spray bar opinions

[RichE]

Is there any pro's or con's to having a spray bar in the tank?

I know you get water surface movement, but if you have 2 hob (one at each end) and 2 canister filters with a typical out put nozzle, is there the need for more surface movement?

What if the spray bar was hooked up to one canister and the other canister filter attached to a return nozzle thats say 12" below the water, so it would kinda be like a powerhead but coming from the filter?

Just running ideas thru my head, as I want to get the most I can with out having to use 10 different things.

Plus its late and I feel like asking questions

[Steve]

Rich I can't say if one way is better than another, but my personal choice for my tanks is that I like to run two spraybars, but I like to set them up different than most people do. Seems all spray bars I have seen are usually across the back of the tank and pretty long. What I like to do is to cut the spray bars and mount them in the upper corners of the tank from front to back. That way they give off more pressure because you have less length to them, plus each one can keep surface agitation for it's own side of the tank. Then what happens is the water movement coming from each side of the top of the tank meets in the middle and then forces water down towards the center of the tank then flows across the bottom pushing all waste into the corners of the tank where your intakes are. Plus mounted in the upper corners they are completely out of sight unless viewed from a low level such as these pics I just snapped for you from below.

Not sure if that makes a ton of sense but here's a couple pics that may help describe it better how I have it set up in my tanks.





Then here is a pic with some highlighted "flow" arrows (fancy eh? lol) that show how the actual water flows in my tank with the spraybars setup like I have. I've watched food pellets follow the course of the red lines in this pic.

[four_by_ken]

Your two hang on backs are plenty of surface agitation. 

Just preference at this point.  Just try to make it that there is not a dead spot in the tank, or else "stuff" will tend to gather there.  But, also make sure there is strong current everywhere in the tank.  Fish have to rest too!

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

[/quote]

Steve - A little hot water and vinegar will clean up those ugly marks on your tank....

FWIW - your idea and execution is impressive....I like it....Very nice !