Schedule 80 vs 40 PVC

[OneReef]

I want to do my new plumbing in grey pipe and connectors. Lowes has grey PVC pipe, but it is schedule 80. The 80 has much thicker walls than the white 40. Will the thicker walls means smaller inside diameter and less water flow, or does it really matter?

[jscarlata]

Why spend the extra money for sched 80? It's quite a bit more expensive, especially for the fittings, than sched 40. You can always paint the piping gray if you really want it gray...
Sched 80 is for very high pressure and structural rigidity. Not relate needed for most reef aetups

[solitude127]

I did my tank in Sch 80 and if I were to do it again, I'd do in Sch 40 in heartbeat. The "WOW" factor is gone after a month and much rather have the ID bigger.

[evsalty]

Why spend the extra money for sched 80? It's quite a bit more expensive, especially for the fittings, than sched 40. You can always paint the piping gray if you really want it gray...
Sched 80 is for very high pressure and structural rigidity. Not relate needed for most reef aetups

+1



I used sch 40 and painted it black.

http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu343/evsalty/40br/40brplumbing.jpg

http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu343/evsalty/40br/sumpplumbing.jpg

[mil hse]

as being in landscaping for quite some time, the only advantages to gray sch 80 pvc is 1: for higher pressure than sch 40 and 2: better insulation value, thats why im only using it for my return from my chiller. just my .02

[Tat2demon]

Thats some dead sexy plumbing!

[nikon187]

remember sch 80 need bigger holes for the bulkhead to fit due to their threads. A 1.5 sch80 bulkhead will NOT fit a standard hole for 1.5 inch bulkhead..Also agree with everyone above, waste of money and not needed.

[moonpod]

Use abs. Come black. Plenty strong for our purposes

[1Fish]

I like the sch.80 true union valves because they can be taken apart for cleaning and sch.40 pipe.

[evsalty]

Thats some dead sexy plumbing!

Tanks a lot! :D

Use abs. Come black. Plenty strong for our purposes

Very hard to find under 1.5" though.

I like the sch.80 true union valves because they can be taken apart for cleaning and sch.40 pipe.

I like true unions BUT they neck down the i.d. very much. Here is a pic of a 1" true union next to a standard 1" bv. I would have had to upsize the true union to 1.25" to not restrict my flow so much and then add bushings/adapters which would have added length and cost to my plumbing.

http://i662.photobucket.com/albums/uu343/evsalty/40br/bvdiffs.jpg

[SunkAA]

Hi, I'm new here and I did my tank plumbing in sch 80, largely due to the fact I bought everything from BRS. I can tell you that now I was a bit naive in the fact that I purchased all of this stuff. The old adage of 7 trips to the hardware store to complete one plumbing project fits here - I always found that I was missing a fitting or two and I would have to order up some more from BRS as HD or Lowes didn't carry much in the way of matching fittings. It wasn't very cost effective and really added nothing, but a uniform aesthetic value to the whole setup (i.e. matching with my spears gate valve on the herbie and ball valves, etc.). That "paint the sch 40 black" idea looks tricked out and probably was at least a 1/3 of the cost cheaper to boot.

[cbrfire]

+1 on schedule 40 and painting it if you need to impress anyone with the look of the pipes. Either way I would paint the return pipes a color to match your background

[nivenethan]

Sch 80 on ball and gates cuz they r SOOOO much smoother but other than that sc 80 is a waste of money.

[lhemphill]

Glad I read this post. I started thinking that maybe the sch80 was overkill. Finding out its only for looks makes it even more pointless when it can be painted any color.

[karsseboom]

I use class 200 pipe way easy to work with there is no need for thicker pipe on a fish tank.