woah, ok, let's get a few things straightened out here. Those with the hoses running out of the "top" port is actually the bottom port. Most often you see those ports used in doubles where the primary hose runs straight down the side and up under the shoulders, or the octopus runs across the back. Running it straight up is not the way to do that. At the depths you guys are diving you won't notice any breathing difference, and hell, I don't think anyone can actually tel the difference in the ports, it just makes routing easier. SOMETIMES! you'll see the older apeks DST regs which don't have that port on the end, turned upsidedown, which makes sense because the SPG is lower than the inflator hose anyway, and with most recreational divers who have their tanks between their knees, it gives them a few extra inches to try to reach the regulator hoses if they need to. This is not needed if you have proper tank positioning *can reach the valve behind your head without hiking the tank up too much*. With this tank positioning you might not be able to crane your neck so far behind your head, but it's a lot safer than not being able to reach the valve.
Will post pics of this later tonight or tomorrow morning
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There is a pic of one of the turret type first stages routed upsidedown. you can see that nothing is coming out of the top port. this is acceptable. Reason for that being upsidedown is that reg is usually used for sidemount so the primary, SPG, and lp hose were already like that. You can also see how high the tank is, which is where the valve should be. When you pick the shoulder straps up, the peak of the straps should be about where the top of the crown is.
If you want to use the top port, that's fine, but I would recommend using it for an octopus if you're not using a suicide strap. If you are not, then I'd actually recommend not using that bottom port at all.
In the mean time here's what I do when I'm diving with a 5 port turret first stage with single tanks.
Have that top port pointing down with the primary regulator on a 40 inch ish hose. This has a 90* adapter on the end of it and comes up underneath my shoulder. My octopus is on a short 22 ish inch hose which is on the turret and heads out to a suicide strap or "regulator necklace" as I guess they're being called now.
http://www.gue.com/files/page_images/equipment/Config/hosekit_single_eclipse01.jpg
You can sort of see it in that picture. I don't use a long hose like that, but you can see how the first stage is cocked to the side and how the octopus comes up to a suicide strap. LPI hose comes out per normal and so does the SPG. The first stage they're using is a scubapro MK25, so is the same turret first stage concept that you have.
