Do I need to glue or use sealants for PVC plumbing?

angeladay

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So, I finally gathered all materials needed to plumb my drilled tank. The question is, do I need to use any sealants/glue to to connect PVC pipes into bulkheads? One of the bulkheads is threaded.

Please help!
 

Oddball

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You can use teflon tape for the threaded fittings and PVC adhesive for the slip fittings. Once cured the adhesive becomes inert and is harmless to fish. If you want to set up your plumbing for ease of future disassembly, you can use threadded fitting throughout your plumbing and/or use PVC compression couplers.

pvccoupler.jpg
 

dodgefreak8

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do yourself a favor and use glue. It won't harm your fish and is alot more reliable. Unless you plan on dismantling it later then use threaded or compression type fittings.. Also the wet set type of glue dries faster.
 

Tongue33

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I agree glue in my opinion is better.. Leaks can be nasty :)But i've seen happy campers with threaded fittings :)
 

Oddball

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Glue? What type of glue?
Check your hardware store for PVC glue/sealer/adhesive/cement. You'll find it in cans with 1" screw tops for the applicator wand. I use the clear sealer which works on both white PVC and black ABS pipes/fittings. The cans look like this but, the labels differ depending on brand and application.

pvccement.jpg
 

arlo

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yes use sealent. like if ure attatching a 90 degree elbow onto a staight pipe u should spread the sealent on the straight pipe first and then stick the elbow on. i made the mistake of trying to seal the piping after i had put everything together. doing it the latter way causes leaks, doing it the first way makes it bulletproof :naughty:
 

Hasi

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I used PVC sealeant and it does no harm to fish once dried. Definitely need to glue the PVC pipes as water pressure will eventually bust from somewhere.
 

Steve_89

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Glue...seriously use it.

I've seen so many people regret not using it.
 
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