Regards to Silicone Tubing

[sharkin]

question to my fellow reefers (no pun intended ), is there anything i need to be aware of if i wanted to run a few reactors with silicone tubing (even like medical grade 1/2" silicone) . reason why i ask, when vinyl tubing (the typical aquarium clear tubing 1/2") is is used in short lengths it puts a lot of pressure on the outlets and inlets and tends to push on small reactors when trying to bend in small spaces, whereas its hard to use a 2-3 foot length of vinyl without it being very stiff in certain applications and not bend. the application i'd be using it for, would only have like 100-300 gph going through it and not using a pressurized reactor. other than being on tad bit of more expensive, any harm in using it? anyone else use the real flexible silicone tubing to hook up pumps to reactors and vice verson?

 

[Mangodude]

I don't have a clue sorry

What is your fear of it? Do you think it would leach something? I would think if its medical grade its probably better than the chinese brand vinyl tubing we usually buy..

 

[sharkin]

I don't have a clue sorry

What is your fear of it? Do you think it would leach something? I would think if its medical grade its probably better than the chinese brand vinyl tubing we usually buy..

exactly, fear of perhaps leaching anything. and why its not more common use to use silicon over the vinly tubing, being the silicone to me would be more practical for the ability to twist and turn around tighter spaces easier

 

[Mangodude]

Yeah, it makes more sense to me to use silicone as long as there's nothing getting leached from it.. I agree with vinyl being hard to bend, especially for small closed areas like around reactors.

 

[rockstar]

Silicone tubing is commonly used in coffee makers internally as it can withstand high heat. It is also used for racking wort for homebrewing, again because it can withstand high heat. When I had to repair a leaky coffeemaker, I could only find the silicone tubing at a homebrew supply store online. Since these are both food grade applications, I would not worry about anything bad leaching from the silicone.

 

[sharkin]

ok kool, thanks for the input, but yhea i think why its not so popular is the price. expecially if u start getting into medical grade stuff, i mean ive seen 10feet of medical grade 1/2" tubing to be 50 dollars lol. but yeha the other concern was really if it can withstand the pressure and not rip apart if connected to a pump pushing 100-400 gph ya know.

 

[Ali :D]

Most skimmer airlines use silicone tubing. Not to mention the silicone holding your tank together! High pressure is its only downfall but its highly unlikely that even with a high pressure pump you will push its limits. Medical grade is unnecessary, often it only means "sterile"

 

[BlueCoast]

silicone is very inert, it does not react with most things. This is a good thing when using it for cooking or in a reef tank. Price would be a factor. For reactors, hard plumbing is used frequently since it tends to last longer.

They sell both regular plastic airline tubing and silicone tubing. The silicone tubing is a little more upfront, but saves in the long run since it does not dry out and harden like a lot of the rubber tubing we use.

TL;DR silicone tubing is fine.

 

[sharkin]

silicone is very inert, it does not react with most things. This is a good thing when using it for cooking or in a reef tank. Price would be a factor. For reactors, hard plumbing is used frequently since it tends to last longer.

They sell both regular plastic airline tubing and silicone tubing. The silicone tubing is a little more upfront, but saves in the long run since it does not dry out and harden like a lot of the rubber tubing we use.

TL;DR silicone tubing is fine.

very good info , and cool, think ima work on switching a lot out for the silicone tubing , just cause the typical tubing is just so stiff

 

[sharkin]

wanan talk about overkill, chk this out http://www.gvc.net/p/3472/medical-grade-platinum-cured-silicone-tubing lol but hey , knew nothign was goign to be cheap in this hobby

 

[warrenmichaels]

Silicone tubing comes in clear or colored. In some applications, a red additive is used which contains tin. I don't know if this is the same chemical that is present in red colored silicone. I also don't know what additives might be present in other colored silicones. There is a "medical" grade of silicone, and I think this designation is based, at least in part, on the method used to cure the silicone. For a reef tank, this grade would not be necessary. Different wall thicknesses are usually available.

 

[Daimyo68]

Why not just grab the wife's hair dryer (if you don't have a heat gun), heat up the vinyl tubing, and whalla, easily curved to your desired angles/confines