# Fluval 206 Custom Intake/Spraybar Tutorial



## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

I have a 29 gallon grow out tank sitting next to my computer desk. It sits perpendicular to the wall instead of lengthwise against the wall like most aquariums. This allows me to view the entire length of the tank while I'm working, and allows full viewing from the other side when someone else walks in the room. Normally I have an AquaClear 70 filter on it, but because I've had 2 of them die in the last month I decided to swap it out for a Fluval 206 canister. Even though I like the AC70 and it does a very good job at filtration, it had to sit on one side of the tank or the other because it was just too large to fit between the tank and the wall. Putting it there would have caused the tank to jut out beyond the depth of my desk by about 7 or 8 inches. That would have been unacceptable.

Having switched to the Fluval 206 I can now put the hoses between the tank and the wall which allows for full unobstructed viewing from both sides and hides all of my filtration equipment.

I've built a few spray bars for my Fluval 306 canisters and really like the way they work. For whatever reason (who really needs one), I decided I would also build a custom intake as well. I wanted the spray bar and the intake to be connected together, and invisible as possible. Having them connected together will make them stay in place better(I think). If possible, I also wanted to hide the heater. I'm not sure I can accomplish all of this, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm POSITIVE I've over engineered this thing, but for now it's what I've come up with.

The custom intake I've designed is quite different from anything I've seen before. Instead of a single vertical tube with some sort or grating or mesh at the bottom I've come up with a dual horizontal tube design that will draw in water and waste from both the bottom and top of the water column at the same time.

I spent way too much time trying to figure out how many holes to drill in the intake to equal the 5/8" intake tube. I'll describe the methods I used so that if you decide to alter your dimensions you can still figure it out. After much pondering, I came up with this:

Original intake tube inner diameter: 5/8" (0.625")
New Intake tube hole diameter: 3/16" (0.1875")
Original intake tube area: .3068 (Area = π × r²)(A = π × 0.3125²)(A = 0.3068)
New Intake tube hole area: .0276 (Area = π × r²)(A = π × 0.09375²)(A = 0.0276)
Number of 3/16" holes to equal draw of 5/8" hole: 11ish (.3068/.0276=11.116)

*Before I get too much further into this, does anyone have anything to say about my choice of hole size for the intake?* Is 3/16" too small? Is it big enough? It's wider than most of the holes on the bottom of the original intake, but they aren't round. They're rectangular and much taller than 3/16".

This isn't the exact intake, but it is similar:









My only concern is having the holes be large enough for long pieces of **** to fit into. I would hate to see them stuck on the outside of the tube.


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

Before anyone has reason to question what I've done, the answer is YES. The intake and output are connected together. With tubes. Yes, it's a closed system. Yes, it's ridiculous. No, I won't leave it that way, obviously... since I want this to actually work.  My plan is to plug the far end of the top intake tube before gluing it into the spray bar side of things. Like I said, it's over engineered, but I wanted these things connected.

Anyway, here are the photos I have so far:

Intake side part 1:









Intake side part 2:









Spray bar side part 1:









Spray Bar:









All connected:


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## joemomma (Aug 31, 2011)

This looks rad. Curious to see the outcome!


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

Ok my question is why if you have the spray bar are the other to bars on the left side there for? I dont understand this idea one bit. Your going to have a lot of pipe showing in your tank unless your planning on putting all this behind a background?


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## Demigod (Mar 22, 2013)

Good question. I had a nasty head cold when I thought of this and put it together.

My plan is/was to put a sheet of black plexi-glass on it... making somewhat of an overflow area at the end of the tank where the pipes and the heater would be hidden. Now that my head has cleared, I'm rethinking this entire project.

I have it installed, and it's working fine as is. I'm going to have to let it run for a day or two before I proceed further.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

Post a pic i would like to see it in the tank lol


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