I finallllllly got my UGJ system working the way I want it to. I've got 2 cap 3600's powering 8 jets. I think my flowrate is actually quite good on all of the jets. I still could probably position my ornaments a bit better so that some of them dont act as nets that catch the debris the jets keep off the floor, but right now I'm not too worried. It'll be easier vacuuming those off than the debris off the sand substrate.
I did a bit of a custom jet system that I'm contemplating writing an article for. I wish I took some pictures, but if need be I'd just reproduce a couple of the parts in my system since they are all now at the bottom of my tank and Im not digging them up.
I have all of the jets on one system. Not two systems each with 4 jets. I've heard people say its not a good idea but I did some innovation that makes it work real well. I still wonder if there is one part of my system where the jets are counter acting against each other but the flowrate is perfect so I dont really care.
I have my two pumps in the back corners of my tank and I have them blowing in a system that looks kind of like this:
P.....I.......................I........P
|........................................|
|.......o.......................o......|
|.......|.........o---o.......|.......|
|------|---------|--------|------|
|....................|...................|
|....................|...................|
|..............o__|__o.............|
o.......................................o
Ok so my diagram kinda sucks but the o's are all the jets and the P is the Pumps. My tank is 4x2x2 and the pumps go around the outside of the tank basically. The bottom corner ones clear out the corners into the middle where the bottom two middle ones wisk it towards the back where the other jets eventually take it to my intakes for my filters.
The jets are all angled well (better than my diagram displays) to push everything to the back of the tank and those back jets keep it off the ground back there.
The problem I faced when I first setup this system is that the water was going straight from the pumps out those bottom corner jets. So those were too powerful and the rest were all too weak. Im sure you guys can see the flaw in my system, and this is where my innovation comes in.
what I had to do was direct the water to the middle 6 pumps. I wanted to have a bit of a scoop INSIDE the pump that scoops the flowing water to those other pumps. I had to saw my pipes on a 45 degree angle right along where the T is so that its a smooth turn for the water. Then I inserted pieces of plastic into the groove I just sawed that went into the pipe and scooped the water the way I wanted it to go.
I used an old sour cream lid for the plastic that I slid in. I had to cut it to size and you can basically control exactly how the water flows. There are even perfect lines on the pipes that you can saw along to make a perfect angle so that the scoop scoops it exactly into the 90 degree angled pipe you want it to. Now half the water goes to that bottom jet and half to the other jets (or more if you make the plastic scoop go futher into the pipe, its completely under your control.) The plastic is just sturdy enough that the water doesnt push it over and the grooves from the saw help to keep it strong.
I did this for four areas of my system. The water scoops into the middle and then a bit is scooped into the first two jets from each side heading towards the middle. The other 4 the jets water just crashes into each other and is forced out evenly.
After I put the pieces of plastic in to scoop the water in the pipe I just sealed it with silicon and tested out the results a day later. It works perfectly. As soon as I turned on the jets debris lifted off my substrate and was all over. Eventually it worked itself towards the back.
The beauty of this is that you can control the water almost to an exact science. You can look inside the pipe when setting up the scoops to see how much its scooping. You can make it scoop 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 or whatever amount of water you want it to and its sturdy enough to do the job perfectly and if you cut it on the angle I did its a real smooth turn for the water so pressure isnt lost. I'll try to get some pictures but I have no where to host the pictures.
The cuts are on the hardware like T's and and the +'s that divide the pipes. You cut like this:
......|....|.../ <-- This is where you cut and insert the scoop and you can see how itd scoop the water down.
___|....|/___
........../...... <----- water is flowing this way....
___......____
......|....|
......|....|
Mods can let me know if they'd like an article with pics and Id do it up.
EDIT: My diagrams are all effed up. Is there a way to keep spacing where I put it? I put in periods for now. Any period just envision it as a space.
