River Tank Manifold

[capeldrae]

Can you set the above up in a 12" wide tank? Had a quick look at the plumbing at a DIY store, but for the amount of fittings you need it looked tight. If you can't, can you make the manifold with 2, instead of 3 long pipes.

[Mad Duff]

I have made one with 3 long pipes for a 12" wide tank, it is tight but can be done. Mine was only a 2' tank so I only used one powerhead but I could have got two in if needed.

These are pictures of the manifold in the 12" wide tank: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... river+tank

It didnt start off with 3 long pipes but further down there are pictures of it with the 3 long pipes

[capeldrae]

MAD DUFF,
Searched the forum for hours last night looking for a thread just like the one you linked me to, serves me right starting at page 60 and working backwards.
Can you tell me what sponges they are your using?
Thanks in advance.

[Mad Duff]

Those were Fluval3 sponges, the powerheads I am using at the moment come with filter cartridges that slot straight onto the 20mm straight connectors or T-piece depending on how low you want it to the gravel

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AQUARIUM-POWER-HE ... dZViewItem

You can see them in use here: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... river+tank

[TeeCeeJay]

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... ght=#60539

heres my manifold in a 12" wide tank. it is a very tight squeeze as all the Tee pieces make it about 11.5" total (especially at the intake end). you need to cut pieces of pipe about 4-5 cm long so that the tee pieces fit together flush.

HTH

TC

[Whitey_MacLeod]

This is my solution to the narrow tank problem:


It's made using 32mm piping, which has just over twice the cross-sectional area of the 22mm stuff, but only about 1.4 times the circumference, and hence 1.4 times the drag. I've not fired it up yet, but I'm expecting a flow rate roughly equivalent to what I'd get with a 22mm 3-pipe manifold.

[Whitey_MacLeod]

Oh yeah, cheers for the tip on the powerheads Mad Duff I'm very happy with them.

[capeldrae]

Thanks for all the information so far.
I have two aquaclear 802 powerheads which I intend to use.
As for the intake end, I looked in my LFS today, at fluval 3 sponges but they weren't the blue colour and they didn't have the centre hole necessary to take the thickness off manifold pipe, or am I missing something.
The quick filter in Whitey's thread ( I was going to purchase these anyway ) look a good alternative. So what would be your opinion on these instead of sponges?

[Whitey_MacLeod]

Are you adding any other filtration to the tank?
The quick filters look like they'll offer much less resistance to the water flow than sponge filters, but they don't have as much surface area for biological filtration. I've got an XP3 external filter which is plenty big enough to handle the bioload on it's own- the powerheads are mainly there to provide extra current, so the quick filters are a good option for me.