Plumbing in a canister

[pseudotrop]

Unfortunately, due to a lack of space in our flat I've had to make my display 6' an island tank (I'd much rather it be against a wall, but it looked ridiculous if I did that.)

Anyway here's the problem. I want to have minimal intrusions of filter pipes etc. I've made my cabinet large enough that I could drill two holes at either end and run some tubing through those for return and inlet, my question is:

If I have 22mm flexible hose, and I connect that to 20mm PVC (hard) is it going to cause any problems?

All turns etc. will still use the flexible hose. I'd buy more but it's a 4-5 hr drive to the nearest shop that stocks it, my local Mitre 10 has flexible hose that is about 18mm.

[CThompson]

You haven't fully described your situation.

Drill holes in the cabinet (sides) to facilitate tubing access, but still have the inlet/outlet enter the tank via walking sticks? Tubing visible outside of tank and stand.

OR; drill the cabinet (base) AND the tank, fitting bulkheads to tank, so canister would be fully and directly plumbed to tank (via the base)? No tubing visible outside of tank or stand.

The latter is the best, but in either case you are better off using all flexible hose when connecting to a non-fixed filter (over the years you will most likely weaken fixed PVC joints and cause leaks).

Make sure the hosing is of a thick walled type to reduce kinking, and to use double tap connectors to make cleaning easier. Eheim tubing is thick walled and less likely to kink. Fixed PVC tubing is more suitable to a sump. Make sure you use enough tubing to allow sweeping turns and not hard corners; 1) be less likely to kink 2) less friction than a hard corner.

You can buy all this stuff over the internet so save your drive.

[pseudotrop]

You haven't fully described your situation.

Drill holes in the cabinet (sides) to facilitate tubing access, but still have the inlet/outlet enter the tank via walking sticks? Tubing visible outside of tank and stand.

OR; drill the cabinet (base) AND the tank, fitting bulkheads to tank, so canister would be fully and directly plumbed to tank (via the base)? No tubing visible outside of tank or stand.

The latter is the best, but in either case you are better off using all flexible hose when connecting to a non-fixed filter (over the years you will most likely weaken fixed PVC joints and cause leaks).

Make sure the hosing is of a thick walled type to reduce kinking, and to use double tap connectors to make cleaning easier. Eheim tubing is thick walled and less likely to kink. Fixed PVC tubing is more suitable to a sump. Make sure you use enough tubing to allow sweeping turns and not hard corners; 1) be less likely to kink 2) less friction than a hard corner.

You can buy all this stuff over the internet so save your drive.

A picture is worth a thous....

It's really only the two bits that will be hard PVC (either end like in the pic) that need to get up to the top of th tank, inside the cabinet it will be all flexible hose (except for maybe one straight section - so no turns that are hard PVC).

It just looks a little better IMO, than having the see through flexible hose rising out (which in time will get gunk).

I have the thick walled stuff. I thought about doing bulkheads but I don't really want to go there atm.

And just to be clear, connections at the filter will be flexible thick walled hose, to the point where they need to rise and become visible they'll be the hard PVC - with flexible stuff to fit the standard filter spray bar etc.

Having thought about it a bit more, I think I will just use flexible hose instead, it'll be less effort and probably look just as bad(/good) .

[CThompson]

It is up to you, so if you don't want to go to the extra effort of bulk-heading through the bottom of the tank, it is your choice.

Having said that, I think you should reconsider

The photo was great, and it showed that the tank's footprint was smaller than the top of the stand (will the tank be fully supported?) leaving that sill/ledge.

I think you should leave the gap only on one side (provided tank is supported) as the "shelf" may have a use of a storage, eg remote controls etc, and it will look more planned rather than the tank being too small (subjective opinion I guess)

If you want to go with the plan as depicted in the photo, I would use ridged PVC (paint to suit) as it will I think look better and be more impact resistant. Flexible hose under cabinet, as mentioned.

Good luck.

[ctaylor]

I agree with Craig that you should leave the "shelf" on one side so it looks intentional, but also it will mean if you do change to bulkheads later on that you can use the hole that's already in the cabinet and just move the tank back over the hole, problem will be that the "shelf" would then be on the wrong side.

Seriously consider going down the bulkhead path mate, in the long term it will look better and if you change the filtration the hole will already be there for you..

[pseudotrop]

Thanks for the replies.

I went with the shelf option. I was abit impatient.....

Will probably bulk head in 6-12 months - moving house around then.

The tank is fully supported with the holes and pushed up at one edge. I'm (definitely) no cabinet maker and wanted to make sure the tank would fit so added abit (too much!) overage in my measurements .

It still looks ok and leaves room for some remotes etc. as mentioned. To be honest, the cabinet hasn't come out like I wanted and will probably be replaced at some stage and put in my 'future' fish room/garage.