Prior to building my sump/refugium and plumbing everything together, I tried to find out what schedule of pipe I should be using. I had a hard time trying to decide whether I should be using the Schedule 40 pipe used for ‘cold’ water or the Schedule 80 pipe that is to be used for hot water. After looking at the price, I just decided to go with the schedule 40 pipe. I assumed that my only issue was the temperature of the water going through the pipes and never took into account the UV light from our high output lights beating down on these pipes on a daily basis. If you have ever left a piece of pvc outside in the sun for an extended amount of time, you will notice that it will eventually become fairly brittle, or at least begin to corrode away and leave a white powder on it.
For those of you that have been in the hobby for a long time, have you ever had an issue with the PVC beginning to ‘break down’? What schedule pvc have you been using to plumb your sumps or refugiums?
mom n dad have had the same pipes in the store for over 15 years… and the pipe looks and feel exactly the same as the day it was installed. we dont have too many h/o lights over the “fish” tanks, but 0 visible breakdown is still pretty good i think. pvc/cpvc.
how much light is reall hitting your plumbing really? im sure it’s getting SOME light, but how much is direct?
pvc outside is being exposed to a lot more than sunlight alone. weather, daily 15 degree plus temp changes, freezing temps in the winter, water inside AND out, etc. im sure some of that will affect the integrity of the pipe but will never find its way to the plumbing on your tank.
Most HO lights have a glass UV shield between them and the tank. and you never could really produce some of the harmful UV spectrum that the sun puts out. i’ve never heard of the problem but your right outside things do seem to get messed up a little.
Yeah most of my plumbing doesn’t get any direct high intensity light at all, cause its in the stand. But for some of those people using MH and hang on tank situations, I was wondering how it would affect those.