DIY Flex PVC Pluming for Overflow?

[Juiceman]

I want to remove my current Hard Plumbed set-up and add flexible PVC instead. What do I need to do this?

I equate the easiest way to do it is to have 90's going from the overflows to the flexible PVC then to 45's on the Sump.

Is there anything I can do at the unions to make it to where it's easily removable, rather than glueing them and having to redo everything later if I change the sump, or etc.

[victoly]

I think you could make all those turns with a single elbow downward right at the bulkhead. You could do a single union right after the downward elbow so that you could disconnect the "spaghetti arms" from the back of the tank. You can always dry fit elbows at the sump itself to direct the water downward. A word of caution, your pipes are going to be pretty heavy when filled with water, so even though you have flexibility, you are going to need to strap the pipes so that they dont sag (consider unistrut or strong straps hanging from the top of the tank).

[victoly]

PS crumps plumbing in north austin carries flex PVC. I'd recommend our sponsor, but shipping is a ***** on flex.

[Juiceman]

I more just trying to remove the pipes just above the sump so I can have that extra room. I had flexible pipe on my old tank it was much easier

[victoly]

do you mean just below the overflow?

[Juiceman]

just above the sump, my bad. A student was asking me a question and I didn't re read what I'd wrote.

[victoly]

oh so straight PVC for the section behind the tank and then under the tank using flex? You should be able to get away with just about whatever you want, although the thicker the diameter the less flexible the pipe is. I was using some 3" flex on my pond, and the flex was not very flexy.

[Juiceman]

1 1/2 " tubing

[victoly]

If you really feel like messing with it, it may streamline your operation a bit. I dunno though, since the tank is already running, I'd almost be inclined to leave it unless there is something driving you to change it up.

[Juiceman]

Ok, so in my apartment, I had carpet and a window drape behind the tank. It never seemed loud to me. Now in my new house, It's sitting on a tile floor with a regular wall behind it. The sounds from water falling has been magnified alot by this. I'm trying to minimize this as well as make more room above my sump.

[victoly]

I'm not sure that switching to flex is going to reduce the sound :/ From what I understand it's not so much the "falling" of the water, it's the "sucking" action of the pipe and the fact that it's not a column entirely filled with water. There are solutions to this (bean animal, durso, etc) but I'm not sure that in your current configuration of overflows that it's possible to implement. However, if you're just trying to save space in the sump, that's totally valid and might be worth it. It would just suck to go through all this work of replumbing a tank that is already up and running, only to have it not achieve all the goals that you had which moved you to rip it up in the first place.

[(Bio)³]

to stop that sound on my tank I have a valve inline going from the tank to sump. I turn the valve back a bit and raised the water level in the verticle pipe. I also have a 1/4 inch hole drilled at the top 90 with some tubing going down to inject the air just below the water line.