Rubber pipe connectors?

[drydock]

Hi,

I'm gonna preface this as asking if this is a good idea or not and then open it up to suggestions if someone has a better idea.

I bought a used 240 gallon with PVC 2" Drain and a 1.25" Return lines. To remove the tank from the original stand, there was some precision surgery with the reciprocating saw...

Now I am working on how to reconnect everything and I found a couple of rubber pipe connectors with the stainless steel band clamps around them that you tighten to fasten it in place. Sort of like this...

http://www.missionrubber.com/images/BandSeal.jpg

I'm a newbie, so let me know if this is a good idea or a bad one...

My other option is to entirely redo the return plumbing, which I would prefer to avoid. I could also find a glue in connector, but my logic was that if I had to cut this once, I may have to do it again. I'm not really that worried about the join leaking as it will be directly over my sump, but I have noticed that I don't see a lot of rubber gaskets in SW equipment (just an observation) and I was wondering if there was a specific reason for that.

Thanks,

[sharuq1]

Rubber tends to fall apart in salt water would be the reason for not seeing much for rubber gaskets.

[brandy]

Rubber will, yes, getting hardening with SW then release the polutions into the SW. Bad idea, to me.
I have not much experience in this, but I am sure that's how it will turn out.

[spreerider]

i have used those clamps on fish farms and they do not last, i would go with the ones made for coupling PVC that are a bit more expensive, but very reliable, or you could use a straight coupler and glue them in properly.

[Parker]

I might be a bit confused, but wouldn't it be easier to replace the bulkheads and replumb the tank with new PVC?

[Delphinus]

I wouldn't use the rubber. You could, however, glue in unions (rather than couplers) where the cut pipes join, that way you can disassemble and reassemble anytime you need to.

Having said that though, if it was me, I'd just replace the bulkheads and replumb. It's a pain in the you-know-what, but if I was setting up a "new" (new to me) tank I'd want to be starting fresh...

[drydock]

I might be a bit confused, but wouldn't it be easier to replace the bulkheads and replumb the tank with new PVC?

Here is the big reason why I am trying not to replace everything...

http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk238/rgraham183/DSC02757-1.jpg


It is a center overflow and the returns can be adjusted on all 3 sides. Turns out to be a lot of PVC in there... (The drain pipe has already been removed.)

[drydock]

I wouldn't use the rubber. You could, however, glue in unions (rather than couplers) where the cut pipes join, that way you can disassemble and reassemble anytime you need to.

Having said that though, if it was me, I'd just replace the bulkheads and replumb. It's a pain in the you-know-what, but if I was setting up a "new" (new to me) tank I'd want to be starting fresh...

Ya, I think I was trying to get cute with wanting to have an adjustable drain if I ever needed to move my sump around... simple is better, so I think I'll just glue it all in place.

Next question... the return bulkheads are all under the surface of the water. I THINK I have enough room in my sump if the power goes out to cover the backflow (about 25 gallons of free space before my sump would overflow) Should I be using some sort of check valve? What type would work best?

[midgetwaiter]

A PVC flap check will run you about $30, they work pretty good but they can get stuck. Don't bet the hardwood on it, make sure you have enough room in the sump if it fails.

[Parker]

Ahh I see now why you don't want to replumb that.

Do your returns have siphon break holes in them?

[drydock]

A PVC flap check will run you about $30, they work pretty good but they can get stuck. Don't bet the hardwood on it, make sure you have enough room in the sump if it fails.

If you can't rely on them, what's the point???

Ahh I see now why you don't want to replumb that.

Do your returns have siphon break holes in them?

No the don't. The way that the returns are set up, I don't think they would help. They bulkheads are about an inch below the water level. There wouldn't be a siphon to break.

Two of them exhaust straight out from the bulkhead, one has an adjustable arm on it to direct flow some more. I suppose I could use pvc or lockline and bring it up over the waterline and then down again and then drill siphon breaks...

[Delphinus]

Yeah, having had a few check valves fail on me, I don't trust them anymore either. Indeed, what's the point. They work to a point but I guess eventually the slime buildup inside the pipes gets to be too much to form a seal or maybe the spring starts to corrode.

Another idea with locline is just have the nozzles exhaust near the water surface. This is what I do on my tanks. (And then just have enough flow inside the tank to mix it up.) That way there's no siphon hole to get clogged. On one tank I had vermetid snails and valonia growing over my siphon holes on a weekly basis, I grew weary of constantly scraping them clean every couple of days, so I just pulled the whole manifold out and replaced it with locline outputs.