Plumbing review?

C

C0pe

Just got my new sump from Marc and going to start the plumbing tomorrow. This will be the first build with PVC rather than spa-flex so any feedback is appreciated. The existing plumbing is 1", the bulkheads in the sump are 3/4". The plan is I have reducers to drop the 1" pipe to 3/4. Just below the union pictured here.
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The remaining plumbing is pictured here.
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Are they threaded into the bulkheads or glued? Reason I'm asking is are they removable because I like the clean look of hard plumbing but I ended up removing all mine for flex tubing. The noise was loud.

~Matt
 
If you had 3/4" slip/slip bulkheads you could press the PVC right into them. These are all I had in that size. Reducing to 3/4" right before the sump is fine, and it will run quietly.

The drain to the skimmer section doesn't need a ball valve at all, ever. And you'll probably never use those unions other than during this initial install. It's nice if you had to change something down the road, but usually once our plumbing is in, it's in to stay. ;)
 
Marc, I see you said a ball valve should never be used on the drain to skimmer section. Why is this? My current tank has an internal overflow and I installed one to manage the water level in the overflow AND to reduce "gurgle". It seems like I'm always battling this water level in the overflow. I'm not a fan of it as it's very hard to turn. Pampee suggested one from BRS that is easier should I ever need to adjust it. Please advise if you see this.
 
@Kelly wrote:
Marc said:
I was considering doing this very thing when I set up my system, and it was STRONGLY discouraged by many members here on the forum. A ball valve even partially closed is a place for a potential clog to happen, which could quickly lead to a flooding nightmare. I had the same issue with gurgling, and raised the overall height of my dursos in my internal overflow vs. installing a ball valve in he drain line. Hope this helps
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First of all, you've got 1" bulkheads in the tank draining into 3/4" plumbing of the sump. So a restriction already is in place to reduce the water & air ratio into a quiet drain effect. (Remember it will take 14 days for it to reach maximum efficiency noise-wise.) If you are always battling the water level in the overflow, it's exactly because of the ball valves on the drains. This water line should never wander - it should be rock solid. If it is moving, either the drains are submerged too much into the sump (which can't happen with this sump because I installed the fittings to the proper heights), or the Durso holes are the wrong size. 3/16" is the correct hole size.

You will want 75% of the water to drain into the skimmer section, 25% to the refugium. By closing off part of the flow to the refugium with the ball valve, the backpressure will probably increase how much drains into the skimmer zone to be just about right.

The orange handled ball valves (John Fischer, I think?) available from Savko.com are amazing, and the only kind I use. They cost more, but always turn easily.
 
What a wealth of knowledge, thanks fellas. This Durso stand pipe is what I need. Apologies for jacking your thread C0pe.
 
No worries. Thanks for the input everyone, here's the final simplified plumbing.

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Marc, the sump is fantastic. Thanks again.
 
Looks very good to me. How does it sound? It looks like you are restricting some of the flow going back up to the tank at the moment.
 
It's not completely silent, but i expect it to quiet down a lot once it breaks in. I'm restricting the return a little bit because the return pump is a little oversized and the waterfall is super loud unrestricted.
 
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