Spray bar for nano

[loyalhero90]

Hello,
I have an 8 gal shallow cube (14x14x10) that was inspired by the mangrove forests of raja ampat so it is a softy/macro/mangrove/maybe sponge tank. I am planning to switch out my power filter and do more of a refugium set up. Since i live in a dorm I'm limited by space and height. I plan to have a 5 gallon tank as the refugium and do an intake and return where a pump will take the water into the refugium, and another pump will take it back into the dt. The one thing I'm trying to play around with are spray bars since I wanted bars for both intake and outtake in the hopes reaching a better area for filtration and flow. What would the gph need to be to create good flow for a softy tank? I was going to use a marineland maxi-jet pro: Aquarium Water Pumps & Water Movement: Marineland Maxi-Jet PRO
and depending on the type it would have around 500 to 750 gph and 3.0-3.5ft head. Would that be enough to provide the flow from the spray bar? Would I need to drill many holes or just a few? Possibly how big would the holes need to be?
The intake bar would have a strainer at the end while the outtake bar would be capped so that all the flow would have to go through the holes.
I'd like to believe that since it is a nano this setup could be achieved easier but I'm not sure...

 

[booth2010]

the spray bar on my canister filter has a 1/8 inch hole every inch or so, so you wouldnt need too many holes. As for return pump I have a 530gph for a 29 gal DT 20g sump and its way to strong with most of the flow returning back to the sump so it doesnt drain, so im sure a 200-400 would be good for you as long as you use flexible tubing for the return and not pvc.

 

[loyalhero90]

the spray bar on my canister filter has a 1/8 inch hole every inch or so, so you wouldnt need too many holes. As for return pump I have a 530gph for a 29 gal DT 20g sump and its way to strong with most of the flow returning back to the sump so it doesnt drain, so im sure a 200-400 would be good for you as long as you use flexible tubing for the return and not pvc.

oh that's good to hear. Would the spray bar be pvc and the tubing from pump to spray bar be flexible? Would adding an elbow between tubing and pvc be a problem with flow? Could the intake pump have the same set-up? I assume the gph for the outtake and intake pump would need to be the same yes?
Sorry for all the questions!
Thanks!

 

[booth2010]

yes pvc for spray bar and flexible tubing would work. adding elbows will hinder flow, but being such a short distance im not sure it would do a lot even if you got a 300-350gph pump. I would assume so, I have never used pumps for intake I either used overflow or siphon, buy yes you would need to match the pumps or one of the tank would overflow, you would probably want to put a gate valve on both the return and intake lines because the intake will be moving more water than the output since the output will be fighting the 3.5ft of gravity.