Plumbing tips?

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 9:15 pm

I am plumbing my tank and wondered if anyone had any plumbing tips they wanted to share? Anything at all might be helpful, all I know about plumbing is that hot is on the left and detritus goes downhill.

I haven't gotten to the point of leak checking, so I don't know if I am having problems or not. One of the main things I am worried about is that the PVC cutter does not appear to be cutting a quite a 90 degree angle. I am using plumbers silicon for the drains and input on the CL an I am going to glue the outputs. Does anyone see a problem with that?

TIA,
Scott

tbmoore · Post by **tbmoore** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 10:51 pm

If you are running a lot of pvc and do not have the pvc cutters a skill saw will cut a lot of pipe in a hurry and much easier than a hand saw

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:40 pm

What kind of blade will I need? I have a table saw with a ripper blade and I have a few 60 tooth blades. And yeah, my pvc cutter sucks. It crusher 1/2" and cuts 1" unevenly.

Thanks,
Scott

tbmoore · Post by **tbmoore** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:50 pm

Not sure..I just use a standard blade that came with the skill saw...not a very fine blade..although the finer the blade the cleaner the cut.

SaltnLime · Post by **SaltnLime** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:54 am

The hand held pvc cutter is an awsome tool that cuts straight and easily with nothing to sand. I wish I owuld have had one years ago. MAybe your pvc cutters are not the same.

A perfect 90 degree angle is optimal but in no way necessary especially on glued fittings.

The plumbers silicone worked well for me on the drain lines.

Use unions everywhere you get a chance.

Use check vavles on all drains.

if you use threaded bulkheads make sure to line us whater inner fitting you are using before tightening(siliconing) the bulkhead. Examp. If you have a threaded bulkhead you are using or a drain line. If you plan to use a stranier then you can ad a 90 degree elbow on the inside of the tank (screwed in the threaded bulkhead). this will allow you to angle the elbow so the strainer will work properly. By tightening it into position first then you can "roll" the bulkhead to make the strainer angle correctly and tighten down. Is that clear as mud...you probably already new that though. I learned the hard way

Brace the plumbing so the weight of it is not on the bulkheads...especially if you have a long run of pipe and an inline ball valve.

Ummm... thats all I can think of..... Work fast with the pvc glue

Can't wait to see it up and running.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 7:07 am

Use purple primer + glue on every joint... to make super clean cuts that don't need sanding, use a miter saw, and "chop" the pvc, go easy so you don't knock chunks out of the PVC... I used the generic wood blade I got with the miter saw.

woolyt2 · Post by **woolyt2** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:33 pm

if you have 60 tooth blades those are great for cutting pvc do it all the time at work that way ...hey salt if you put check valves on the drain you will be putting it in backwards wont you ...i have always put in on the returns .....now just have ball valves on all plumbing no checks at all i found that when they get dirty they dont work well any ways ....jmo

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:16 pm

Well, I got it dry fit. I have attached some pics. If it looks like I have done anything wrong point it out. This is my first attempt at plumbing a CL and sump. I am going to use the plumber's silicon on all drains and pump inputs and glue all returns and water test it tomorrow. I used no check valves, I didn't think they were necessary and have not heard good things about them.

What do you think?

woolyt2 · Post by **woolyt2** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:36 pm

i dont see anything wrong other than all the 90 they will slow the flow down ...not sure how much flow you are looking for but i can tell you this i have a mak 4 on my cl with 1 line going to 2 1in outputs form the bottom of the tank and it was not much lost a lot of head pressure had to put 1in to 1/2in reduceron each to get the flow i wanted ....jmo

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 9:47 pm

I have a Gen X Mak 5 (1800 gph @ 4ft) for the CL and a Mag 12 (910 gph at 4 ft) for the return. It was all I could do to get the 90's to fit I really don't think I could have matched everything up with 45's.

Thanks for the input,
Scott

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 5:42 pm

I know it's way late for this sort of opinion, but that's WAY overkill IMO on all the plumbing, number of sprayers into the top, etc, etc... overcomplicated. It looks well assembled though! I always just used primer and PVC glue on all PVC, never any silicone. So, what's your turnover going to be on this setup? This is gonna be SPS, from the amount of flow, I take it?

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 6:39 pm

Yes, SPS dominated. The two loclines from the rear are from the Mag 12 and the 4 outputs on the front are from the Gen X Mak 5. for a total of about 2700gph. I will have to see how well it works and make adjustments as needed.

I am having a bit of problems with the drains. When I turn on the Mag 12 the tank tries to overflow. Working on the solution now, but it seems that 2 1" drains should drain well more than about 450 gph each.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:33 pm

Yeah, 1" PVC is rated for about 1k GPH each, however it's also restricted by a few elbows. You should definitely be getting more than 500GPH out of them though. I'm pushing about 500GPH across four drains right now. (two mag24's, full blast, with about 10' of vertical/horizontal head).

Post by **snoopdog** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:45 pm

I had a 1 inch drain on the 75 gallon with the Mak 4 and the 1 inch drain kept up just fine. Make sure there is not too much backpressure on the drain (not submersed) and they should drain fine.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:42 pm

Define "backpressure" for me. I found that if I have the open end of the T that is connected to the bulkhead I get more flow, but a lot more noise. I am sure that I am not returning more than 1000 gph to the tank, but the drains don't seem to be keeping up. I may try and remove some 90's and use 45's instead. I only have 2 90 degree turns on one drain and 3 90 degree turns and 2 45 degree turns on the other.

I may have to rethink my drain plan.