SCH 40 PVC "problems"?

[PedroYoung]

I just had a guy who installs aquariums locally tell me that they use flexible tubing instead of sch-40 PVC because there are "known issues" with contaminating reef tanks. If they use rigid they use sch-80. Needless to say (or maybe needful), I'm skeptical. I'm like "99.9% of all tank builds I see are standard or colored sch-40 PVC, that would be quite a lot of problems out there". I've used standard PVC on my current 75G and no issues on my Triton tests. Anyone ever heard of anything like that? Maybe I should post in the chemistry forum for @Randy Holmes-Farley to comment on?

 

[Grey Guy]

I don’t believe it. Hope it’s not true.

 

[Grey Guy]

I don’t believe it. Hope it’s not true.

I once heard that vinyl tubing was bad. Hope that’s not true either.

 

[Fritzhamer]

You may want to inform him that the only difference between sch80 and sch40 is pipe thickness. This sounds more like misinformation they feed to trainees to act as a sales pitch for the company's service.

 

[PedroYoung]

You may want to inform him that the only difference between sch80 and sch40 is pipe thickness. This sounds more like misinformation they feed to trainees to act as a sales pitch for the company's service.

I don’t believe it. Hope it’s not true.

Sounded to me like it was something they heard 20 yrs ago and just ran with it. Certainly makes it easier to install vinyl instead of hard piping, but I'm looking at a basement sump with 15' of head and don't like the idea of barbed fittings with the pressure and flow from a return pump.

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they installed “flex PVC” correct?

As said above Sch 40 and 80 only differ in thickness and color, but are both inert and safe for potable water.
There shouldn’t be any leeching from either.