Best glue? Plumbing clear poly-carbonate pipe into a pvc fitting..

Drop That Sound · Apr 11, 2018

Just wondering what the best cement/glue/adhesive would be to use:

It's for 2" clear poly pipe into 2" sch 40 PVC fittings. Not much info out there. For RDWC with no real pressure....

1. Regular clear pvc cement/primer?: I honestly don't think it will weld pvc with the clear poly.. might seal it up fine though?

2. Plastic 2 party epoxy?: Should hold good right? I've seen epoxies pop right off plexi-glass like nothing..

3. 100% Silicone: I mean hey, its holding my 45 gallon fish tank together NP. Infact, who says I couldn't glue every piece of PVC fittings/pipes on the whole system together with a tube of silicone?

Then I could break it down easier, or change things out without unions, if i wanted to.

4. Some expensive specialised acrylic composite adhesive that cost me an arm? Which one? I actually have tons of leftover solid surface (corian) 2 part adhesive cartidges from jobs, but we're talking plumbing here, not fabricating counter-tops.

5. ?

I'm mostly worried how nutrients ,acids, etc, could break down whatever I use after time.

Bobby Boucher · Apr 12, 2018

is there any particular reason you cant use a pvc adapter? usplastic carries 2"ers for 3 bucks a piece.. or you could try and heat and flare your tubing to wrap around the pvc, coupled up with a hose clamp er 2..

my knowledge of adhesives is pretty limited, so i'll butt out there. just pointing out the obvious here, i guess.

**nvm.. i need to stop day drinking. i thought you were trying to connect standard poly tubing to pvc with whatever you had laying around in the garage. drunk. i even read "polycarbonate" but my fucking brain just heard whatever it wanted to..

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

Bobby Boucher said:
is there any particular reason you cant use a pvc adapter? usplastic carries 2"ers for 3 bucks a piece.. or you could try and heat and flare your tubing to wrap around the pvc, coupled up with a hose clamp er 2..

my knowledge of adhesives is pretty limited, so i'll butt out there. just pointing out the obvious here, i guess.

**nvm.. i need to stop day drinking. i thought you were trying to connect standard poly tubing to pvc with whatever you had laying around in the garage. drunk. i even read "polycarbonate" but my fucking brain just heard whatever it wanted to..

Haha yeah I actually did say tube again instead of pipe though, I must need to smoke some more.

But i'll be damned if that wouldn't answer another question i've had:

Can you use pvc glue on regular clear vynil tubing to glue it in a fitting?

I know you can with the white semi rigid flexible PVC tubing but what about regular clear stuff, provided you keep it nice and round?

Hose clamps and heat have worked fine but would be nice to know if you can

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

I could maybe order 1 ft of actual clear pvc, or maybe Bobby is right, just get some flexible 2" tubing and clamp it to a big ole nipple...

But the solid clear pipe looks so good

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

2" PVC & Poly side by side

2" PVC & Poly side by side

Just ever so slighlty looser in a fitting than the pvc when dry fit.

tleaf jr. · Apr 12, 2018

Pvc cement metal can green and white label...

troutman · Apr 12, 2018

Aquarium silicone is fast to put on and easy to work with and safe for plants and fish. :tiphat:

Spaventa · Apr 12, 2018

I made a system years ago that had a few different plastics involved that I needed to join or seal. I found paint thinners worked as a solvent on various plastics enabling me to graft and solvent weld things together of dissimilar plastics - pipes and fitting, converting NFT trays for aero by closing the open drain end and adding a spigot outlet for pipe connection.. I found saw dust from cutting the plastics mixed with thinners made a perfect, viscous solvent cement that was bomb proof in minutes and totally water tight.

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

PVC cement as in the green stuff made for PVC to ABS transitions? Or just green labeled, thats the heavy duty version right?

I really like the aquarium grade silicone idea, I have some in black. Also have regular 100% silicone I in clear, not silicone II which has antimicrobial additives\latex mixed in.. it is non toxic as well.

Just wonder about the acidic nature of the nutrients messing with the seal. I will rough up the poly with some 80 grit sand paper first..

I've had sheets of plexi glass fall right off the silicone holding it to a wood frame before. Had to reinforce with metal washers and screws, that kinda worries me as far as plumbing with it.

But I imagine If I could carefully pull the pipes and fittings apart I could rub the old silicone right off and reuse them, like brand new parts again...

Its only a few 4 inch pieces of clear 2" poly going between 2 fittings, safe inside a tote where it can't get kicked around to much.

I would run some tests but I don't wanna waste a single inch of the clear pipe, need it for other projects too.

Also, I'm allergic to some 2 part epoxies and break out in a rash for 2 weeks if I even smell a wiff of it. Other wise I would buy some lock tite and call it a day...

oti$ · Apr 12, 2018

Plumbers goop? I've used it on all kinds of different plastics and rubber...

WelderDan · Apr 12, 2018

I'd go with the Silicone. Cheap, and should adhere to both surfaces

redlaser · Apr 12, 2018

Silicone sounds right because it’s safe for fish. Poopy fish water is pretty close to fert .

