Ted: In the first part of the 265-gallon filter installation videos, I gave an overview of the entire seamless sump system and installed the overflows. In this video, I will assemble the return system including plumbing the pump chamber, the returned pumps, the manifold, and installing the siphon stopper emitters. The reservoir tub already has a bulkhead to plumb the connection to the baffle tub, but I need three more holes. The hole on the lower side panel is for the bulkhead that will feed the external return pump. The seamless sumps have pilot holes molded into them to make drilling the sides easy.
I need a smaller hole on the top of the tub for the return hose from the internal pump, and I needed the third hole to fit a cord grommet for the power cords from the internal pump and the heater. A vacuum cleaner is handy to have on hand when using a hole saw dead. The connection between the reservoir and baffle tubs only requires two short pieces of one, one half inch PVC, and a universal connector fitting. Before I glue anything I always dry-fit the parts.
The intake on the external pump is one inch, but the only bulkhead that I had on hand was a one and one-quarter inch. To plumb the pump I need a step-down bushing to fit the bulkhead, some one inch PVC pipe, and a one-inch universal connector. I dry fit all the parts and then mark where I need to cut the PVC so the pump will be in the right place on the pad. It is much better to be safe than sorry, so I dry fit at all again.
Here are a few tips that I have learned about gluing PVC parts together. Mostly I learned them the hard way. Remove stickers from parts of fittings that will be glued, that can prevent leaks later. Layout all the parts in the order that they're going to be glued. This'll prevent making mistakes gluing the wrong parts together. Use primer. I like to pre-prime all the parts all at once wraps my mind about what's going to get glued. Wipe up drips. They look ugly and can cause problems later.
I just made a mistake. Another good tip is to keep the universal connector parts separate while you're gluing them to avoid glue dripping in and messing up the threads. I didn't do that on this demonstration and I got lucky. If you're a gluing the intake fitting on the pump, take it off the pump. This will make sure there's no chance of any glue dripping into the impeller and causing problems and make sure that the locking nut is on the fitting.
If you glue the intake fitting to the universal connector without the locking nut oops. We're going to look at it again and this time I remembered to separate the connector. The PVC cement will not be totally cured for several hours, but after about 10 minutes they can be plumbed into the system, but I wouldn't put any water through them until the glue is completely cured. Watch this. While I make a really bad mistake, I might even say a bad word.
The main reason to use universal connectors when hard plumbing is to prevent having to cut pipe. If you ever have to move a tub or replace a pump, but they also make it easier to plumb everything together at the start. You can glue the ends of the runs into the pumps and bulkheads while they are apart and then link them up by screwing the connectors together. Just don't forget to include the locking nuts.
Let's take a look at the siphon stopper emitters. The challenge I've had in this aquarium is I have to get the siphon stopper emitters in through the universal rocks background. The two that are over here on these different sides they'll be okay because I'll be able to drill holes through the universal rock background to be able to extend them through. You will see the emitters on this side of the universal rocks background, but I'm going to hide those with wood pretty well. The one in the center, unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I can't get a full siphon stopper system into the space behind this bump-out. Neither can I get to fit going through it on like cutting a gap in the top.
I could run a pipe and have it stick way out here, but then this siphon stopper is really way out here in the middle of the tank and I really don't want that. I've come up with another system that we're going to use, but the first thing we're going to do is get the holes drilled to be able to install these bulkheads to be able to install the siphon stoppers. I will drill the big hole in the background from the front but first I need to center a pilot hole from the back.
I cannot slip the bulkhead on the left behind the background because the material is too close to the glass. It is pretty important to be able to take that bulkhead out so I will drill a hole large enough to fit the entire face of the bulkhead. The universal rocks background material is thick, tough, and uneven, which makes it a challenge to cut through. Just be patient. Do not use a lot of pressure. When the bit breaks through we do not want to touch the glass.
Always remember the gasket on a bulkhead goes inside the tank. I tighten the nut hand tight. If it leaks later, I can tighten it just enough to stop the leak. I'm not a big fan of over-tightening bulkheads. The siphon stopper just slips into the bulkhead. I do not like to glue it, but you can if it ends up being too loose. The bulkhead on the other side will fit behind the background so I will use an extension pipe from the siphon stopper through to the bulkhead.
I still need a pilot hole, which is trickier to center because of the gap and the background is far from flat. Unfortunately, I messed up getting a video of drilling the hole and installing the siphon stopper. The hole was tricky because the place it had to be is very contoured. After drilling the pilot hole, I had to use this a step-down drill bit to cut a hole that a three quarter inch piece of PVC connecting extension would fit through to get to the bulkhead.
The center emitter would not fit as a siphon stopper so I had to dismantle it and reconfigure an emitter that would direct water right at the water surface which I wanted to do, but now this emitter is a back siphon risk. I will probably install a check valve on the return line at some point. There will be two pumps on the system, the internal submerged pump will drive water to the center emitter only. The external pump will push to the two outside emitters so I need a manifold but first I'm gluing in the siphon stopper elbows so the cement can cure before I mess with them.
I want straight short lines for the hoses so I start with a rough cut piece of three quarter inch PVC, with the intake elbow in place and eyeball line up the other fittings on the manifold. As I mark the cuts, I make and dry fit a manifold one fitting at a time. I found that this method is more reliable that measuring, at least for me. The person who taught me that was a plumber. Shout out to my friend Michael Lawson.
The manifold has two slip by thread three quarter inch elbows and one slip thread slip T. One elbow will orient down to the pump, the T will point up at the first siphon stopper emitter and the end of the manifold will have the other elbow oriented up to the other siphon stopper. The only important things to be careful of in gluing is to make sure the openings of the manifold are parallel and not to get glue into the fitting threads. Each thread fitting at the manifold gets a three quarter inch nylon hose barb and I do believe in the use of thread tape but Michael would tell me to get the purple tape and use more of it.
I am using PVC pipe hangers to hold the manifold in place and just nailing them into the plywood deck of the stand. I use the level to make sure that the hose barbs are lined up.The three quarter inch return hose goes on to the barbs with just a little bit of heat. Make sure you apply opposite pressure when you're pushing a hose onto a barb and a bulkhead they break easily. Just like the manifold pipe, I measure and cut as I build. For this kind of hose, I do use hose clamps. The outflow barb on the pump is plumbed to the manifold in the same way.
There is always some stubborn bend in thick hose, but it can be retrained into place with heat. Just hold it in position while it cools. Attaching the hose to the internal pump is harder because I need to thread the hose into the tub before connecting it to the pump. That means that most of the work is done inside the tub. Yes, I could cut the tubing and pull the end of the tub but I do not want to waste hose and I want the hose from the pump to be as short as possible.
We're almost done, the overflows are done, the emitters are done all the plumbing is done, so all that's left now is to get some of the media put into the filter, water test a few things, Aqua escape a little bit, fill it up full of water and turn it on. We'll do that in the next episode of this series. Coming at you pretty quick. Probably tomorrow.
