I drilled the bottom of my 40 breeder to accept (2) 1" bulk heads. one return and one drain. As you can see I used a combination of pvc and flex line from the pump to the 1" bulk head via a threaded adapter the flex is to allow the pump to vibrate more naturally and the ball valve is just for set up procedures as I had to use a back flow preventer as I messed up and put my supply to low in the tank. from the bulk head at the bottom of the tank I then ran 1" pvc to the top. now for the drain from the sump up, I ran 1" with (2) 45's to get in the correct location up to the bulk head then I ran 1" from the bulk head up to about 3" from the surface level of tank water at this point I reduced to 3/4" and stuck about 2' of 1/8" hose down my drain leaving the top exposed to the air (which eliminated the gurgle). I then used the variable adjustment on my eheim to get the water level inside the overflow to be about 1" above the top of my drain line. so if I were using your set up I would restrict out of the pump and not the drain with a ball valve as others have mentioned you might end up with blockage in your drain line and that would be very messy especially if you are using an auto top off system.
PVC Plumbing help!
- Thread starter Heelfiend
- Start date
Im14abeer
BRILLIANT!
If I had your situation, I'd use the 1" line as a full siphon and the 1 1/2" as the emergency drain. I'd throttle the output of the pump, but I'd still put a gate valve in the siphon drain because you may need it to tweak the height in your overflow if you add a reactor off the return later. You don't want 900+ gph through your sump anyway. As far as threaded or slip, my thinking is you should at least use threaded from the bulkhead to the first union. This way if you need to replace a bulkhead, you can get it out and reuse your plumbing with no fuss. No trying to cut the pipe under your stand with the sump still in there, no trying to glue in a coupling, just a few wraps of Teflon tape and you're back in business. One last thing, don't forget a siphon break in your return line.
