High Tide Aquatics

"Giant Mini Fridge" - Red Sea E-170

Vhuang168 said:
Nice and neat but why the big U at the reactor/return split?


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Thanks. Was thinking about adding either a check valve or gate valve in the section below the tee while I was dry fitting. While mounting, I found that the the extra length for the silicon hose made it easier to reach and remove the Red Sea fitting if I need to service the manifold in the future. In such a small system, I'm not too concerned with any head loss resulting from the extra elbows.
 
They mostly work fine mostly, I've had em fail a couple of times. Maybe it's due to light exposure? Not a huge deal, I just like the metal ones better as long as they won't rust.
 
I'm totally bummed out tonight. I got a call from my wife this afternoon that there was water on the floor next to the tank. Like a pro, she powered everything off and soaked up the water before it could do any damage. When I got home I turned the return pump back on fearing that my new manifold was to blame. Turns out that I was half right. The leak was a slow drip coming from Red Sea barbed adapter on the return line. I replaced the stock barb with a 1-in to 3/4-in threaded barb. I've read others have had good luck using 3/4-in NPT adapters with a ton of PTE tape. I opted to use RectorSeal 5 and made sure not to over tighten. It held for 3 days without a drip. Then today, it developed a hairline crack almost dead center in the middle of the fitting. I'm sure this is my fault for trying to use NPT and BSP together. I'm guessing I'll need to order a new adapter from Red Sea and try to find the correct BSP barbed fitting to get this to work.
 
British standard plumbing

It’s the standard everywhere except ‘Merica. So for products made for a global market we have to find adapters
 
Oh different threading. I see. Thought it was a different material or something. I actually realized this probably what he was talking about when thinking about it after asking earlier.
 
Since this is the 2nd Red Sea fitting that I've cracked, I feel like the inside pressure (along with doing dumb things like I did) is it's achilles heal. I'm thinking of buying a 32mm slip x slip coupler to try and reinforce things from the outside. The outer diameter of the Red Sea fitting is just shy of 32mm. The OD of my 1-in spigot to 1-in barb is 33.3mm.

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If I sand down ~0.7mm of the circumference of my 1-in barbb (slip side), it should fit in to the 32mm coupler nicely and still leave plenty of "meat" for structural rigidity.

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Today is my first attempt un-breaking the bared fitting. I found that the inside diameter of the lasco 1 1/4-in female thread to 1-in barb adapter was a near perfect fit for the outer diameter of the Red Sea fitting. After a little loctite plastic epoxy I think I have a solid bond. I only have about a 1mm gap between the edge of the lasco adapter and the twist lock ring, but it still spins.

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An extra layer of epoxy along the inner seam will hopefully prevent any leaks.

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I recently picked up a Skimz MBR127 algae reactor. Out of the box it runs a Skimz Quietpro 1.2 DC pump.

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I wanted to see what it would take to run this reactor from my manifold and started to take things apart.

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Based on the size of the pump hole a 1/2-in close nipple and 90 degree female thread to 1/2-in barbed adapter (found both in Home Depot sprinkler section) seems to fit nicely.

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Add a 1/2-in flexable elbow from my old TLF phosban reactor and we are ready to plumb.

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Now I'm just waiting for my "clean" cheato from aglea barn to fire it up.
 
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