MarcosDelgado0
Supporting Member
That’s exactly what I need thank you! I should’ve checked Lowe’s instead of another Home Depot lol
That’s exactly what I need thank you! I should’ve checked Lowe’s instead of another Home Depot lol
I was just going to use PlastiDip. I’ve used it on other tanks before and it’s fairly easy to apply as it comes in a spray paint container and it’s easy to peel off if I ever need to remove it. I was almost going to go white but didn’t think about how visible algae would be. Thinking I’m going to go with black for both back and bottomInstead of painting you could always just use a black backing so you can removed if you ever want to.
This one is just PVC and using static cling. There are other vinyl ones with adhesive if you prefer.
Is this what you mean by vinyl?I have used the vinyl you can buy at craft stores (Michael's). Relatively easy to apply as long as you use a spray bottle on the glass first to aid with smoothing out bubbles. I get the one that's not permanent.
Yeah, that's exactly what I've used.Is this what you mean by vinyl?
I have 2 - 4ft foot peices of blue, 3/4 inch if you need it.This is what I have so far for the drain plumbing. It’s still dry fit only. I’m going to replace the white PVC with blue, I just had extra on hand and wanted to test with white before wasting a bunch of blue. Honestly I wish I would’ve gone with only one return. I don’t really have a lot of space and now the water will have to flow a long way to get to the right return whereas the left return is directly above the return pump. I also wanted to do a manifold to future proof but I don’t have a lot of space to work with so we’ll see how that goes
Thanks! I’m actually going to do 1” for the return and then use a 3/4” reducer right before the return bulkhead. At least I think that’s a good idea lol. I’m not the best at this plumbing stuffI have 2 - 4ft foot peices of blue, 3/4 inch if you need it.
In case it's helpful, you can get plastic compatible spray paint and then just buy normal PVC and have it whatever color you want. I wouldn't submerge the painted section underwater, and I try and tape off the main section that will be glued, but it's very easy and convenient versus keeping the expensive colored pipe on hand.
Ace has it, as do most places. Krylon fusion is the name brand, but there's other similar versions.
Regarding the plumbing, seems like a lot but seems like you're thinking it through well. I would guess the pretty short length of the run to the returns will affect things far less than using the manifolds for something. If you're future proofing being able to run a reactor or uv or... off the manifolds, size your pump on that.
I’m honestly not sure. When I was looking at similar builds that had an external beam animal style a lot of the setups had ball valves on all 3 drains. I figured there’s a reason but I don’t know what it is lol. I did test it against the wall and I’d be able to reach them if I ever did need to close themAny reason for the valve on the secondary and emergency drain pipes? The full siphon drain should be regulating the water level. I might be missing something though since I've only done Herbie style overflows. Those valves aren't cheap so maybe they can be repurposed to somewhere more functional. The location in the center back might also be a pain in the ass place to reach.
Nice plumbing work so far. I know it’s a PITA! That’s a lot of gate valves for the manifold. I assume you are planning to use them to run GFO, Carbon and UV? I made a similar manifold for a previous tank of mine but ended up not using them. I ran each of them off a separate pump dumping into the return chamber. If you plan on using a UV I would split the returns and run two pumps. One pump dedicated for the UV so you can control the flow rate better. Redundancy is always a good thing.
No cons in having a manifold for GFO and Carbon, besides $ and space in your sump. The issue you will have with running a UV from the manifold is water circulation. One gate valve will be used for water coming into the UV, the outflow will either go back into your sump or you will have to connect it to one of the other gate valves. The flow of water from the UV isn't getting circulated properly throughout your system.At least in the beginning I’m not planning to run any reactors or UV. The idea for the manifold was because I read it’s better to have it and not use it then need it later on and have to reconfigure all the plumbing while the tank is up and running. Is there any con to having the manifold without anything hooked up to it? Other than cost of course. The three gate valves were for UV, Carbon, GFO as you mentioned but don’t plan on hooking them up unless I need them later on. Good point about the UV, I was thinking that by using a gate valve on the manifold I would be able to control the flow better for UV. I think if I do end up running UV and I can’t get the flow dialed in through the manifold, I’ll just use a second pump and plumb the UV return over the rim of the tank