anyone piped their tank with Aryclic tubing or Clear PVC?
 

Im trying to find a way to pipe the return on my tank as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I have to bring 6 feet of pipe over the length of the tank and I really do not want to build a canopy for it. so.... I had a dream, a dream to use clear tubing and have it sit inside the top or just above the glass and run the length of the tank.

Has anyone ever done this? If so, is there a downside? could it get dirty inside?

The clear PVC is twice the cost of the Acrylic and but the problem is im not sure if I can glue the PVC to the Acrylic because they only make PVC elbows.

I think that you will be very unhappy with the clear tubing.

With light from the room and your display lighting you will have algae growing on the inside of the clear tubing almost immediately. I have never seen it done although I have seen a number of tanks with white and grey PVC. I have even seen people paint their white or grey PVC.

Tom R

That's what I was afraid of
even with the return flow it won't stop the growth?

I just cut out some return plumbing last night and took a peek inside the WHITE pvc pipe and it was nasty! It was definitely no longer white on the inside.. and this was sch40 pvc :lol:

Light + water = growth. Flow seems irrelevant.

In fact, there is a good argument AGAINST clear pipe because of this. Stuff is going to grow in the pipes no matter what, and allowing light in there will only accelerate a problem.

You guys are killing my dream
Now I gota come up with a new plan

Maybe you can post a picture of your setup, and why you're going up and over the length of the tank?

There are a lot of people lurking around here with great creative minds :idea:

Definetly a NO on the clear will look bad within weeks.....

I don't have a setup yet. I'm designing it before my tank gets here
I did create a model for it
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...6&postcount=23

I see now, you're going with a peninsula tank!

Do you know if the bottom of your tank is tempered glass? If not, you could drill towards a corner and have a return pipe 'standing', with a 90 at the water surface, then some lock line. the 90 would need a small hole drilled in it for a syphon break.

Depending on the vision of your tank, this may or may not work.

If it was me, I would have the return where the overflow box is. Using your sump return to create flow in your tank at both ends isn't the most effective. If you're going to have a canopy, put a propeller pump of some kind on the far end :)