anyone piped their tank with Aryclic tubing or Clear PVC?
 

Im trying to find a way to pipe the return on my tank as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I have to bring 6 feet of pipe over the length of the tank and I really do not want to build a canopy for it. so.... I had a dream, a dream to use clear tubing and have it sit inside the top or just above the glass and run the length of the tank.

Has anyone ever done this? If so, is there a downside? could it get dirty inside?

The clear PVC is twice the cost of the Acrylic and but the problem is im not sure if I can glue the PVC to the Acrylic because they only make PVC elbows.

I think that you will be very unhappy with the clear tubing.

With light from the room and your display lighting you will have algae growing on the inside of the clear tubing almost immediately. I have never seen it done although I have seen a number of tanks with white and grey PVC. I have even seen people paint their white or grey PVC.

Tom R

That's what I was afraid of
even with the return flow it won't stop the growth?

I just cut out some return plumbing last night and took a peek inside the WHITE pvc pipe and it was nasty! It was definitely no longer white on the inside.. and this was sch40 pvc :lol:

Light + water = growth. Flow seems irrelevant.

In fact, there is a good argument AGAINST clear pipe because of this. Stuff is going to grow in the pipes no matter what, and allowing light in there will only accelerate a problem.

You guys are killing my dream
Now I gota come up with a new plan

Maybe you can post a picture of your setup, and why you're going up and over the length of the tank?

There are a lot of people lurking around here with great creative minds :idea:

Definetly a NO on the clear will look bad within weeks.....

I don't have a setup yet. I'm designing it before my tank gets here
I did create a model for it
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...6&postcount=23

I see now, you're going with a peninsula tank!

Do you know if the bottom of your tank is tempered glass? If not, you could drill towards a corner and have a return pipe 'standing', with a 90 at the water surface, then some lock line. the 90 would need a small hole drilled in it for a syphon break.

Depending on the vision of your tank, this may or may not work.

If it was me, I would have the return where the overflow box is. Using your sump return to create flow in your tank at both ends isn't the most effective. If you're going to have a canopy, put a propeller pump of some kind on the far end :)

I was thinking of putting a Tunze 6205 by the herbie
And I believe the bottom is tempered

Another idea maybe is running the pipe inside the tank as it comes over by the herbie and paint it black. Then have a bunch of little opening shooting down to the end of the tank. So with a bunch of openings maybe I dont need a big width on the pipe so its less noticeable?

Or even better yet
Could I return under the overflow box and have a tunze 6205 suck in most of the return and push it down the length of the aquarium?

Would that create enough flow? Or would i need two 6205s or two 6105s

Here is example of my other idea
I think I actually like this one. But im sure someone will find a flaw. I could have it higher up the overflow box too.
http://i389.photobucket.com/albums/o...-HERBIE-V2.png

clear will be opaque in 24 minutes.

This idea has an serious reverse siphon potential. You would be 100% dependent on somehow breaking the reverse siphon with a check valve or some other method....otherwise you would drain your tank into the sump during a power failure.

Could I just not have a couple holes in the pipe at the top of the tank to break the siphon? or is it because it goes so far down that the holes wont work.

What will stop water from spraying out the holes when the pump is on or am I miss understanding something?

when the pump is on, the holes are jsut under the water, when the pump is off the holes will be above the water

Sure..that will work. As will a check valve. Put both in place. I'm just saying that I would not want to be THAT dependent on those working...because if they fail during a power outage you are talking about complete death of the tank and flood damage to your house.

The holes WILL plug up. You'll need to keep those cleaned out all the time.

Check valves get stuck open. Especially if they don't get exercised much.

My returns go over the top edge of the aquarium and exit only 2" below water line. Even if my check valve fails, there is no way I can siphon more than 2" of water from the tank. Design to be fail proof. You'll sleep better.

I would like to second the check-valve suckage thing... although I would like to say that please dont even design a system that uses or relies on one. IMO, and in my experience... they totally suck. MOST check valves (have seen many diff brands in action) fail. Stuff either gums up in them or the 'flap' if its rubberized 'gives out' or gets deformed into the 'open' shape.

Some are around that almost surely will not fail, but for me, thats not good enough. Why not simply design a system that doesn't worry about one, and simply takes care of itself hassle free, 100% guarenteed not to leak, and saves you the money of buying one. Just my opinion. (You can certainly include one if you want, but in a well-designed system, it wont be necessary).

You could terminate it an inch or 2 below where your return goes inside your overflow. Just point the nozzle slightly downwards, That could alleviate the issue of the same water coming from the sump immediately going back into the sump.

damn you untamed and your knowledge
I rejigged it and put it 2 inches below the water level
for my tank it would be 15gallons if the holes pluged and the check valve jammed

I also changed out the tunze 6205 for two tunze 6105s

Watcha guys think?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/aq2tunze6105.jpg

Looking good :-) You can eliminate one bend in your return line if you run the line closer to that outlet side of your sump and tank instead of right smack dab in the middle. Running it in the middle like that probably won't work too well anyway because that line will probably run into the skimmer. That is unless that end of the sump (closest to the overflow) houses the return section of the sump and not the skimmer.

kinda like this..
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1248761945

Oh, and if you are going to put two powerheads there I would consider making the overflow box smaller. Leave enough room on either side of the overflow box for the powerheads. In the future if you ever decide to go vortex they won't work at that end of the tank with your overflow box the way it is. Plus, adjusting the powerheads up and down or removing it for cleaning will be a royal pain in the ass if you have to fish out that magnet out of your overflow box.. trust me, been there tried that! I suppose you could put the magnets on the display sides of the tank. That wouldn't be too bad I guess.

What's a vortex? Also why would it be hard to adjust if the magnets are inside the overflow? I figured it would hide it all. Was even going to run the wires through overflow. If I made the width of the overflow skinnier and placed the heads on the glass wouldn't the wall of the overflow partially block the current?

Also you think the two powerheads are good enough controlled by a apex or should I get the 6205.

Thanks for all the help btw. Just want to get the correct parts the first time.

actually vortech. There are two available, the mp20 and mp40. You can use one or two in your tank. Pricy, but very good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w15wOWcZ7Mo

I was looking at those but they are too loud for me

Are they actually an upgrade from the tunze 6105s?

you can use weldon 16 or 40 I believe to join them, problem is it will be coated with algae in no time and look bad. and the fact that it is close to 80X more expensive than just using regular PVC

Steve