Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah I saw all that and dont think a mallet to the side of an ibc is a wise move. Slots it will be next time

Here's an example of what we did... A bit of heat, and push them in to create a nice angle...

Worth a refresher.

I gave up on the uniseals and did some inventive plumbing with a mixture of pressure and dwv pipe and fittings and a modified rainwater tank overflo fitting

Don't blame the Uniseals for ones lack of experience/knowledge.

I did this to connect my blue barrel filter to my SLO backbone. Used a heap of silicon but still had to wait for the leaks to seal themselves.

Still, it does work.

I have a whole bunch of 3" (75mm) uniseals to install through a liner for my current project. I've had enough trouble with it that I thought I'd share the method I've worked out (with mucho help from this forum) to install them fairly easily.

The pics have been uploaded to my gallery entitled "Installing 3" uniseals," but as it takes a while for the images to be OKed, I'll use versions from Picasa, and if they go away at some future date, you can see them in the gallery.

(I cheated. Pics from two different installs are combined here.)


The pieces from the left:

The 4 foot long clamp is the bar that runs through everything. The bar itself is 1" in diameter.
Left-most piece of wood: 2x6 with a 1 1/4" hole drilled through it. Just big enough for the clamp bar to slide through.
Next is a 1/2" (maybe 3/4"?) piece of plywood, with a 5" hole drilled through the center. This is just a bit bigger than the uniseal at its biggest (see below). This acts as a brace for the next piece:
Next is the 1/4" piece of plywood, with a 4" hole in it. This is the piece that the uniseal seals the liner to.
Next would be the uniseal, if I'd remembered to put it in the picture.
Then the PVC, with the end slitted and carved (beveled) down a bit to make it thinner. This helps it slide into the uniseal.
Another piece of 2x6, with the same 1 1/4" hole as the first one.
The end of the clamp.

This is a closeup of the two pieces of plywood. The uniseal is stuck through the small, mostly hidden thin piece with the 4" hole. The larger, strong piece with the 5" hole is closest to the camera. You can see how well these fit. This prevents the pressure placed on the uniseal during insertion from breaking the thinner piece.
Note: When really installing the uniseal, it would be reversed. This is the thicker side, which goes on the side of the wall that will have the most pressure (if possible). This is just to demonstrate the sizing.


Clamping the plywood in place.
Note: Putting the smaller piece on end like that (to make the diamond) was a mistake. I later had to wrap the corners to prevent them from poking holes in the liner. A later pic shows a better setup.


Cutting the hole in the liner. Always very scary! I leave a bit (about a cm) of liner, with slits cut in it to let the uniseal through:


Then apply KY to both the seal, and the teeth of the PVC.

Then thread the clamp through.

I don't have a good pic of what all this looks like in place, but this is roughly what it looks like freestanding:



Keep the 2x6s as hard against the set up as you can. The trickiest bit is keeping the clamp centered down the uniseal hole, and everything at the right height:




(Pic was lightened)

Tighten the clamp to slide the PVC through the uniseal.
I always keep shims, scraps of 2x4 etc. around to use as spacers. Add what you need to hold things in place, and to give the clamp room to work. I have to reset the clamp 3-4 times to push the PVC as far through as I want it.

Success! No pulled muscles this time, but it's still not easy.


The KY is WONDERFUL. Its water based, and food-safe. I don't THINK it's going to have a negative effect on the uniseal, but you might want to wait a few months before trying this, so I can see if the seals disintegrate.

Clear as mud?

Kudos for this go to, at the very least: Earthbound, TCLynx, Scotty435, Arbe, and I'm sure tons of others. I'm pretty sure the only original idea of mine is to use KY instead of dish fluid, window washer, or other lubricant.

I like the use of the clamp.

Excellent setup Karen. This is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of.

Kudos

Great info and thanks for sharing/posting pictures!

Only tips I have to add at the moment about uniseals.

1- rubbing alcohol can be used as the lube that will evaporate and not risk hurting fish when pushing in from the inside of a tank. If you have any good green slimy water that works too. Easier of course for the smaller uniseals going through thinner tank walls.

2-I've done a trick where I cut slits around a pipe then put a pipe clamp on it and warmed the pipe with a heat gun while tightening the pipe clamp then let it cool before removing the pipe clamp. made a smaller end bit that was more easily pushed through a uniseal.

3-A T on the end of the pipe being pushed through a uniseal makes for a nice handle when pushing the 2" and smaller pipes though uniseals.

3" uniseals are more of a challenge.

Pushed through 90mm pipe through a uniseal using the cut and bend method - used vegetable oil to lubricate, though we'll see if that will cause any issues later.

Does anyone know if you can put a 40mm uniseal directly into a 90mm pipe? As in just bang it in rather than using T's and reducers? My theory is that less glueing means less chance of leaks, and using a uniseal also means you don't have to get the distances exactly right, near enough is good enough since it sticks into the pipe internally anyway.

Gemmel,

Do you mean like this:



My system started off as above, but over time (about 12 months) it begain to leak so I have changed to this:

maybe try olive oil as a lubricant.

Damn, was hoping that having less connections would mean less leaks (and less time to setup). Thanks for letting us know.