Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

finally managed to get my wheelie bin sump concreted in over the weekend. I have received my new pump (from Monya - thanks) to cater for my addional grow bed. Now I am at the stage of doing the final plumbing. Is aquarium silcon ok for holding the plumbing togethers. This is the first time I have worked with PVC plumbing and want to be able to service the pipes if necessary. I want to use if for oboth the pumpting side and the drain.

thanks

for security of the plumbing, use the silicon, while you are letting it cure, drill a couple of pilot holes and put small screws through the joins as well. That way you won't have to worry about the pipes pulling apart and you will still be able to access inside the pipes.

what she said

For plumbing that has much pressure behind it (like big swimming pool pump) I use PVC cement for the feed lines. This means that ya don't get to open it up unless you install union couplings.

For my drain side of things, I have avoided gluing for the most part.

On the barrel system, I used some aquarium silicone for a few things.

I like the idea of the screws to hole the pipes solid so the silicone doesn't flex but still allows for taking things apart.

Only real drawback I see with the silicone is that you must let it cure quite a long time before exposing to your fish water. With the PVC cement, I've been able to shut down the pump, make alterations to the system and let the pvc cure for an hour and start back up again.