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So as part of my design for my big tank I have several holes in the tank on the bottom and the sides for closed loop plumbing. 8 holes total with 4 through the bottom of the tank. I am plumbing these with heavy duty sh80 bulkheads, with extra thick o-rings, as I dont ever want to have one of these fail, but I want to have a backup plan in place before I start to fill the tank.
So this got me thinking of possible ways I could remove one of these bulkheads without draining the entire tank. Which is what would happen if one did fail without a backup in place, especially if its one of the 4 in the sand. I dont ever want to have to drain 600+ gallons of water from the tank, not to mention the temporary re-homing of all the inhabitants.
My current thought is to take some 4" pvc pipe and silicon (or maybe solvent?) a 5" tall piece around each bulkhead in the sand bed, and a 2" tall piece around the back wall bulkheads.This gives about an 1 or 2 inches above the sand bed, but I can fill in around it with sand. In the event of an emergency I can take a 4" pvc pipe with a coupler on one end and slide it in over the pvc piece mounted to the tank, there by creating a temporary overflow which I can drain and be able to replace the bulkhead as needed.
Problem is not all of the bulkheads will be out in the open where I could install this temp overflow without moving rock, and some are on the back wall. Also white pvc on my back wall would look horrible on black acrylic and black pvc would look horrible in the sand bed even if I try and hide it.
So maybe use some 45 and different length tubes to get around them? I thought about flex pvc but the 4" size is very expensive, and so is the 4" clear pvc pipe too.
Other thought I had was to make an acrylic one of sorts, although keep the dimensions more square instead of a tube
Anyone have any ideas or experience around something like this? Would love some ideas and input
So this got me thinking of possible ways I could remove one of these bulkheads without draining the entire tank. Which is what would happen if one did fail without a backup in place, especially if its one of the 4 in the sand. I dont ever want to have to drain 600+ gallons of water from the tank, not to mention the temporary re-homing of all the inhabitants.
My current thought is to take some 4" pvc pipe and silicon (or maybe solvent?) a 5" tall piece around each bulkhead in the sand bed, and a 2" tall piece around the back wall bulkheads.This gives about an 1 or 2 inches above the sand bed, but I can fill in around it with sand. In the event of an emergency I can take a 4" pvc pipe with a coupler on one end and slide it in over the pvc piece mounted to the tank, there by creating a temporary overflow which I can drain and be able to replace the bulkhead as needed.
Problem is not all of the bulkheads will be out in the open where I could install this temp overflow without moving rock, and some are on the back wall. Also white pvc on my back wall would look horrible on black acrylic and black pvc would look horrible in the sand bed even if I try and hide it.
So maybe use some 45 and different length tubes to get around them? I thought about flex pvc but the 4" size is very expensive, and so is the 4" clear pvc pipe too.
Other thought I had was to make an acrylic one of sorts, although keep the dimensions more square instead of a tube
Anyone have any ideas or experience around something like this? Would love some ideas and input