Various DIY Parts

You can often make different parts and pieces from stuff you have laying around, and things that you can find locally, at your favorite "Home" store. Here is an example of some of the DIY parts I've made and used, as shown by "Doc," my Shiro Utsuri cat.



On the left, or Doc's right, is a bulkhead fitting made of 3 inch PVC thread adaptors, one male, one female (as Nature intended,) and a pair of DIY gaskets. The gaskets were cut from some scrap Polytank material, if you need something stiffer, they can be cut from a plastic cutting board, appropriated from the kitchen. In the center, is a thru-bottom air supply line, made from 1/2 inch PVC thread adaptors, some scrap pipe, an end plug, and an air line barb fitting, tapped and threaded into place.

The bulkhead fitting is one that I have used for stand pipes, skimmer mounting, and general tank-to-tank connections.

I needed a bottom drain, but the standard 4 inch drain would have been too large for the flow rate I anticipated, so I found this one at Lowe's. They sell it as an "area" drain. It can actually be used with either 3 inch or 4 inch PVC pipe. The 3 in pipe will slip inside the drain's outlet, 4 in PVC will slip over the outlet.

Put together, ready to go.

The elbow has one male slip end and one female slip end.

To aerate fill water, I use a foaming-type fountain head glued onto a piece of garden hose, with some silicone adhesive. My water is from a well, with very little dissolved oxygen.

This is the 3 inch PVC bulkhead fitting, assembled. Just add your favorite "goop."

I wanted an air stone on top of the bottom drain cap, but I didn't want to run the line thru the bottom drain, as that can result in clogs. This fitting comes up thru the liner, near the bottom drain and a short piece of air line runs from it, to the air stone on top of the anti-vortex dome. (AES sells taps, drill bits, and barb fittings.) PVC is very easy to drill and tap for threaded parts.

My airlift powered UV needed a screen on the inlet. I used a male thread adaptor, a screen cut from plastic gage material, and a short piece of pipe to act as a retainer. It just screws into the bulkhead fitting. If the bulkhead fitting had been a slip-type, a short piece of pipe and a retainer cut from a pipe coupler, along with the screen disk would have done the job, just as well.

This is a UV, powered by an airlift. When testing is complete, I'll have a DIY page on it. But it was done with locally available parts. Only the UV had to be ordered.



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