# DIY Lily Pipe for Nano tank



## AquaDean

Well being newly back into aquarium keeping yet also being a hands on sort of person I decided to see what I could do in making a lily pipe for my nano tank. Years ago I used to make my own filter siphon tubes (just the U shaped ones) by filling those tubes that you can by in the pet stores with salt and heating until they would bend. For my nano tank I wanted to use clear acrylic tube and being lucky I guess because I live within 20 minutes of a Tap Plastics retail store. So the stage was set for this DIY project and I'll say now, I'm pleased with the results.

My nano tank's filter is a ZooMed 501 canister and needless to say the tubes that it comes with are not meant for a planted aquarium. Being it's a small canister filter the tubing size is around 3/8" or 9mm. So I purchased several 6' lengths of 3/8" acrylic tube (they are only a couple bucks a length and I figured that I'd waste some trying this, and did) and also a foot of ¼" solid acrylic rod. I'd already made some inflow tubes and a miniature spray bar out of this stuff but wanted to see if a Lily pipe was possible.

Other that the acrylic tube and rod I used the following tools and materials: Salt (plain fine grain table salt), masking tape, some acrylic glue or superglue, fine tooth hobby saw, sandpaper of various grits, heat gun, stove top burner, and plenty of patients.

So let's get started. First I cut about a foot long piece of the acrylic tube. Really you just need to score it a couple times with the fine tooth saw and you'll be able to snap it pretty cleanly. For right now the cut ends don't matter because later they will be cut off again.

Next I cut a piece of the 1/4" acrylic rod as this was going to be my plug in one end of the tube. It fits very tight and will need to be glued in with acrylic glue or super glue. I found that heating the tube over the stove just a little helped with inserting it in the end of the tube. Coat it with the glue before the final insert and it should seal the end of the tube really well. Again it doesn't matter what this looks like because it will be cut off and discarded later.










Now comes the fun part depending upon how you look at it. Glass blower blow glass by heating and blowing so I figured that I'd do the same with the acrylic tube. I could heat the tube over the stove top burner but I've found that using a heat gun gave me more control where I wanted to heat the tube. You will need both hands so you will either need to have someone hold the heat gun or do what I did and lay it on the edge of the counter with the parts that get hot hanging over the edge. Note: you do not want to burn your kitchen counter so set up on something where it doesn't matter. I had a container of cool water nearby large enough to fit the size of the finished pipe into. This will be used to cool and set the pipe as I go through the rest of the process.

Okay I determined that I wanted to heat the area of the tube between ½" from the plugged end to 3" from that end. Really I just guessed this but it seemed to work out pretty good. I used the high setting on the heat gun and kept the tube in constant motion both twisting and moving back and forth on the area I was heating. I kept the tube about 1 ½" from the end of the heat gun and moved it further away as it became hotter. As you heat the tube it will eventually start to flex and bend with its own weight. I figured that it would need to get pretty hot to blow a bubble in it and had to test several times along the way. You do need to be very careful not to get it too hot as it will blister on the surface. I still haven't done a perfect one without any blisters at all. So finally the tube got hot enough and when blowing gently I could see a small bulge form in the end. I kept the end in the heat and gently blew into the tube until the bulge was the size that I thought I wanted. Once there I quickly covered the end with my finger and slowly dipped the hot tube into the cool water so that it cooled and set. Note if you don't cover the end with your finger after getting the bubble the right size it will shrink back a bit and can deform some when cooling in the water. So at this point I ended up with a tube with a bulge in it like the image below.










Next I filled the whole tube with the table salt tapping the side of the tube to get it packed in real tight. Once full I tapped the end closed with masking tape to keep the salt in and again freeing up both hands to work the bends. I forgot to take a picture of the straight tube full of salt but it's about a foot long and you'll get the idea from the images.










To make the bends start with the one closest to the bubble again heating the pipe with the heat gun covering about a 1 ½" area. The pipe with the salt in it will again start flexing and bending under its own weight. I was very careful not to let the pipe stretch by its self as it can easily get out of control. So I made the first bend then cooled completely in the water and then had to figure where to make the U over the tank bend. This is something that you could put a mark on the pipe with a sharpie for the center. But I just guessed and figured a little long because you can always raise the tube up a bit on the tank.

