Overflow plumbing help size/material

[mikee002]

Hello, I have a marine depot elite medium overflow, 2 drains (1” bulkheads). Display is a 36 gallon and sump a 40 breeder most likely. The setup is obviously a herbie, 1 main, 1 emergency drain. The sump will be remote, located just on the other side of the wall in the next room over.

What’s the best tubing/pipe to use and what size? I’m not looking for a huge turnover through the sump. I’d also like flexible tubing, as I plan to have the sump pull out on heavy duty drawer slides for easy access and maintenance,

 

[Shirak]

Personally I would just keep the lines as 1" and put a gate valve on the main drain line so you can control the flow. I found the flexible PVC pipe to be very good if you want flexible and be able to glue like rigid PVC. It can do a pretty decent bend and will not kink. Something like this. PVC flex pipe

 

[Shirak]

With regard to flexible tubing so you can pull the sump out on drawer slide. I would probably get 1" silicone tubing for that section.

 

[mikee002]

Thanks. I wasn’t sure about keeping the size at 1” or going down to 3/4”.

With regard to flexible tubing so you can pull the sump out on drawer slide. I would probably get 1" silicone tubing for that section.

 

[Shirak]

Well you are probably ok with 3/4 but with the drain a bit longer through a wall and not a straight drop I would be a bit hesitant. You mentioned not a lot of turnover. How many gallons/hour?

 

[Shirak]

Great chart here for water flow. Gravity drain 3/4” can go about 650gph and 1” 950gph
https://hy-techroofdrains.com/water-flow-through-a-pipe/

 

[theMeat]

Spa flex (flexible pvc) is good but not very flexible. Not going to give you enough room to slide out as you describe. Better off using union to remove final section into sump to allow slide out.
When using spa flex do not prime. Use cleaner instead

 

[mikee002]

Thanks for the info. I don’t know what the final flow number will be. I am currently using the pump on a different tank, it’s an 850 GPM pump but I’m basically running it at its lowest setting. I would guess probably 2 to 300 GPM. The new tank will likely be the same. The current Set up is just a gravity drain and not full siphon though.

I would assume that the new tank I will probably have somewhere around 400 GPM turnover.

 

[theMeat]

If bulkheads are 1” would run 1” to sump. Even if you don’t need that volume there would be no harm

 

[garbled]

Instead of spa flex, find yourself some "pond flex" tubing. It's PVC, and allows for really easy bends. It uses barb fittings instead of a welded PVC joint however.

 

[mikee002]

Instead of spa flex, find yourself some "pond flex" tubing. It's PVC, and allows for really easy bends. It uses barb fittings instead of a welded PVC joint however.

Yeah, I found this on Amazon. I’ve been trying to find some local so I can get a feel before ordering

 

[garbled]

Check out FlexPVC, they have a chart showing bend radius. Basically, for the 1" stuff you can do a 5" radius bend with no problem.

 

[mikee002]

Thank you all for the help!