My plumbing begins--comments please

[moonpod]

Here are some pix of the begining of my plumbing.
RD:


The drain lines. I will add a true union ball valve on the line going 45 deg down. The "T" is in the dead middle between the intakes, all plumbing is 1.5"--the RD is 40mm intake which is less than 1.25"


The return lines are along the edge of the tank. The length to the back return is shorter than the length to the front...hopefully this provides more flow to the back return than the front. A true union ballvalve will go on the down segment right off of the "T". Again, all plumbing is 1.5"


Comments?

[CCG]

Looks Good so far.

Colin

[nbd13]

Nice Chuck!

how much more do you have left?

Nick

[moonpod]

Thanks guys. But again, I stress, anything that anyone would do differently, please tell me. That's the left side closed loop. I have not done the right side, the returns or the drains....so I've got A LOT to go.

[GTR]

I'd consider having FPT on the dry side of the bulkheads. Then go to a MPT x slip L to get back to slip PVC. Just means less to replace if you need to take stuff apart. The draw back is being sure you don't over tighten those or the bulkhead will crack.

Also maybe a couple T's in-line. slip x FPT x slip. Point the FTP and plug it with MPT plug so you can drain the lines into a bucket before taking the unions apart.

SteveU

[mshur]

CHUCK,
u like hard pvc vs. flex pvs better?


mike

[Miguelito]

Looks awesome. Did you need a metric adapter for the RD?

I think at 1.5" there are bigger sweeps available, but could be wrong. Sometimes they're in a different section - some are grey - but if I remember correctly there are wider sweeps available. Especially since the RD isn't pressurized.

[moonpod]

Steve I think I'll use street elbow and place a few more ballvalves along the path for more disassembly potential. Ken (Konadog) suggested ballvavles off of every bulkhead, but that lowers the plumbing down too much. I want to keep it up higher to preserve space. I like that "T" thing as well.

Mike, Flex PVC is easier, but over time IME tends to sag and require more supports. Hard PVC requires less support, though still some.

Dave, yeah those are 40mm to 1.5" adapters going to 1.5" threaded true union valves.

[Travis]

I would also just add the union ball valves after the elbow. You don't want to waste any prescious space under the stand. Only thing I would do differently is use long-turn 90's instead of the standard 90's you have in place. The long turns give a nice borad turn like spa flex rather than the abrupt 90 degree turn of the standard 90's. The long-turn 90's are plentiful at most hardware stores in the 1.5" flavor.

Are your bulkheads slip x slip, thread x slip, slip x thread, or thread x thread? One thing I have learned is to keep the flange side (side that is inside tank) threaded. That way, if you decide to take a CL off line for good down the road you can screw a plug into the bulkhead. This is especially important with the bulkheads on the bottom as they are detritus traps. I have a couple outlets on the bottom of my tank that I took offline. The bulkhead is slip on the inside with a fitting already glued into it. I have to manually drain the remaining plumbing every other week to suck out the decaying detritus, and man does it smell rotten when I do it.

[Klaus Jansen]

@Miguelito...

the best way for connecting the Red Dragon Pumps, metric to metric, or metric to inch, are very soft silcone-rubbers. In Europe many custumers using this parts, for stopped the vibrations to the pipes. When you used this parts, you have not problems for connecting to US-pipes and another pipe-dimensions. PVC-rubbers is not good, this parts are to hart....

best regards... Klaus

[moonpod]

I'm actually gonna do what Klaus is showing on my other RDs. I already put those 40mm to 1.5" couplings on the other one so....course I still might just shrink it down to 1.25"....

Travis, my bulkheads are thread on the inside for just that reason.

[o2manyfish]

The conversion for the RD pumps -- That looks like a material that ozone is going to degrade very quickly.

I know that ozone doesn't affect silicone tubing - but here in the US I have not seen alot of 100% silicone tubing in lrg sizes.

Dave B

[scottw]

looks good Chuck . I use the silcone as well on all of my RD's

[scottw]

The conversion for the RD pumps -- That looks like a material that ozone is going to degrade very quickly.

I know that ozone doesn't affect silicone tubing - but here in the US I have not seen alot of 100% silicone tubing in lrg sizes.

Dave B

You can get it direct from Gary when you buy a RD.

[moonpod]

Yeah, it's the biggest friggin' silicone tubing I've ever seen Dave.