The U bend is actually the easiest bend to make but can also go wrong the quickest. The key is to heat a long enough area on the pipe and get it very flexible without losing control of it. Two hands here is a must and if you have a wood dowel, broom handle, curved edge of a knife handle, etc. to bend in over it could make it simpler. I just heated about a 4" section of the pipe and once it was super flexible slowly bent it by sight. Once this bend was made the pipe is still very flexible so I held it in position and cooled it completely in the water. This is what I ended up with:










Close up, you can see that I have a few heat blisters on the bubble.










Next I used a fine tooth hobby saw to very carefully cut through the bubble at the desired angle. This is a bit of a guess but cut a little long and plan on sanding it down to the final size. This cut is very hard to make without chipping the edge of the bubble. I used pull strokes of the saw only and left the salt in the tube for some extra support. If you have a Dremel with a cut off disk I think that it could work for the rough cut, I'll try that next time.










At this point I was feeling pretty good, almost there, but a good time to remember to be patient, don't get in a hurry now. With fine sandpaper wrapped around a small piece of wood I carefully sanded the opening to the final angle and shape that I wanted. For the final polish on the edge I used one of those "four in one" emery boards used for finishing and polishing fingernails. Next I figured and cut the other end to the length that I wanted, smoothing the sharp edge with sand paper. A final wash with warm soapy water and a real good rinse and there I had it. . . a DIY nano lily pipe.



















It's not perfect but it actually works incredibly well forming that little surface funnel which keeps the tank surface sparkling clear. I'll get some in the tank shot's in a couple of days.


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## Asgard

No pics?


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## ghengis

That is absolutely brilliant! Think I might have to give that a shot myself


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## AquaDean

Hmm. . . the pictures work on my computer and they are linked correctly.
Anybody else not see the pictures?

Thanks ghengis it really isn't all that difficult. Buy some extra pipe cause you will mess up a couple.


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## Asgard

Hmmm, must be a firefox (addon) thingy, I can see the pictures with IE.
great work b.t.w.


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## JeffyFunk

Asgard said:


> Hmmm, must be a firefox (addon) thingy, I can see the pictures with IE.
> great work b.t.w.


I'm using Firefox w/ only the No Script addon and I can see the pictures just fine. What a neat idea!

Aquadean, have you tried lily pipes of any other sizes? What about making a (matching) intake pipe? In my limited experience, this has to be one of the nicest looking DIY projects I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing!


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## ghengis

I have FF too. Are you viewing at work? Do you have a filter that is blocking Photobucket or something?? I often cannot see pics if I am browsing at work for that very reason...


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## F1_Cobra

I have bent aluminum tubing by filling it with sand so it wouldn't collapse...Is there a reason you chose salt?....your lilly pipe looks great and I'll definately try this myself.


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## AquaDean

I haven't actually done a lily pipe of a different size yet but I have played with bending some ½" acrylic tube. Also the intake tubes are much easier to make than the lily pipe. I've got a new idea for an intake for a shrimp tank but I'm waiting for a couple eBay items to arrive. I'll post it when it's complete.

F1_Cobra, I've tried sand in the tubes before but it will embed in the hot plastic and you might as well forget about trying to get it out. Flour burns and can become explosive, sugar melts, but salt works and yes there are some places that it embed in the plastic a bit but a flush out with warm water dissolves the excess away. Some guys have used a silicone tube inside the tubes to do the bending. I haven't tried that yet but salt works, I always have it around the house, and I can re-use over and over most of the salt I use.

Here is a picture of some of the others that I've made or experimented with bending. The two spray bars work great but just weren't as cool as a lily pipe. The one on the left is an intake I made where I covered the strainer area with a sponge.










I should point out that none of these are perfect like the glass pipes but they are just as fragile as I've been to the very last step on a couple of them and broken them. Really I made them because I didn't like the look of the pipes that came with the filters.

I'm hoping for a bigger tank for Christmas so might have to start working on a larger sized lily pipe.

Dean


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## F1_Cobra

AquaDean said:


> F1_Cobra, I've tried sand in the tubes before but it will embed in the hot plastic and you might as well forget about trying to get it out.


Thats what I was wondering about....thanks.


