PVC Drain System

[mkng07]

Hello!

I've officially got MTS! I just took advantage of petcos $1 gallon sale and picked up two 40Breeders and one 20 long. Problem is now... I realize my maintenance work has tripled, from one tank to four now! I've thought about a drip system but the honest truth is I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to plumbing.

So my old ways of doing WC's was draining and filling all with a garden hose. Now with three more tanks, I'm trying to find a more efficient way of doing this. I'm looking to create a drain system using PVC pipes to make my water changes easier on three tanks. This is what I've come up with so far.


Heres a shot of my tanks. (Excuse the messiness)


So if its not obvious what I'm doing, what I'm trying to do is use pvc pipes to connect the top two tanks that will essentially drain into the 20 gallon long while flow controlled with ball valves. So if you haven't figured out by now, the 20 gallon long is on the bottom. The 20 long will then have a pump that will drain to the sink.

Version 1 is what I came up with and I would just like to get some feedback on this design. I've never worked with PVC or built anything like this before so any suggestions would be appreciated.

-Matt

[John_Nicholson]

I don't really like drip system as they tend to be inefficient. I prefer to drill the tanks and then use bulkheads so that after I siphon I can just turn a valve to drain the tank.

-john

[Chad Hughes]

Draining and filling a tank is the most time consuming (depending on tank size) of a tank cleaning task. Make it as convenient as possible.

I agree with John. The use of low point bulkhead fittings will serve you much better without relying on a siphon (which will break from time to time) to drain the tanks. Plumb them so you can drain the tanks individually. Plumb the valves in parallel rather than series to give you complete control over each tank. You never want to make one tank dependent on another.

[DJW]

Two of my tanks came with holes drilled in the bottom. I installed a 5" tall riser in one of the holes, which when you turn a valve drains about 75% of the tank, the lines being plumbed to the sewer. Slipping a coupling on top reduces the amount drained if needed. Then turn the drain valve off and the valve to the pump on, filling the tank through the same riser.

I have used continuous drip (actually more like a stream) and IMO it can be made to work. The problem I had with it is that unless you can use either straight tap or straight RO it gets to be a problem because if you want to add anything to the water or mix tap/RO you need all this expensive gadgetry. It is inefficient but I have unlimited water, although with poor quality.

[Kal-El]

If you don't want to drill you can do what I do. The setup is a siphon setup, but I added a pump to help drain even faster. Just turn the valve you want to drain.

[rickztahone]

If you don't want to drill you can do what I do. The setup is a siphon setup, but I added a pump to help drain even faster. Just turn the valve you want to drain.

I think this system might be the easiest. I personally do not like ball valves as they get stuck after a long time of use. I prefer gate valves but they require more turn to on and off, but never really "stick". This is the gate valve I used for my setup, not that expensive and very dependable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...r_1_10&sr=8-10

[Kal-El]

I think this system might be the easiest. I personally do not like ball valves as they get stuck after a long time of use. I prefer gate valves but they require more turn to on and off, but never really "stick". This is the gate valve I used for my setup, not that expensive and very dependable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...r_1_10&sr=8-10

Ball valve is cheap and hasn't failed on me yet. I consider gate valve at one point but because it's sticks out I opt out. Maybe because i do daily WC so the ball valve are being turn daily.

[rickztahone]

Ball valve is cheap and hasn't failed on me yet. I consider gate valve at one point but because it's sticks out I opt out. Maybe because i do daily WC so the ball valve are being turn daily.

That may be it. I had one bad experience once with a black handled one, which wasn't a very cheap one either, and it stuck and I had to use the rubber mallet to unstick it. I also did daily wc's at the time and it was getting used often. Luckily for me, all the water use to get drained out of that tank, so no extra water than usual was siphoned out, but had I not wanted to, that tank would have been sucked dry due to that ball valve. The one I linked to is relatively cheap in price, but not in quality.

[mkng07]

Draining and filling a tank is the most time consuming (depending on tank size) of a tank cleaning task. Make it as convenient as possible.

