was thinking about just doing soft plumbing. ive done hard plumbing on my other tanks with some soft for reactors and such, and really dont want to do hard again im not the best plumber, i understand the advantages of using hard BUT what are some advantages and Disadvantages of just doing a ONLY soft plumbed tank????,,, I was thinking of using the braided vinyl tubing...if you do soft and have any pics to share that would be great...Thank You...
** I use to dream of Unicorns ** NOW I dream of Discus with the colors of the Rainbow **
I definitely can help you answer this....
I have a thread here on Simply that documented the build up of my Fish Nook (like a fish room, but in a 3x8 closet). http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...mini-fishroom)
I'll start with disadvantages of soft tubing.
All of your valves, elbows, bulkhead fittings, etcc are Barb fittings and are signifcantly smaller in diameter than the tubing sizes, so they can become check points.
One vendors 1/2" or 3/4" is not the same as another vendors 1/2" or 3/4", so you end up using a heat gun at times to stretch tubing over a barb fitting... Or using clamps to tighten a tube over a barb fitting....
The clamp on clamps are worthless, you will end up buying hose clamps with screws.
Tubing is subject to kinks and collapse, even under pressure. Over long horizontal distances you can trapped air pockets.
Initially, the tubing builds up a bio film... It goes away eventually (a few weeks/months), but it can be unsightly when it dislodges and ends up in your tanks every time you stop/start a pump.
Advantages are a bit more esoteric.
Relative ease and forgiveness of cutting
Relative ease of routing
More color options (I won't lie, I really like that all of my fittings, valves, bulkhgeads, tubing, elbows, etc are black)
Peter
Cuerpo en Green Valley, Arizona, USA y Corazón en Alamos, Sonora, Mexico
learning never stops