Hard plumbing a UV sterilizer, will pvc glue harm fish/coral

LeChatCommence · May 15, 2022

I have a pretty nasty Dino outbreak and am setting up to plumb my tank with a UV sterilizer. The plan is to plumb it off my return pump which is easy enough to do. The question I have is related to plumbing an already established tank. Will the PVC bonding solvents harm my tank inhabitants? Ideally I would let everything cure for 24 hours after welding but if its coming off my return pump, I'm not sure its an option to be down for that long. I'd be curious of everyone's thoughts or experiences on something like this.

Tank is 57g, sump 20g long.

dwest · May 15, 2022

I have glued many times then started back up in about a half hour. No issues.

Miami Reef · May 15, 2022

Gluing is required for PVC that will hold water. If not, there will be leaking.

I’m pretty sure everyone who has PVC plumbing uses glue. It’s safe.

jepuskar · May 15, 2022

Miami Reef said:
Gluing is required for PVC that will hold water. If not, there will be leaking.

I’m pretty sure everyone who has PVC plumbing uses glue. It’s safe.

I tried duct tape once, it held pretty good the first 2 seconds..and then the water reached it.

LeChatCommence · May 15, 2022

Makes sense. The current plan was to power down the pump, plumb the sterilizer and let the pvc cement cure for a couple hours before powering it back up. I'm just trying to think of the balance between letting it cure long enough so the bonds are good and have the return powered off for as little time as possible.

FishOkay · May 15, 2022

twchapman said:
Makes sense. The current plan was to power down the pump, plumb the sterilizer and let the pvc cement cure for a couple hours before powering it back up. I'm just trying to think of the balance between letting it cure long enough so the bonds are good and have the return powered off for as little time as possible.

You'll be fine after 15 - 20 mins most likely even less but better to be safe than sorry. I have glued pipework on 3 - 4 Bar water systems and waited only 10 - 15 mins in the past haha this stuff works fast.

August · Jun 6, 2022

some pvc glue may need to cure or sit for a few hours outdoors and ventilating, though not necessary to 'hold water' you really should be thinking about what chemicals will be leaching back into your tank that will have to dissipate. https://www.bobvila.com/articles/gluing-pvc-pipe

if the return pump is the only method of water turnover in your tank, I would get a wave pump or power head, or even a utility pump meant for an auto top off or salt mixer while your return is offline. If you already have a wave pump, then the wave pump will oxygenate the tank as long as it is helping to break the water tension towards the top.

Another option might be to simply put a soft pumping end on your pump and feed it back to the tank, but working with no water flow below is considerably easier and lest riskier than with active flow.

I am not sure what bar water system was installed in the above post, but i hope it was for toilets and not for drinking water or a beverage.

you can alternatively use threaded pipes with a thread paste or compression union fittings to limit the number of fittings using glue if time is the biggest issue.