Please critique my plumbing

[fishmommy]

First build....this is a Herbie with a second emergency drain for extra warm fuzzies. Supply side has a fuge vertical spraybar coming off of it.
Particularly concerned about how much I can bend the flex pvc coming out of the fittings....these are seeing a lot of side load due to space constraints.
So from left to right ... Gated supply with fuge on a ball valve. Then the secondary dry emergency drain. Then the full siphon drain with gate valve. Then the emergency trickle drain.
Please let me know what you think....I have not glued anything yet.

 

[JohnK]

Looks good. If you have a siphon, a trickle and a dry emergency then it's actually a "bean" drain.

I wouldn't be very concerned about the flex PVC having a twist as along as the fittings are cemented. BUT I would be very concerned if there is a twisting/levering force being applied to the tank bottom through the bulkhead fittings. PVC or flex PVC cemented into fittings is very strong, glass tanks don't handle that kind of levering force well at all. (not such a concern if it's an acrylic tank, but the bulkheads could still crack from that same levering force.)

 

[DBLeite]

You did great work there!!
You obviously know your way around PVC. FWIW, I would lose the black pipe.
I found that it worked better, flexibility wise, at longer lengths.
The shorter the run, the more pressure it posed.
And over time when there is a build-up, it will become even more rigid.

 

[fishmommy]

excellent advice, thank you! So you would replace the black pipes with 45 degree elbows and straight PVC?

 

[stingythingy45]

Looks good.
Not sure what the pipe with the 2- 90 deg. bends in it is for.
How many trips and how much extra PVC fittings do you have?
I know,plumbed down to my basement sump years ago.

 

[fishmommy]

yeah, I will be having a spare fittings sale soon!

 

[ReefKeeper1699]

From what I see it looks great. Maybe add a hanger on that 90 degree long stretch you got there to take away creep over time and stress on the brittle tempered glass on the bottom if that's what it is.. Pretty much what John brought up

 

[s_kelley]

Looks good, I used spaflex where I could on mine. The ability to slightly bend is huge sometimes and spaflex is really rugged.

 

[cilyjr]

BUT I would be very concerned if there is a twisting/levering force being applied to the tank bottom through the bulkhead fittings. PVC or flex PVC cemented into fittings is very strong, glass tanks don't handle that kind of levering force well at all. (not such a concern if it's an acrylic tank, but the bulkheads could still crack from that same levering force.)

This.

 

[fishmommy]

yep, I have removed the spaflex and will replace with hard pvc to eliminate the moment loads.
I do have support under the plumbing that hangs off the side of the return to prevent moment loading on that as well. It's black poly strap you can see in the picture but you have to look for it.
Thanks again everybody - this has helped tremendously!
Look for a build thread coming probably in the next month or so

 

[ReefKeeper1699]

Looking forward to it!!! Happy reefing!

 

[cilyjr]

Is there a gate valve on the return line? If so you could increase the life of your pump (mostly for magnito driven pumps) by removing the valve and putting a t that would send water back to the sump then placing the valve on that line. If you want more flow to the display you close the line that returns to the sump. If more open it..what you have will not really be a problem and it will work but magnetic driven pumps don't like back pressure on the impeller.