I recently moved into a new house and have an opportunity to put an equipment room in the basement. I noticed everyone uses PVC to plumb between the display and equipment room. Has anyone used the black flexible tubing? I could use hard PVC but would need a lot of elbows but if I used the flexible vinyl tubing I could avoid joints. I feel the flexible tuning would be better due to no glued connections or hard 90s but have never seen anyone use it for a full setup. Any advice would be appreciated.
Basement Plumbing
- Thread starter Ace6090
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Smarkow
Valuable Member
I don’t use it between floors of the house, but I have used it to pipe water about 20ft across a room without issue.
I love using the stuff, I do heat the ends in hot water before making connections so that it will slide on easier.
I love using the stuff, I do heat the ends in hot water before making connections so that it will slide on easier.
Do you see an issue using it between floors? Why have you chosen not to? I used it on my current setup (tank plus sump) and heated the ends in hot water before clamping them so they would be more malleable as you mentioned and I was wondering why I couldn't use it for a whole house setup
ZoWhat
10K Club member
Flexible tubing on pumping water back up to the DT.... Im guessing.... would have air pockets and sags along the flex tubing making your return pump extremely inefficient.
Maybe to the point where the water entering the tank would come out in varying rates of flow. Like a bunch of water for 10secs....then gurgle gurgle, trickle trickle..... then process starts over. The whole time the pump fighting for PSI pressure along sag-points.
Hard PVC provides hard surfacing for the return pump to build up PSI pressure along the hard walls all the way up.
This just my theory... but I bet you'd burn up your return that would be fighting PSI pressures along the flex.
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Maybe to the point where the water entering the tank would come out in varying rates of flow. Like a bunch of water for 10secs....then gurgle gurgle, trickle trickle..... then process starts over. The whole time the pump fighting for PSI pressure along sag-points.
Hard PVC provides hard surfacing for the return pump to build up PSI pressure along the hard walls all the way up.
This just my theory... but I bet you'd burn up your return that would be fighting PSI pressures along the flex.
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Smarkow
Valuable Member
I think, in terms of trapped bubbles or cavitation, the only dif between braided vinyl and hard PVC would be the ability to see the bubbles in the vinyl but not in the PVC.
Looking at the working and burst pressures of braided vinyl vs pvc, hard pvc does have slightly higher burst pressures by about 5% or so. Probably not within the margin of error for hobby grade equipment.
Looking at the working and burst pressures of braided vinyl vs pvc, hard pvc does have slightly higher burst pressures by about 5% or so. Probably not within the margin of error for hobby grade equipment.
DSEKULA
Well-Known Member
My drain lines are hard plumbed and part of my return is. My returns have pvc cemented directly to the bulkheads, an elbow, stick of pvc that extends below the tank, and then a female adapter with a threaded Barb where a vinyl line runs down to the basement. The only issues I see is that the vinyl has a shorter life than the pvc and will need to be replaced. That's why I didn't extend it straight to the top back of the tank where access would be a pain. As long as the line is accessible and the same size pvc would work so will flexible tube.
Okay, more frequent replacement of the vinyl makes sense. Based on your experience, how often does it need to be replaced? I could hard plumb just through the walls and hard to get areas but the vinyl would avoid a lot of joints so curious if the reward outweighs the risks
DSEKULA
Well-Known Member
I replace mine yearly, at that point the material is definitely stretched out and easier to pull off the barbs but not yet leaking. It can definitely make it longer but my company does all our clients lines on a yearly basis so I just put my tank maintenance on that schedule as well, It basically goes right on my work calendar with an "after work" notation with it I do that for all my aquarium maintenance. It's makes it easy enough and it ensures it gets done etc.
I have flexible so called (hot tub line) for my sump/fuge in the basement 12 feet from my display tank. 1inch drain and 3/4 return size. I started out with gurgle problems but make sure DC return pump is MORE then adequate. I see no other issues....but ima noob so....
