I see tons of reef build trees and from my impression, there is more than one way to go with the aquarium plumbing from there to where my conclusion is why there are so many ways to plumb an aquarium it is so simple or people just complected something that is simple from the beginning, I hope you understand my question....
Best plumping
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Slow and steady wins the race!
I like cheap and simple 
My plumbing, $20 and 20 minutes to install.
My plumbing, $20 and 20 minutes to install.
Mandelstam
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In every technical solution there are always compromises being made. Cost, noise, safety/risk, lifespan, space requirements, etc. Plumbing for the water cooling system in a nuclear powerplant is not going to be planned with the same risk factor as the plumbing for a residential home. And in our case I think we all make value the potential risk differently which has a great impact on how we choose to do our plumbing. There's also the fact that many options in the end manage to do the work they're supposed to quite well.
Fritzhamer
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There is no such thing as “best” in this hobby. No Best skimmer, not a Best lights, etc. What is the Best food? The Best religion? The Best car? The Best style of home? Best job? It comes down to personal needs and preference really.
As was mentioned there are pros and cons to everything. It’s really Rock, Paper, Scissors. Hard plumbing is great but has it’s downsides, the many types of soft plumbing are great but have their downsides.
As was mentioned there are pros and cons to everything. It’s really Rock, Paper, Scissors. Hard plumbing is great but has it’s downsides, the many types of soft plumbing are great but have their downsides.
Fritzhamer
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To elaborate on my above post, I’ve done both. I used to always soft plumb everything because it is easy, cheap and there is minimal head loss (back pressure on the return pump from twists and turns). I saw Marc Levinson’s website 15 years or so ago and decided to give PVC plumbing a try.
Hard plumbing, with some tweaks, eventually was about as quiet and allowed me to gravity feed a skimmer and do some other cool things that I couldn’t with soft plumbing.
Today I use both. I have PVC on my drains so that I can use the Bean Animal style drain. I have my return soft plumbed to a PVC return pipe that goes up and over the top of my aquarium. For me, today, that’s the best.
Hard plumbing, with some tweaks, eventually was about as quiet and allowed me to gravity feed a skimmer and do some other cool things that I couldn’t with soft plumbing.
Today I use both. I have PVC on my drains so that I can use the Bean Animal style drain. I have my return soft plumbed to a PVC return pipe that goes up and over the top of my aquarium. For me, today, that’s the best.
Mandelstam
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I was too, with examples from other technical solutions.
Mandelstam
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What's the best way to wire up a string of lights? Series, parallell? A few groups of lights wired in parallell that are in turn wired in series?
There are many options that are good and that we can choose from when we design our system. The best way is the way that works best for your particular situation and for your system.
There are many options that are good and that we can choose from when we design our system. The best way is the way that works best for your particular situation and for your system.
ca1ore
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Good luck with that
. There are many ways to plumb a tank because there are many different kinds of tanks. A very large tank will have requirements that a very small one does not. A tank with a remote, basement sump will have requirements that one with a sump in the stand does not. Then, of course, different people have different ideas about what constitutes 'best'. I, for example, use flex PVC exclusively on my tanks because it is clearly best.keystoneckp
Community Member
The best way is what works for your setup and you. Everyone has a different idea what the best is.
I thought, I had the right plumbing setup, but didn't work the way I wanted it to.
Have since replumbed it a second time, now works for the setup I have in place.
I thought, I had the right plumbing setup, but didn't work the way I wanted it to.
Have since replumbed it a second time, now works for the setup I have in place.
You peoples have it all worng. The OP wanted to know what is the best thing for plumping not plumbing. I would say something high in calories.
