DIY Wide Diameter Tubing For Faster Siphoning
- Thread starter joe00
- Start date
Nice friend! The quote I got for a 4' piece of 6" acrylic tube was $150...a bit more than I wanted to spend.
I was able to get ahold of a small scrap piece of acrylic cylinder and I took it down to my local plumbing supply house. They had an ABS fitting that created a nice tight seal, but I gave up on the idea of using acrylic when I found out the fitting and the acrylic tube would be so expensive.
I would suggest taking the 6" acrylic cylinder to your local plumbing supply yard and ask them if you can poke around and see if they have anything that would create a more secure seal; test fit a bunch of fittings to see if there is anything that would work.
My siphon works really well (besides not being able to see what I'm sucking up
). I also have a ball valve on mine and I have to valve it back to prevent gravel from being sucked up. I put a mesh lingerie wash bag at the end of the hose to catch any gravel that I inadvertently suck up (see pic below). The tubing I use is just cheap 1.5" sump pump tubing. Surprisingly, it's held up really well over the 3 years I've been using it. I put my ball valve about 6' down from the tubing since I didn't want to lose my siphon when I moved the vac from one opening in my tank to another. You won't have that problem though, since it looks like that tank is wide open. I was going to use pool hose like you did, but I went cheap-o on mine. Yours is basically what I set out to build, but I'm a cheapskate and I decided I didn't want to end up spending $300+ to build a gravel vac. Yours looks awesome!
Wash bag to capture anything that gets sucked up:
That filtration room is epic! I would hate to see the power bill though.
Where is that tank? It's amazing!
Here is a hose that can also be used...
http://www.waterpumpsdirect.com/Apa...ign=98138015&gclid=COLa8Lj-ycICFYZbfgod9SYALQ
Here is a hose that can also be used...
http://www.waterpumpsdirect.com/Apa...ign=98138015&gclid=COLa8Lj-ycICFYZbfgod9SYALQ
I've been eyeballing the sump discharge hose at ace hardware. Its corrugated or ribbed tubing. I think its 1.5". Its extremely flexible and inexpensive. Dunno how it would hold up over time though.
They should have a roll of it at any hardware or home improvement store
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They should have a roll of it at any hardware or home improvement store
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I'm curious how easy/difficult it would be to start a siphon using that discharge hose. Has anyone used it?
That's exactly the hose that I've been using for 3+ years. I think the manufacturer is Wayne; I paid like12 bucks for it at my local Ace Hardware. It's not as solid as pool hose, but it'll do the job at a fraction of the cost.
i have tried to use that discharge hose attached to a 1.5 PVC pipe at the end.. usually we start the siphon by sucking the other end of the hose with little force (sucking the hose) without any problem, because gravity will do it's job.. with this discharge hose you can NOT suck the end of the hose since it's flat and soft which blocks air (siphon) being pulled from the other end of the tank pvc.. i tried it and returned it back to the store right away since it's didn't work with this scenario.. now i have thought of it.. the ONLY will we can use this discharge hose is by dropping a big pump with the hose into the tank and use the pump to push water out... well this isn't energy efficient in my point of view...
I been thinking about this blue ribbed flexible tubing for a while but it was really expensive to use...
i have tried to use that discharge hose attached to a 1.5 PVC pipe at the end.. usually we start the siphon by sucking the other end of the hose with little force (sucking the hose) without any problem, because gravity will do it's job.. with this discharge hose you can NOT suck the end of the hose since it's flat and soft which blocks air (siphon) being pulled from the other end of the tank pvc.. i tried it and returned it back to the store right away since it's didn't work with this scenario.. now i have thought of it.. the ONLY will we can use this discharge hose is by dropping a big pump with the hose into the tank and use the pump to push water out... well this isn't energy efficient in my point of view...
You can always just use the pump to start the siphon and shut it off or remove it. I've done that before.
I dont think a large pump running for way less than an hour is too crazy for energy expenditure - think about all the "energy" you could be expending carrying millions of 5 gallon pails. Lol
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I dont think a large pump running for way less than an hour is too crazy for energy expenditure - think about all the "energy" you could be expending carrying millions of 5 gallon pails. Lol
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