Well, seeing @LJC6780 post about the Brute made me finally get off my butt and start a mixing station build. Nothing special, just something to make water changes faster and easier. Due to my overly busy workload lately this has been a slow process. 2 weekends ago I cut the lumber for the Brutes stands. Last weekend I put them together. Yesterday during lunch I ran to Lowes and bought some PVC fittings. I bought 3/4 inch stuff for my freshwater Brute and 1/2 inch for my saltwater Brute. This evening I drilled the hole in my Saltwater Brute, inserted the uniseal, dry fit the PVC, and stared gluing them together. That is when I noticed that I didn't pit the collar back on the union/ball valve...fail. Well, now I have to go buy another union/ball valve. Sad face. This may take longer than expected. LOL
I want to see pics! I STILL have to finish plumbing mine! I got 3/4" for both cans. Why did you go larger for the salt can? I also found some good valves (well I guess, haven't used them yet) that are plug and play at lowes. Like shark bite but pvc. Hoping thy work well. They turn a lot easier than the previous ones. And also fit normal sizes. Maybe I can get out there tomorrow and finish this. Oh hey. If I can't get these larger seals to work and end up buying new cans, what hole saw did you use to cut your holes? The current holes at 1/8" too large and that's why they were leaking and all siliconed up. So I'm wondering if he just cut the wrong size or if the hole saw was off or what. Trying to avoid future hole size issues.
I went with 2 different sizes because I had an idea but I ended up not going that route. As for hole saw size, it all depends on what size Uniseal you use. BRS has a sizing chart. It is on the bottom left side under Uniseal Specs http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/uniseal-1-9d624e9fd3bd011eb7a8f1d40f457d93.html BRS has free shipping if you are not in a rush. If I were you I would buy a Uniseal and start all over.
The problem is that the holes were cut 1/8" too large for the uniseals. I don't know if he used the wrong size hole saw or if the hole saw has a margin of error, that's why I was wondering which one you used. Like what brand or style. I think the silicone tape is going to work, but if it doesn't, I'll either have to cut bigger holes and buy new uniseals or just buy new cans and start over with smaller uniseals to begin with. Make more sense now?
Uniseals come in a bunch of different sizes. I'd start with that. Reverse engineer it. Measure the hole and then look up what Uniseal is the next size up. They fit really tigt
It's a 1 1/2" uniseal and by the directions the hole is 1/8" too large. When you put it in with the pipe in, it still leaks. I can see if the 2" one will fit but it supposedly needs a larger hole. 3" I believe. So.. I'm either stuck buying a larger hole saw and new uniseals and trying to make these cans work, failing and then starting over, or I can rig these and hope they at least work for a while, or I can buy new cans and 3/4" uniseals and start over with the size pipe I'm using in the first place. Or rig it now and do that later. Either way, I'm buying a hole saw and new uniseals. So what hole saw did you use? Did it cut clean? Was the hole size accurate? Did you get a good, leak free seal?
I'm going to guess that because you are cutting a curved surface the resulting hole will be a little bigger than the size of the hole saw. Don't this is what happened with the original owner or if he just chose the wrong hole saw. I do know that lots of people have installed them on rigid 5 gallon buckets without problems so I would bet he used the wrong saw.
Yes please share your setup and materials if ya get the chance. I was thinking I wanted a station to make water changes smoother. Now that I've flooded my kitchen/living room by over flowing the 5 gal buckets more than a few times making fresh water..I've decided I need one.
I FINALLY got my station finished ... almost. Last piece is just mounting the switch board but I'm not in the mood right now so it will have to wait. Ordered new uniseals and a hole saw kit from BRS. Bought new 2" bushings and kept everything else I'd come up with. Making water as we speak. (Or type/read) @Deton8it this is the switchboard I was talking about. It's going to be mounted with switches up on the black board to the left. I want to see pics of your station! @Brian this is John's thread but this is my setup here.
Well these are in my garage and not attached to my tank at all. And the majority of the design was from the guy I bought it all from. I did modify it a bit to suit my needs better. And I upgraded the rodi unit. It's SOOOO much better now! So much faster and WAY less waste water! I also made the spouts simpler. He had big pipe stepped down with weird fittings. I wish I could hook it all to the tank like @doubleorange did for his dad! That system is pretty much awesome! Instant water change and much larger water volume. Pretty genius.
I agree! I would love to have a behind the tank fish room some day. I would totally set it all up to do something similar if I had the space available!
