit stopper, with the plan of cutting it to length and drilling holes to make a spraybar, but one thing or another has stopped this next mod from happening. Given how the single 22mm mod output works fine, my plan it to drill enough holes in this pipe to equal the surface area of the current elbow.

Good luck with the mod and post a video clip of the final result!

 

[chokko]

Righto...so prior to my OP I had been cycling my tank with my spraybar Mk1, which was 13x8mm=653mm2

Was quite a gentle flow - and could be the reason i hadn't seen any ammonia drop despite seeding with a few items from existing filter.

So I created two more spraybars.

Spraybar Mk2 (black Krylon in photo)
13x6mm
1x4mm
========
379mm2 (identical to the fx2 nozzle)

Spraybar Mk3 (unpainted in photo):
3x7mm
2x6.5mm
2x6mm
2x5.5mm
2x5mm
2x4.5mm
3x4mm
===========
394mm2

On each of these, I tried angling the first and last hole at 45degrees (horizontally) to go to corner of the tank - but in practice the water still fires forwards only.

The reason I created Spraybar Mk3, was reading somewhere that pressure will be less further down the pipe..so i put the smaller holes closest to fx5 output, and biggest holes near the stopper.

Using Spraybar Mk3, i note that the small 4mm holes don't put out much pressure at all. The holes at the farthest end (6.5 & 7mm) are pumping out a huge amount of water.
This was confirmed when i woke up this morning, and found that I had a crater in the sand at front of tank where water from the bigger holes had hit the front glass and gone down. (all holes are facing horizontally, not up or down)

Therefore I think Spraybar Mk2 will be the way to go, once the Krylon has dried.