water movement in tank questions

[Sea Witch]

Hi there: My first question!

I'm not sure if it should be in the DIY section....Can someone explain to me about spray bars? Are they typically spraying onto the surface of the water or underneath?

If it's underneath, isn't that a laminar flow (to be avoided)? Or is there such a thing as a spray bar that moves?

And where do you find spray bar type plumbing fixtures?

thanks all,

[xblade]

I would think a diectional nozzle of some sort would be much better for flow.

[whatcaneyedo]

No one really does spray bars anymore. The many brands of energy efficient propeller powerheads like from tunze, hydor, vortech etc are the trend these days. However you can make a spray bar by just drilling a lot of holes in a length of PVC plumbing mounted onto the output of a submersible pump. I actually do have one along the back of my tank behind the rocks. I use it to reduce dead spots where there would otherwise be little to no water flow. The problem with what I've done is it does create laminar flow which is undesirable and its buried... so getting to it is a PITA (which is probably why I've just left it there).

Here is what it looked like before installation.

[MMAX]

I had a spray bar in my 20 gal when I first started about 4 years ago. It did provide alot of flow but the holes eventually got plugged with coralline algae. Kinda tough to clean.

[mark]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

No one really does spray bars anymore.

now that you mention it, is something that you don't hear of them anymore.

In this link there's a picture of a perimeter spray-bar fed from sump