Flow Rate Question

[slippery slimecoat]

Kinda going off on a tangent, but ragin_cajun made me think of it. I went with a ball valve on my main drain. I regret not going with a gate valve. Just throwing that out there while I'm thinking about it.

 

[jaws7777]

Im basically gonna copy his sump

Kinda going off on a tangent, but ragin_cajun made me think of it. I went with a ball valve on my main drain. I regret not going with a gate valve. Just throwing that out there while I'm thinking about it.

 

[DN328]

Oh, if we want to get into plumbing details now we can do that too ;-)

I was just assuming this was just prepping before you had the tank and gear. But yes, gate valve all the way on the primary. I also have ball valve on the second drain in case I need to do any maintenance, which has been zero in two years. No valve on the third. Use as many true unions "where it makes sense to", you will be happy you did. I like bulkheads from BRS.

 

[ragin_cajun]

I bought plenty of supplies from BRS, I think I got my black pipe and fittings inside the display from them. But, for bulkheads, and strainers, I really like glass-holes.com -- dope aquarium stuff.

I used bulkheads with slip fittings, I wouldn't do that again. Use a threaded bulkhead fitting whenever you can.

As DN328 said, use unions wherever possible. Also, instead of beating yourself up running PVC pipe and getting it to align just perfectly, get a couple of "pvc compression repair coupling". You just run 2 pieces of pipe close to each other, screw this thing on--done. It's a union, it's awesome, all kinds of adjustable. Love it. They can even hold pressure, which is way overkill for a drain line on a fish tank--it'll never leak.

Also, I went with a 4 inch gate valve, figuring I have 2 inch drains--that was WAAAAYYY too big. I could have done both 2 inch drains into a 3 inch gate valve easy.

 

[DN328]

Wow ragin, 4" gate valves, that IS big ;-)

 

[ragin_cajun]

Wow ragin, 4" gate valves, that IS big ;-)

Stupid big. Not even close to necessary. I figured I didn't want anything reducing the 2 inch drains at all in any way, and I sure didn't want to go too small and have to tear out the pipe and re-run it.....so I ended up with a stupid big 4 inch gate. And 4 inch PVC T's with 4"X2" reducing bushings, too.

 

[slippery slimecoat]

I enjoy that I go off on a tangent and y'all just roll with it and follow along hahaha

 

[jaws7777]

Keep going lol

Yup i took the advice you guys gave with the other "practice" sumps and soo glad i installed unions. Had to tear the tanks down multiple times since then

 

[jaws7777]

Should i use the bulkheads that midwest customs is supplying or buy my own ?

 

[DN328]

I enjoy that I go off on a tangent and y'all just roll with it and follow along hahaha

No Slime, your comment is very much relevant. I just didn't think we were ready to break it down just yet LOL.