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## ghengis

AquaDean said:


> I'm hoping for a bigger tank for Christmas so might have to start working on a larger sized lily pipe.
> 
> Dean


...why not make the lily pipe first and then say "...honey/mum/dad/sis/bro, I have this oversized lily pipe here that needs a bigger tank to go in...hint, hint!"


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## AquaDean

ghengis said:


> ...why not make the lily pipe first and then say "...honey/mum/dad/sis/bro, I have this oversized lily pipe here that needs a bigger tank to go in...hint, hint!"


That's actually a great idea!! I had the vortex going on one of the ones I did yesterday and my daughter was fascinated. Want to see a bigger vortex? I could work a couple different angles. I do have some 1/2" tube around so just might have to give it a shot. Stay tuned.


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## Asgard

JeffyFunk said:


> I'm using Firefox w/ only the No Script addon and I can see the pictures just fine.





ghengis said:


> I have FF too. Are you viewing at work? Do you have a filter that is blocking Photobucket or something?? I often cannot see pics if I am browsing at work for that very reason...


Turned out that ABP (AdBlockPlus) was blocking everything from h**p://www.cyberadia.com/images/ad/*


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## AquaDean

Asgard said:


> Turned out that ABP (AdBlockPlus) was blocking everything from h**p://www.cyberadia.com/images/ad/*


Arrg/#@%*(, It's that "ad" directory. Never really though about it "ad" was for AquaDean. I can't change the pics I've already posted because the forum will not let me edit the posts. But I'll change any that I post in the future so to not trigger the Ad Ware software.


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## AquaDean

Here are a couple quick shots of the lily pipe in my 4 gallon Finnex tank. It seems to be working great.


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## Tex Gal

Nice work!!!


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## peskar

Thanks for this


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## AquaDean

Well being I got the new GLA 60-L tank for Christmas I decided to try to make a 1/2" acrylic Lily pipe. This is what I came up with on the second attempt. The first one I worked too fast and the bend did not work out. You need to have patience when doing this as getting the tube way too hot and bending too fast nets bad results. Blowing the bubble in the 1/2" tube was much harder than in the smaller tube, but making the bends were actually easier.










Here is a shot of the Lily pipe hanging over the edge of the new tank.










No water test yet, still have to get the rest of the hardware and stuff for the tank.


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## MagpieTear

If the surface listers are more char than bubble, the #1 Novus used on 6 or 800 wet dry paper will remove the char handily. Then use the #2 and #3 as normal to remove the glazing the #1 left behind. Although I have yet to have 1/4 of your success with bending.


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## endgin33

Love the look and $$$ of this DIY project. Thanks for sharing. I picked up the components for this today (1/2" version) and will try it out.


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## AquaDean

endgin33,
Thanks and give it a try. Slow and easy does the trick, no need to rush. If the first couple bubbles don't work just cut them off the tube put a new plug in and try again. Also it doesn't take much to cut the acrylic tube, just a couple good scores with a fine tooth saw and it will snap off pretty clean.


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## endgin33

Just wanted to say thanks again for the heads up on the lily pipe program. Made three complete sets in the last 2 weeks- some came out looking better than others, but it was relatively easy to do and dirt cheap. I borrowed the heat gun and the dremel. 3 sets of lilly pipes cost 11 dollars- wait make that $12 (I forgot the mortons salt...) Went to my first club meeting this week and people were very interested in the how to on this project. One little trick that I learned was that a beer bottle made a very good tool for bending a smooth corner with the salted tube. It had different depths of angles to work with, which was useful for tuning the pipes for rimmed and rimless tanks. Not to mention that beer is thinking fluid for DIY projects...:drinkers:
For what its worth you can see the mouth of one of them in the upper right of this picture.


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## AquaDean

That’s great!!
I knew if I could do it others could.
And you are right, not very expensive even if you mess up on a couple of them.
Way to go!
:clap2::clap2::clap2:


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## Sugar Cone

Hey, where are you guys getting the acrylic tubes? I tried my local Home Depot and Lowes, but neither had them. What are they used for normally? Should I check a plumbing supply shop, electrical supply, etc? Ive got my hands on the Dremel and the heat gun.. All I need now is the stupid tube.

Thanks.


