Aquarium pipe work and fittings:

When choosing your first aquarium and you decide to have a sump based marine aquarium system this will require you to have some way of getting your aquarium water down to your sump tank sited under the tank in the cabinet...  The method for the water transfer is the use of pvc pipe work and fittings...  These are supplied with your aquarium system if you have requested this option and will be 95% pre-assembled for you..  

The fittings are assembled using solvent weld pvc pipe work glue and once applied literally welds the pipe together. The glue and the pipe work is fully reef safe and will give many years of service life.. 
A twin pipe set is used with dimensions of 32mm being the average bore diameter which will allow approx 13,000 litres of flow through..  A ball valve is fitted to one of the pipes in line at the end of the as the water enters the sump and this is to control the water flow to obtain a quiet running system. The second pipe is left fully open and is used to control the water level height and acts as a backup pipe incase of blockage of the first main syphon pipe.  To adjust the flow and maintain quiet operation the ball valve is opened or closed to synchronise with the aquariums return pump until a small trickle of water is allowed to run down the second open pipe... once adjusted may require the odd tweak every now and then to keep it fine tuned and give years of quiet operation...  different sizes of pipe work is required depending on the amount of flow  required which is generally 6 to 10 times turn over of the aquarium volume..   We are alway here to assist with pipe work fittings if you are unsure..

Happy Reefing