Drain question. Need help or affirmation that this would work

[mmorrison55]

My tank build includes a fish room that will be in the room directly behind the display.

When getting this project going, I created a pass through and unfortunately it looks like my calculations were off so now I have to make a decision with my drain layout.

my display is on an 8020 stand that has heavy duty casters. It’s really made it nice to be able to pull the tank out for access to the back while I’m getting it set up, so while I don’t expect to be moving this once it’s filled (except for emergencies) I’d like to keep the ability to lower the feet and put this onto casters to roll if/when I needed. So in order to separate the display from the sump, I’m putting in unions wherever I can.

Here’s the rub… because of my miscalculation on the pass through opening, if I were to put a union on the e-drain pipe in the photo, it then becomes about 3/16 to 1/3 of an inch too low and will catch on the passthough I didn’t want to manually lift up on the pipe and put stress on the bottom of the external glass overflow.

So after that lengthy explanation, I’m finally getting to my question.

Do you see any issues if I were to use two 45 degree elbows (or a 90 degree elbows) to give me the room I would need if I were to use a union? The main drain will still move in and out of the opening with a union attached, but I was thinking of adding the same 45 degree bends just to make everything consistent to keep my ocd at bay.

But if you foresee an issue with the main drain having the increase in elevation before it dumps into the tank, I could probably live with just the e drain if it would be acceptable to do so.

Or if the bend is not recommended, I could extend the edrain with a coupler and an extra length of pipe and just cut it and patch it if I ever did have an emergency down the road and needed to pull the display away from the sump.

Thanks for any feedback and opinions.

Mike

Thanks for you feedback and input

 

[mmorrison55]

If I had just had this drilled for American sized, pad, I would just start over, but since I let waterbox includes their plumbing inside the overflow, if I were to start over, it would take weeks to get a new set up from Oversees where waterbox tanks are built.

 

[lagatbezan]

Can you make this pipe a bit shorter and make the union sit a bit higher flush with the other gray pluming? That might just raise it up a bit giving you clearance needed to go through the wall opening.

 

[mmorrison55]

That union that you have circled is already glued on both ends And unfortunately the parts it’s glued into is the metric to standard connection so I would have to somehow find a new 40mm X 40.2 (1 1/4) coupler. And I have not had any luck finding that coupler unless I were to order it from oversees.

 

[lagatbezan]

Oh gotcha. Is the union standard size? Or all of it metric?

 

[mmorrison55]

The union at the bottom of the circle is 1 1/4 slip union. If I were to cut that small piece of blue pipe in between I don’t think there would be enough pipe to reattach. It would maybe have 1/4 inch to slip into a new union. It may be possible but risky and could be a failure point down the road, idk

 

[lagatbezan]

From the pic it kinda looks like If you cut it just above the union there will be enough for a new union? But again the pic might be misleading.
If you do cut Just go generous with the pvc cement and push it all the way up. This will bind the union with with the gray pipe above giving you a strong bond. Also It’s a drain line and not under pressure either.

 

[lagatbezan]

Or to be in the safe side, get a new union, and use a grinder and shorten a bit on the bottom side of the union as well as the 90 elbow. I have done this several times in the past successfully as well.

 

[mmorrison55]

From the pic it kinda looks like If you cut it just above the union there will be enough for a new union? But again the pic might be misleading.
If you do cut Just go generous with the pvc cement and push it all the way up. This will bind the union with with the gray pipe above giving you a strong bond. Also It’s a drain line and not under pressure either.

I think it may be deceiving. There’s about 1/2” of blue pipe showing. Maybe less.

And I agree, it’s just a drain, and the emergency drain at that, so I was hoping there was no downside to adding the bends in to get that space back that I would need.

I think it may just be easiest to add a 1 1/4 coupler and extend that horizontal pipe a bit and then just cut and recouple if the need arises in the future

I could then order a new internal from waterbox to have on hand to redo the plumbing if I ever had to drain the tank down the road.

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Ashame you glued it already you probably could have installed a street 90 instead of a regular 90 into that union and had plenty of room and a little more if you shortened up the piece the other reply circled hate to say it but may be best to start over and order new parts your idea would only create a “trap” not only hindering your flow but potentially gathering detritus and sediment long term

 

[braaap]

Depends on how that pipe runs after the 45. So long as it doesn’t go ABOVE the overflow and drops back down into the sump it should still work just fine. The problem is water will sit there to some degree. That shouldn’t spill when you disconnect though.

I’d personally enlarge the holes behind the tank by 3-4” and call it good. That way you have a straight shot to the sump and no uphill run.

 

[JayM]

A couple of 45° fittings will be fine so long as the lowest portion of the water source is higher than the highest point of the water’s destination.

Think of the P trap under your sink. It drops down, and comes back up a couple of inches before it dumps into the main drain.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

BRS has what you need I think.

