# Airline bulkhead



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

so all i ever hear is use PVC for your air runs. but.. can i use ABS? its like the same price and there are more fittings available for it. just to be clear... PVC is the white stuff and ABS is the black stuff. I am using an AV50 and im going to have about 30 air stones running but i want to make sure i have room to upgrade, so should what size pipe should i use? will 1.5 work?


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

I've seen a setup where they used ABS, they said that it didn't matter as it wasn't exposed to the water and it wouldn't leech anything since it was only being used for your sir system.



sawman88 said:


> so all i ever hear is use PVC for your air runs. but.. can i use ABS? its like the same price and there are more fittings available for it. just to be clear... PVC is the white stuff and ABS is the black stuff. I am using an AV50 and im going to have about 30 air stones running but i want to make sure i have room to upgrade, so should what size pipe should i use? will 1.5 work?


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

would ABS be more supseptable to leeching chemicals then PVC?


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## CICHthis (Oct 10, 2008)

Thats what I thought, but apparently they said they have been using it for the longest time and no problems.



sawman88 said:


> would ABS be more supseptable to leeching chemicals then PVC?


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

sawman88 said:


> <SNIP>
> ... so should what size pipe should i use? will 1.5 work?


When you say 1.5 do you mean inches? That's pretty big isn't it? If there's smaller stock that you can still drill into and add fittings as needed, there's no advantage to using a pipe larger than the output of your pump.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

If you're running 30 lines, you'd be better to go as big as you can, just to leave room to work through. 1.5" is nowhere near enough. I'd go with at least 3.5", just so you have room to fish things back and fourth easily.

PVC is used because it doesn't leach anything and doesn't react with things in water. Although ABS is much more readily available (HD sucks for trying to find PVC fittings), if you're wanting to do anything IN water, I'd go PVC.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

ameekplec. said:


> If you're running 30 lines, you'd be better to go as big as you can, just to leave room to work through. 1.5" is nowhere near enough. I'd go with at least 3.5", just so you have room to fish things back and fourth easily.
> 
> PVC is used because it doesn't leach anything and doesn't react with things in water. Although ABS is much more readily available (HD sucks for trying to find PVC fittings), if you're wanting to do anything IN water, I'd go PVC.


Sorry for my obtuseness but I'm confused. Maybe I'm on the complete wrong page...when you say bulkhead, do you mean a solid manifold/plenum to distribute air around a room and tap into with airlines for each tank?

Wouldn't your pipe be running above/behind tanks with an airline or 2 tapped off to each tank? If that's the case, then such a big pipe doesn't do much for you, it's not like you'd need to have 20 airlines tapped within inches of each other.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I'm assuming by bulkhead, he means the mainline coming into the fishroom from the external pump location.

Or do you mean the actual distribution tubes? In which case, Mr Fishies is indeed correct.


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

sorry.. i dont know why i used the work bulkhead... it really itsnt a bulkhead. its a pipe loop that goes around the top of the room with a tap ever 2 feet or so with the clear aquarium airline comming from the tap to a sponge filter. I agree with the fact that there is no reason to go 1.5 the output is 3./4 pipe so.. i dont see much need for more then 3/4? but somebody told me i need to go at LEAST 1.5 inch pipe. but.. i dunno.


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## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

You know what I'd do...buy the 3/4...it's smaller, less obvious and then...put the $ saved towards beer.


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

well i think there is some 3/4 inch stuff at canadian tire but its called CPVC. it has a rating for 100PSI though so maybe its used for air in some other way.. not too sure..


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) is used in applications with fluids up to 90 C (I believe). Some pressure maybe, but it comes in different thicknesses (schedules - higher number = thicker).

You probably just need ABS if you're just going to use it to house all the tubes of airline.


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

humm chlornated... that doesnt sound good? does that mean its going to leech chlorine? and no.. im sorry its not evenm a bulkhead im making i dont know why i said bulkead. its a central air system with the little taps drilled into a larger pipe every 2 feet or so.,


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Its also being used as airlines for compressors in private shops now. Very easy to work with but not what you want for a tank.


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## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

i think im going to go wit ABS. i use ABS IN my tanks and ive never had an issue. i know alot of people that do actually with no ill resluts. abs is cheeper and easier to find and there are a better selection of fittings.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Better off longterm using PVC. ABS will crack after a few years. Case in point was Menagerie. When the fish room was first renovated back ~'96. The owner used ABS. By ~99-2000, there were so many cracks not even duct tape helped anymore...LOL! I changed it all to PVC. Not sure what it's like now. 

Harold will have to chime in on my work there...LOL!


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## moon (Mar 11, 2006)

I've used black 1.5" ABS in my fish room and it has been there for 21 years with no problems. I used 1.5" to provide storage for the air and build up pressure insead of a pressure tank The air source is a Gast blower 1/2 hp. Presently running about 20 tanks each with 2 or 3 sponge filters.
HTH


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

I think hp of the blower is the key. I don't recall the hp of the blower Menagerie (it's a pretty big honking unit in the basement) but it was changed from 1.5" ABS to 1.5" PVC.


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