Brute water storage drilling question

[goober]

About to setup a couple brute 50g cans for a saltwater mixing station. I see most people have them drilled on the side of the can. Is there any problem with drilling the center of the bottom and put my bulkhead there through the stand?

 

[don_chuwish]

As long as it results in a nice flat surface for the bulkhead to seal against it will be fine. You might want to make a slightly taller raised platform for them in that case.

 

[krbnsol]

About to setup a couple brute 50g cans for a saltwater mixing station. I see most people have them drilled on the side of the can. Is there any problem with drilling the center of the bottom and put my bulkhead there through the stand?

+1 What @don_chuwish stated. You will need to leave room for the plumbing coming from the bottom of the stand (gate valve, etc).

I now wish I would have done the same. Mine is located low on the can, but no matter what, I cannot fully empty the container and have to manually remove the last gallon or so.

good luck!

 

[nezw0001]

I like to use UNIseals instead of bulkheads for this application. They take up less space and can handle a curved surface.

 

[ReefGeek90]

About to setup a couple brute 50g cans for a saltwater mixing station. I see most people have them drilled on the side of the can. Is there any problem with drilling the center of the bottom and put my bulkhead there through the stand?

You absolutely can. I just did it on a couple of brutes and I love it. Went with 3/4” pvc. When I get home I’ll take a couple pics of the plumbing for you

 

[ReefGeek90]

Here some pics with dimensions

 

[ReefGeek90]

Here is the depth, length of stand and height of the lip in which the tanks sit

 

[ReefGeek90]

Tape measure is 3 1/4” long which should be taken into account in for the floor to lip of stand. You can see the tape measure is on the floor

 

[ReefGeek90]

To give you a better idea of the stand

 

[goober]

@ReefGeek90 Thanks so much I really appreciate all the pics. Looks like thats the type of deisgn im going with!

 

[siggy]

Do you get a slug of salt or do you use a stand pipe

 

[Vinman]

@ReefGeek90 great job on pics and detail nice setup

 

[ReefGeek90]

@ReefGeek90 Thanks so much I really appreciate all the pics. Looks like thats the type of deisgn im going with!

No problem. Enjoy the build!

 

[ReefGeek90]

Do you get a slug of salt or do you use a stand pipe

I don’t have a stand pipe and I haven’t had any problems so far but it is quite new so will see. Could you elaborate on what your envisioning? Just a piece of pvc extending inside the tank to minimize salt sitting in the 90 degree elbow at the bulkhead?

 

[siggy]

I can see salt filling the 90. Then the impeller/pump getting ground up. I have a bottom side inlet and had a problem with chunks getting sucked in.
one of these should do the trick Best of luck.

 

[rsumner]

I finally drilled and hard plumbed my Brute cans a few weeks ago only to find out my wife got me fancy Norwesco containers for Christmas. The torturous part is that she stood quiet for the entire weekend watching me build the stand and glue all the PVC knowing good-and-well that I was going to rip it all out in a few weeks and start all over.

But, back to the reason for my post....I drilled my cans on the bottom and directly in the center. I ran into problems with standard bulkheads sealing properly against the bottom. There's a chance this was my fault with not tightening them enough, however I ended up adding a bead of aquarium safe silicon around the lip of the bulkhead inside the can just to prevent anything from seeping under the lip. I've read plenty of posts where people haven't had to do that, so this could be user-error, however I can't see that it would hurt doing it as a precaution.

 

[siggy]

she stood quiet for the entire weekend watching me build the stand and glue all the PVC knowing good-and-well that I was going to rip it all out in a few weeks and start all over.

Does your wife have a sister Great Christmas Present ! The fact she didn't cringe about the waist tells me you're going to have a great set-up