Not saying you would let the clear pipe get dirty, but I recently saw a post about someone having a clear water filter casing that had a lot of algae in it. Supposedly the plain water coming through it had 760 ppms in it and less than a hundred ppm before the clear filter.
They were having lots of problems before putting the meter before and after the algae filter.
Something to consider with clear I guess.
I’ve got two clear filters because I like monitoring them, but I wrapped the one in the greenhouse because it gets pretty bad

Stickybred420 · Apr 12, 2018

jb weld has never let me down. it is for all the jobs when duct tape doesn't quite cut it

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

5. Duct tape: how the heck could I have forgot about duct tape?!

Interested in plastic welding with paint thinner, would you mix equal amount of shavings from each type of material? I'll have to look into that, but for this purpose I would be worried about residuals if it didn't cure properly.

Same with JB, but I guess they make different kinds?

I'm gonna go ahead and try some silicone. Might even use it on a few other regular PVC to PVC fittings, only in a few joints where i might want to upgrade in the future...

I would love the clear filters, but I ended up with a couple 2 inch banjo's. They will be placed in a pump house tote where there is no light (the pumps too), so I was thinking I would run all clear pipe/tubing just in there from the bulkheads to the strainers. And to and from the pumps with 3/4" tubing.

All light proof plumbing outside the box so no worries about algea. Want every thing clear inside so I can inspect well, and also see the sludge and water level as i suck it up first with a mini vac.. hooked to the top of the y-strainer cap plug, which normally faces down.

Basically just wanna glue at least two 4" sections of poly to go right before each the Y-strainers. Maybe even on the other side of the strainers too, if i have the room. By the time I add the fittings on them i will have a 2-3 inch sight glass tube so I can kinda see whats up.

Drop That Sound · Apr 12, 2018

Oh ya and the height of the pump tote should be just above the water level in the RDWC systems, so if it did spring a leak "knock knock", I won't flood out the whole room. The room floor is water proof too so I should be good!

Spaventa · Apr 12, 2018

Drop That Sound said:
Interested in plastic welding with paint thinner, would you mix equal amount of shavings from each type of material? I'll have to look into that, but for this purpose I would be worried about residuals if it didn't cure properly.

Theres no issue - the thinner is volatile and will leave the bond very quickly. All you have left is the parent plastics you joined to each other, nothing additional - the join is the same as the rest of it. The plastic will cure just as it did when the items were made in the factory.

If both plastics you are joining dissolve in the thinners, it doesn't matter which you add to the thinners to make your cement. When I need thin cement for pipes and fittings, i added a little and when I needed thick paste for bridging gaps, i added more.

If the pipes fit tight in the fittings and your thinners melts both types of plastic, just neat thinners will do the job - just brush thinners on the surfaces that bond and they will go sticky straight away. the more you brush and work it the more sticky and viscous the surfaces become. play with some scraps and some thinners, you will see

I mean cellulose thinners for car paint btw - not white spirit or Turpentine so do it somewhere WELL VENTILATED and wear gloves. Step 1 is check the thinners dissolves both plastics. I can't remember any my thinners didn't. I guess the makers couldn't either cos it comes in a tin bottle/can

tleaf jr. · Apr 12, 2018

Drop That Sound said:
PVC cement as in the green stuff made for PVC to ABS transitions? Or just green labeled, thats the heavy duty version right?

I really like the aquarium grade silicone idea, I have some in black. Also have regular 100% silicone I in clear, not silicone II which has antimicrobial additives\latex mixed in.. it is non toxic as well.

Just wonder about the acidic nature of the nutrients messing with the seal. I will rough up the poly with some 80 grit sand paper first..

I've had sheets of plexi glass fall right off the silicone holding it to a wood frame before. Had to reinforce with metal washers and screws, that kinda worries me as far as plumbing with it.

But I imagine If I could carefully pull the pipes and fittings apart I could rub the old silicone right off and reuse them, like brand new parts again...

Its only a few 4 inch pieces of clear 2" poly going between 2 fittings, safe inside a tote where it can't get kicked around to much.

I would run some tests but I don't wanna waste a single inch of the clear pipe, need it for other projects too.

Also, I'm allergic to some 2 part epoxies and break out in a rash for 2 weeks if I even smell a wiff of it. Other wise I would buy some lock tite and call it a day...

The brand we use at work is made by oatey. The heavy duty stuff...warning though once you put cement your pipes together they will be stuck so use wisely...oh it dries very fast also.

Drop That Sound · Apr 13, 2018

I was browsing reefcentral forums and found a similar thread. The guys over there were recommending Weld On #40.

39.99 for the 1 pint kit.. ouch! Wish they made it in a smaller batch. Seems to be the best of the best.

I could order some clear PVC for that much though...

Thanks for all the quick answers guys, gonna try out the silicone first.. back with results soon

Sativan · Apr 18, 2018

I'd go with the silicone sealer for aquariums. It comes off easily and stays bonded unless there's a shock to break the seal. If nothing else you can rub it off as soon as you get tired of using it. I use it on most of my sealing jobs. I last used to seal a downstem in my bong. It works like a champ for that.

NzGreenWhanau · Apr 20, 2018

Look up Dux coupling on the interweb im unsure what they may be called in your part of the world. Its a rubber sleeve with to hose clamps either end can get them equal sizes or unequal. Unsure of the amount of head pressure it can handle but definitely water tight

Best glue? Plumbing clear poly-carbonate pipe into a pvc fitting..

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