Please help me with my plumbing issues.

[PotRoast]

Registered: Apr 2008
Location:
Occupation:
Posts: 3


Please help me with my plumbing issues.
Hello everyone. I am on the verge of blasting off into this hobby but I have had some setbacks and I'm coming here for help.

I bought a 240 gal with stand and canopy. I bought all my equipment. I reinforced the floor. I made lists, and more lists. I spent three hours at Lowe's buying PVC and PVC accessories. I was rocking hardcore.

Recently I spent an entire weekend plumbing my tank. I did a great job too. I made all those **** pipes fit in my stand, and plumbed my return and drain pipes perfectly. The pump ran, the sump seemed to function. My skimmer works. The system operates exactly like I want it to.

So what is wrong, you ask? Well, my design completely sucks, in retrospect. This hobby is supposed to be fun. And I was freaking stressed out trying to make everything fit in the stand. Further, I was stressed about getting water on my new hardwood floors. I started to think when I actually get sand, fish, rock, algae, snails, etc. at some point I am basically going to **** things up bigtime. I don't know what will happen, but the end result will most likely be a flood.

So I said **** it and drained the water, cut out the plumbing, and I'm starting from scratch.

240 gallon 2.0, if you will.

So now that I have screwed everything up, I need to do it right this time. I am going to plumb my return and drain lines down into the stand, then out of the stand, into the wall, and down to my unfinished basement with concrete floor, drain, etc. In other words, I can stumble around all I want down there and not cause any damage at all. Stress free. I could drink a few beers, have a great time, you know?


So here are my questions.

1. What schedule PVC should I be using? I *think* I need the PVC that can handle pressure. I used the wrong kind of pvc before.

2.Fittings. What schedule fittings should I use? Are there special fittings for systems under pressure?

3. Spa Flex (flexy PVC). If you use this, what PVC glue do you use? Do you use a primer, or a cleaner? Or both?

4.Flexy PVC fittings....what kind of fittings do you use with flexy pvc?

5. Rated Overflows. I have two of them. Together they are rated at 3000 gph. I have a 1.5" bulkhead fitting on each overflow. So I have a 1.5" drain pipe running from each overflow. If I tee those two pipes together, like I did before, and have them both combine into another 1.5" pipe that runs to the basement....what is my rated overflow gph now? I assume it is lower than 3000gph. If it is, should I make the pipe running to the basement 2" or 2.5"?


Thanks in advance. I hope you can help. Please help. Haha.

 

[Amphiprion]

Schedule 40 is fine--all that is necessary. You can use Sch. 80, but you'll be wasting money. You use hose barbed fittings and clamps with spaflex, preferably. That being said, you can use spaflex slip-style with plain pvc glue, so long as there isn't any acute pressure on the seam (i.e. you have the tubing contorted in an odd position that will cause torsion to the seam). I suppose if you do it the latter way, you will have less head and volume loss.

 

[The Zigman]

I use schedule 40 for most everything, and for this app it is overkill, I use it for 175 PSI air lines..

you never said what was wron with the first design, or why you decided to scrap it all....
My tank in plumbed in as well, but I used clear hoses, and PET for the connections to the house plumbing..

Check out my build thread in my sig below..
I'll check back later.

 

[vorlx]

Did you take any pictures of the first plumbing job? It's not an overly complex process and as long as you glue/clamps on all your right spots you should be fine. I understand the concern as it's a LOT of water but as long as you double check your work you should be ok.