Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Having a few decades of experience in irrigation, I thought it was a poor idea to not glue PVC fitting together. Still worried about having a blowout when no one is around and draining my system. Thinking about some revisions/additions this Spring, and wanting feedback on what you guys do. I have a large enough pump and enough ball valves, I can easily "blow out" any obstructions should they occur. It just seems prudent to redo the fitting and glue them together. I would do it late in the afternoon, and then leave the system shut down till the next day. Is there any real good reason not to connect the pipes, instead of just press fit?

I glue all pipes in the system other than the grow bed distribution pipes - if they spring a leak they just leak into the growbed.

If I have to glue a pipe in a live system, I generally do it at night and stop pumping until morning to allow the glue to cure/dry, then flush the pipe to waste before putting it back into the system. Also try to avoid having any excess pvc glue inside the pipes.

I have glued and put the pipe straight into service before with no adverse effects, but would not choose to do it that way.

Glue away. Not worth worrying about. Read the label on the jar to see how long it takes to cure.

Even if it didn't blow up, you'd be loosing water from drips, and if you've buried it, you won't know about it until it's too late.

+1 to Mattyoga - if the join can break but the water drain into a growbed, sump, fish tank then dont glue it (specially in the growbeds - if the roots of a plant get in there you will need to open them up to clean them out).

If the join can break causing water to be lost - glue it.

Thanks guys...that's what I felt when I put everything together. I was taking Murray's (Hallum?)advice and left them unglued.

Same here. Glue pressure pipes other than GB distribution and I dont bother with drain lines.

I haven't glued any pipes for years. The thick walled PVC pipes stay together a lot better than the thin walled ones, which don't stay together very well at all. My systems have been seasonal, big temp changes would loosen the pipes to where I would consider gluing them. I seem to change the configuration before the pipes come apart, in other words.

Ball valves don't hold very tightly through friction alone, in that case I would be tempted to glue. Another option might be in between where you use zip ties to hold the pipes together so that they cannot separate easily.

Something I did on my pressure side is put in some screw together unions. That way I can still disassemble on my pressure side when I need to make some changes. But as everyone else mentioned, glue pressure lines, leave the lines to the growbeds unglued. (CHIFT PIST) and glue anything buried.

Generally gluing is a good idea but sometimes in some spots you need to take things apart. I've got a number of joints that are prone to blowing out but I need them to be unglued. My solution is to hold the joint with a stainless steel tech screw or decking screw.

How about the drain line coming out of the bulkheads on the bottom of the grow beds? Do you glue those up in there so there's not a chance of one coming out and draining your sump in a CHIFT PIST system?

There's always a chance i guess, but i dont glue my exits.

I dont glue, i'm always changing , rearranging and adjusting things. I sometimes use teflon tape to help seal a join.

I get why someone would want to glue pressured pipes but right now the only pressure is the pump exits and that stuff is vinyl tubing right now (in my system).

At the end of the day you gotta do what you feel comfortable with.

I find PVC to be cheap and will glue it. If I need to fix something I just cut it and use two couplers to lengthen or one to shorten it. But this is with the small pipe 1/2"-1", I have not gone over 1" in my system yet. I have glued up and ran water through them after a hour of curing/ drying.