Metric to Standard PVC Union - Slip X Slip

Adaptive Reef Metric to Standard PVC Adapter Unions make it incredibly simple and clean to plumb skimmers, pumps, reactors, and other equipment with European metric connections into your system. Each union has two female slip fitting connections, one with a metric side and one with a standard US...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Metric to Standard PVC Coupler - Slip X Slip

Adaptive Reef Metric to Standard PVC Adapter Couplers make it incredibly simple and clean to plumb skimmers, pumps, reactors, and other equipment with European metric connections into your system. Each coupler has two female slip fitting connections, one with a metric side and one with a...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Thanks

 

[mmorrison55]

A couple of 45° fittings will be fine so long as the lowest portion of the water source is higher than the highest point of the water’s destination.

Think of the P trap under your sink. It drops down, and comes back up a couple of inches before it dumps into the main drain.

Right, This would be more or less a shortened p trap. The two 45’s would maybe be a 2 inch elevation from the horizontal pipe in my photo and then it would have a union and short pipe and 90 bend into the skimmer section of the sump about 10 inches below.

Being a herbie style 2 drain setup, I don’t think water typically enters the e drain. But to Brapps observation, I don’t know how bad it would be for water sitting in that trap over an extended period of time.

 

[mmorrison55]

BRS has what you need I think.

Metric to Standard PVC Union - Slip X Slip

Adaptive Reef Metric to Standard PVC Adapter Unions make it incredibly simple and clean to plumb skimmers, pumps, reactors, and other equipment with European metric connections into your system. Each union has two female slip fitting connections, one with a metric side and one with a standard US...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Metric to Standard PVC Coupler - Slip X Slip

Adaptive Reef Metric to Standard PVC Adapter Couplers make it incredibly simple and clean to plumb skimmers, pumps, reactors, and other equipment with European metric connections into your system. Each coupler has two female slip fitting connections, one with a metric side and one with a...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Thanks

I looked into those, but unfortunately neither would work unless I was able to find all the other parts in the Waterbox plumbing diagram I attached and just rebuilt the whole thing.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Right, This would be more or less a shortened p trap. The two 45’s would maybe be a 2 inch elevation from the horizontal pipe in my photo and then it would have a union and short pipe and 90 bend into the skimmer section of the sump about 10 inches below.

Being a herbie style 2 drain setup, I don’t think water typically enters the e drain. But to Brapps observation, I don’t know how bad it would be for water sitting in that trap over an extended period of time.

On my herbie set ups I always have a trickle go thru the E- drain. Can you undo the bulkhead in the overflow box enough to measure the hole with some calipers? Maybe a standard 1.25 bulkhead can fit? Then Bob's your uncle..

 

[Freenow54]

My tank build includes a fish room that will be in the room directly behind the display.

When getting this project going, I created a pass through and unfortunately it looks like my calculations were off so now I have to make a decision with my drain layout.

my display is on an 8020 stand that has heavy duty casters. It’s really made it nice to be able to pull the tank out for access to the back while I’m getting it set up, so while I don’t expect to be moving this once it’s filled (except for emergencies) I’d like to keep the ability to lower the feet and put this onto casters to roll if/when I needed. So in order to separate the display from the sump, I’m putting in unions wherever I can.

Here’s the rub… because of my miscalculation on the pass through opening, if I were to put a union on the e-drain pipe in the photo, it then becomes about 3/16 to 1/3 of an inch too low and will catch on the passthough I didn’t want to manually lift up on the pipe and put stress on the bottom of the external glass overflow.

So after that lengthy explanation, I’m finally getting to my question.

Do you see any issues if I were to use two 45 degree elbows (or a 90 degree elbows) to give me the room I would need if I were to use a union? The main drain will still move in and out of the opening with a union attached, but I was thinking of adding the same 45 degree bends just to make everything consistent to keep my ocd at bay.

But if you foresee an issue with the main drain having the increase in elevation before it dumps into the tank, I could probably live with just the e drain if it would be acceptable to do so.

Or if the bend is not recommended, I could extend the edrain with a coupler and an extra length of pipe and just cut it and patch it if I ever did have an emergency down the road and needed to pull the display away from the sump.

Thanks for any feedback and opinions.

Mike

Thanks for you feedback and input

Personally I do not see a problem. You have lots of head pressure as a matter of fact I think its beneficial to stop your sump from siphoning out. Should consider 2 ball vales though and remember to exercise them to keep the salt from freezing them open

 

[mmorrison55]

On my herbie set ups I always have a trickle go thru the E- drain. Can you undo the bulkhead in the overflow box enough to measure the hole with some calipers? Maybe a standard 1.25 bulkhead can fit? Then Bob's your uncle..

I can, and that’s a good idea to check.

 

[mmorrison55]

Personally I do not see a problem. You have lots of head pressure as a matter of fact I think it’s beneficial to stop your sump from siphoning out. Should consider 2 ball vales though and remember to exercise them to keep the salt from freezing them open

That’s something I didn’t think of. I could add a second ball valve and just close the main off regularly until the e drains had enough going through it to flush out whatever would have been in that “trap”

 

[Reefhack]

All of the previous options ie. cutting the pass through, using 45’s, or cutting the pipe just above the union will work fine. 1/2” of blue pipe is plenty if glued properly for a drain.
Even a trap isn’t going to bother anything.
Sink traps have water in them 24/7 and only get clogged by hair and major debris.
A new union and a street 90 will give you plenty of room too