I agree with John. The use of low point bulkhead fittings will serve you much better without relying on a siphon (which will break from time to time) to drain the tanks. Plumb them so you can drain the tanks individually. Plumb the valves in parallel rather than series to give you complete control over each tank. You never want to make one tank dependent on another.

I didn't think about plumbing in parallel. That make sense.

[mkng07]

If you don't want to drill you can do what I do. The setup is a siphon setup, but I added a pump to help drain even faster. Just turn the valve you want to drain.

Nice set up. The pair on the bottom rack with the babies is so awesome. This set up is what I want to do with my 3 tanks.

Do you have an issue with the siphon break? How do you prime this system?

[Kal-El]

Nice set up. The pair on the bottom rack with the babies is so awesome. This set up is what I want to do with my 3 tanks.

Do you have an issue with the siphon break? How do you prime this system?

No. Never have any issue. If I do, I would turn the valve on the top tank to start the siphon to the pump and let the pump do its thing. To prime the setup on initial built you fill the top PVC with water while the stop valve is off. Put the intake PVC pipe going into the tank on top the PVC (Do not glue this part as it allows you to take off and on as needed). Turn the valve on and let gravity do its thing. Once water is draining turn the pump on and you will drain 29 gallons in a minute depending on your pump.

[mkng07]

No. Never have any issue. If I do, I would turn the valve on the top tank to start the siphon to the pump and let the pump do its thing. To prime the setup on initial built you fill the top PVC with water while the stop valve is off. Put the intake PVC pipe going into the tank on top the PVC (Do not glue this part as it allows you to take off and on as needed). Turn the valve on and let gravity do its thing. Once water is draining turn the pump on and you will drain 29 gallons in a minute depending on your pump.

Ah I see. For the drain, I'm planning to modify this overflow build from DIY king.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZytENJZtJw

Thank you everyone for your suggestions

[mkng07]

Update:
I'm planning to re-design the drain/fill system and go with a external pump instead of relying on gravity. I was able to pick up a SP2 Fluval pump and was planning to plumb it outside of the tank with the pump resting near the ground. The pump would be connected to a main drain line near the floor that would be fed from the tanks above I'm planning to use the pump to drain the tanks to a sink and then re-fill the tanks using a hose. Heres what I came up with. This is a simple version with just two tanks but I'm also planning to plumb 2 more racks to the main drain line as well.

I know the drawing is a bit messy but please let me know if you have any questions.


1. If I re-fill with a hose from the top tank would I be able to drain the from the top tank into the bottom tank with my current design?
2. Would my current draining design work to drain the tanks? Do you see any flaws with it? I know they are in series and that parallel would give me more independent control over each tank. The reason I did it in series was because for the filling process, I wanted to be able to drain from the top tank to the bottom tank without re-adjusting the hose to every tank. (I'm hoping that the extra ball valves along the tanks will give me some control on how fast/little each tank drains/fills)

I could really use some input on this. I'm planning to plumb this tonight before Kenny ships out the fish for the Nov. shipment. Its crunch time!

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!!!

[MKD]

Refill is not safe to me, will flood if siphon breaks. Can you make T between 2 ball valves? This way you can fill top or bottom tank whatever you want.

[mkng07]

Refill is not safe to me, will flood if siphon breaks. Can you make T between 2 ball valves? This way you can fill top or bottom tank whatever you want.

Hi Tony,

I'm a novice when it comes to plumbing. But I believe I did add a tee between the two valves. Its located between the two valves and the vertical pipe leading to the main drain line. I see what your saying about the flooding if the siphon breaks. To resolve that I'm thinking about adding a checkvalve at the top of the pipe to re-start the siphon if needed.

I tested it last night, when I turned on the pump, nothing happened. Seems like the pump was just sucking in air and not actually any water. It could also be that was because I didn't glue all the pvc together. But I expected the pumped to create a suction. It wasn't until the pipe was primed that the pump was able to start draining. My concern is after I'm done draining the tanks and I close the valve in front of the pump, is if the water will leak from the pump because of the water sitting in the pipe. Still need to test it out. I never used a sump pump or hard plumbed anything before so I'm just learning as I go. I've been looking through the forum and online for hours