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## TAB

Sugar Cone said:


> Hey, where are you guys getting the acrylic tubes? I tried my local Home Depot and Lowes, but neither had them. What are they used for normally? Should I check a plumbing supply shop, electrical supply, etc? Ive got my hands on the Dremel and the heat gun.. All I need now is the stupid tube.
> 
> Thanks.


plastic supplers ( phone book).

otherwise you could get them at tapplastics.com, but you would have to pay shiping.


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## endgin33

Locally I got mine at a place called Delvie's Plastics in Salt Lake. Places that stock plexiglass should have it. Get way more than you think you'll need- it is likely a few won't turn out as expected... The wheels are turning on this one though- if you could make a mold that would encase the hot plastic the tricky part would be a alot easier...


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## Sugar Cone

Cool. Id be willing to pay the $10 shipping, its still pretty cheap. But if I could find it locally, I could take a piece of tubing with me to make sure I get the right sizes.

I'm'a check it out.


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## AquaDean

I get mine at Tap Plastics but I am really lucky that I have a local Tap Plastics retail store within 15 minutes of where I live. I buy the acrylic tube in 6' lengths, don't remember the price but it is not very expensive.


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## MaD_Sci

Brilliant, I think I'll give this a try.


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## undertaker

i have been lurking for so many months just reading up.
i find that congratulations for this post are in order as the effort to DIY a lily pipe is no mean feat.
we tried doing same thing some six years ago just to save money using glass and the services of a professional glass blower who spent decades creating the glass beakers and what not for UCLA's chemistry lab. 
we found out that because of the bends, one could not come up with a piece as graceful as ADA. and the effort to just come up with one perfect piece is not for the weak of heart.
then came China with all their clones ranging from co2 regulators to lilypipes with down to earth prices.
these functioned as good as any and further efforts in DIY in my part of the world suddenly seemed an exercise in meaningless economy.
again congratulations.


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## lil.m4n

just wondering what exactly the end of the lily pipe hooks up to? I tried to look for pictures but no one has any. pictures would be awesome thanks


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## Sugar Cone

It connects to the output / water return of your canister filter.


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## ghengis

Dean, curious how you are attaching your pipes to the tank...? Are you just using heater-type clips, or is there a way to incorporate a nipple to the pipework, so they attach directly to a suction cup, ala ADA type pipes??


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## AquaDean

I've been taking a suction cup and drilling a 1/16" hole through the nipple part. Then use a small zip tie to go around the pipe. If you get it just right you'll be able to suction the pipe to the tank and have the ability to move the pipe up and down carefully to get it just at the right height. I'll try to post an image in the next day or so but I've got relatives visiting for a couple of days.


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## ghengis

Relatives?? Pffft, we want pics!!


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## AquaDean

As promised here are a couple images of how I attache the suction cups to the Lily Pipes.

The suction cups I'm using are from Lowes or Home Depot and usually have a little cup hook crimped around them (I remove that and toss it). They come in a pack of eight of various sizes.

First I drill a small hole through the nipple of the suction cup. I use a 1/16" drill and make sure not to hit the actual suction area of the cup. Be very careful not to drill your fingers as the drill will want to walk at first.

Once the hole is done push a small zip tie through and make your loop.










Then snug up around the pipe and you've got your DIY mounting done.
Note that I tighten the zip ties just snug so that once installed I can still slide the pipe up and down without having to relocate the suction cups. This give me a little bit of adjustment to play with.


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## gillt

I just picked up some acrylic pipe from a local distributor, and without a heat-gun I'm thinking about using the burners on the stove. I've done that before to shape and mold lexam. 

My question is after you've had the pipes running on the tank for a while, do you notice algae buildup in the tiny perforations on the inside of the pipes caused by the salt? I was wondering if there is an alternative to salt, something a bit larger maybe.


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## TAB

gillt said:


> I just picked up some acrylic pipe from a local distributor, and without a heat-gun I'm thinking about using the burners on the stove. I've done that before to shape and mold lexam.
> 
> My question is after you've had the pipes running on the tank for a while, do you notice algae buildup in the tiny perforations on the inside of the pipes caused by the salt? I was wondering if there is an alternative to salt, something a bit larger maybe.


yes there is...

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ts/61350-tab-s-diy-corner-acrylic-intake.html


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## WeedCali

great DIY! looks good.

but whats the use of a lily pipe? is it purely aesthetic?


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