Securing tubing to barrel

[zombie]

I am not sure which method I should use to secure my 1/4" OD poly tubing to my Saltwater and RODI barrels. They are 30 gallon and 55 gallon respectively blue food grade barrels. Below are a few ideas I had but each have some cons.

1. Drill a John guest bulkhead near the bottom and attach tubing from the outside. This allows me to add the lid but I haven't seen any designed for continuous submerged use and has the potential to leak like crazy.

2. Drain the tanks and silicon the tubing in place. Hard to fix if problems arise and will be a PITA to keep tubing in place while it cures, but would hold well once it cures.

3. Airline suction cups from petco. These can sometimes hold well, but aren't super reliable.

4. Some sort of weight maybe. Not sure what kind to get and too much has potential to crack or kind, and too little won't be effective.

 

[Balz3352]

1/2in or 3/4 pvc with a uniseal and a John guest threaded at the end of the pvc

 

[Fourthwind]

I honestly would not run an airstone in the RODI. RODI is like a magnet for airborne impurities. Anything in the air will be absorbed by the water. I just run circulation pumps for the salt, and don't store for very long as it can also absorb.

 

[flagg37]

I honestly would not run an airstone in the RODI. RODI is like a magnet for airborne impurities. Anything in the air will be absorbed by the water. I just run circulation pumps for the salt, and don't store for very long as it can also absorb.

Is that what he’s using it for? I have 1/4” tubing running in my barrels for my ato and an old awc system. I chose your option 4 and weighted the end of it. I drilled a 1/4” hole in a 6” square piece of spare acrylic and pushed it through a couple inches. I can’t say it’s the coolest solution but it works great.

I don’t think the silicone will bond to the container as well as you’re thinking. You could test it on the outside first and see.

I’ve never had success with those suction cups holding something long term either.

 

[zombie]

I honestly would not run an airstone in the RODI. RODI is like a magnet for airborne impurities. Anything in the air will be absorbed by the water. I just run circulation pumps for the salt, and don't store for very long as it can also absorb.

I'm not using an airstone. I am using semi-rigid polyethelyne 1/4" OD tubing to connect the RODI reservoir to my litermeter3 for ATO and the saltwater reservoir to my DOS for auto water change.

 

[zombie]

1/2in or 3/4 pvc with a uniseal and a John guest threaded at the end of the pvc

Good idea. Got some 1/2" ones on order and will run a 1/2" PVC pipe through it with a slip to threaded adaptor and then a 1/2" threaded to 1/4" OD John guest adaptor. I will also add a ball valve either John guest or cemented to the 1/2" pipe

 

[JZinCO]

+1 for the uniseal approach