How to plumb this overflow box

[ctylermast]

New to a sump system, hopefully setting up my system soon. Picked up a used tank, all this plumbing is hard plumbed in as it can’t get pipes out, didn’t use unions to be able to remove it. I want to cut it off to get a good cleaning and replace the bulkheads or seals on bulkhead. Is all this just replaceable stuff at Home Depot, besides bulkheads of course. Scared to chop this off and not be able to replace. Anyone have good references for learning how to plumb this?

 

[UncommonSense]

It’s all easily replacable; I’d recommend just removing the bulkhead locking nuts and pulling each segment out as a subassembly, vs. cutting anything! (This lets you duplicate, or at least reference old plumbing when redesigning/rebuilding!)


— Not all bulkheads are created equal; I’d recommend steering clear of ABS plastic bulkheads when selecting replacements for the display tank, specifically!

— it can be worth ordering your gate valve (and possibly unions) online; they are a relatively pricy item(s), and I’ve had mixed results with typical big box store examples! (Things like the knob being extremely sticky and difficult to turn “right out of the box”…)

It would be worth looking into making this tank have dual drains; a “herbie” style drain configuration… then, just plumbing the return up over the back of the tank! — the current plumbing configuration through your two bulkhead holes is a single drain, and single return! (This configuration is notoriously difficult to keep quiet!)

 

[ctylermast]

It’s all easily replacable; I’d recommend just removing the bulkhead locking nuts and pulling each segment out as a subassembly, vs. cutting anything! (This lets you duplicate, or at least reference old plumbing when redesigning/rebuilding!)


— Not all bulkheads are created equal; I’d recommend steering clear of ABS plastic bulkheads when selecting replacements for the display tank, specifically!

— it can be worth ordering your gate valve (and possibly unions) online; they are a relatively pricy item(s), and I’ve had mixed results with typical big box store examples! (Things like the knob being extremely sticky and difficult to turn “right out of the box”…)

It would be worth looking into making this tank have dual drains; a “herbie” style drain configuration… then, just plumbing the return up over the back of the tank! — the current plumbing configuration through your two bulkhead holes is a single drain, and single return! (This configuration is notoriously difficult to keep quiet!)

So the problem is, everything is glued, so I can’t get them out. If I could pull them out I’d just clean, replace seals and move on. At least I believe it’s all glued. Nothing will budge

 

[UncommonSense]

So the problem is, everything is glued, so I can’t get them out. If I could pull them out I’d just clean, replace seals and move on. At least I believe it’s all glued. Nothing will budge

Ah, I see what you mean!

In this case (bulkheads have a slip socket on the threaded body side), you do indeed need to cut everything off after each bulkhead to even get each bulkhead out…

— it's for this exact reason that I always recommend speccing bulkheads with a slip socket on the flange side, and internal pipe threads on the threaded body side! (This lets you just unscrew the bulkhead from the plumbing, or vise versa, to remove everything for service!)

 

[ctylermast]

Ah, I see what you mean!

In this case (bulkheads have a slip socket on the threaded body side), you do indeed need to cut everything off after each bulkhead to even get each bulkhead out…

— it's for this exact reason that I always recommend speccing bulkheads with a slip socket on the flange side, and internal pipe threads on the threaded body side! (This lets you just unscrew the bulkhead from the plumbing, or vise versa, to remove everything for service!)

WELL!! no need, cracked the bottom of my tank! Thankfully that was the cheap part of what I bought and I can find 40g breeders a dime a dozen. Just ordered one for pickup. No maybe I’ll explore the dual drain system you were talking about