Originally Posted by
LotsaFishies
I like to do drains with 1.5”, and return lines 3/4”, for most tanks.
I hard-plumb drain lines, and soft-plumb return lines
Check valves will ALWAYS fail, eventually. My approach is if you design a system that depends on a check valve to not leak or flood... it’s a poor design.
I hard-plumb drains straight from the bulkhead to the sump, with a union or two for future un-doing, and maybe a gate valve if you are going to run a dual-drain design.
I soft-plumb returns from a threaded/barb adapter on the return pump to a threaded / barb adapter on the return bulkhead. I rarely use any valves or check valves on the return line, unless I’m T’ing off to some sort of manifold.
PVC piping, unions, valves, and various elbows or T’s get from a Home Depot or Lowe’s. Most of the barbed adapters, locline, bulkheads, or other aquarium-specialty parts buy from a LFS or online.
I have now plumbed several hundred+ aquariums and can visualize a full plumbing parts list in my head. When I first started I found it very helpful to draw out a full diagram and label every part: “90* elbow”, “thread x slip 1inch bulkhead”, “1inch male slip to 3/4 inch reducer barb”..
Good luck!