Trying to make a fry rack out of Sterilite containers.

[Chakaga]

I have some 6 quart sterilite containers that I am trying to make into fry racks using some nylon adapter elbows with female fittings and an O-ring. The problem that I have is that I can't get the seal to be water tight, and I keep getting a leak. Someone told me that silicone won't bond to the plastic bins, so I don't have any idea how to make it water tight. Anyone that has ever done anything like this have any ideas? Thank you in advance.

[ngrubich]

Use a gasket? The gasket would be wider than the o-ring so I would imagine that it would seal better.

[steven p]

^gaskets, o-rings and silocone will make a temporary seal, but has trouble bonding. You may be able to help it hold by sanding the plastic surface first, so it can grab something.

[james1542]

Slip fittings will not give you the pressure you need to create a seal. Get a threaded male/female slip. Put a rubber O-ring or a gasket over the threaded male end then-Put the threaded male end through the hole in your container, on the outer side of the container, screw a threaded female coupler on and tighten it down until it's putting lots of pressure on the Oring/gasket. I've heard electrical fittings are better than pvc plumbing fittings as the threads do not taper on e fittings. The Orings they sell for plumbing a faucet work great for this.

Basically you will end up with the gasket/oring on the inner wall of your tank, with a nut on the outside of the tank keeping enough pressure to make a water tight seal. Or look up any "bulk head" as that is basically what I'm explaining how to make.

[dbosman@msu.edu]

Gray electrical conduit fittings are straight threaded. A male, and a female and an O-ring will do the trick. Under $1 for the 3/4" size. Home Depot sells some sizes and sells O-rings for the 1/2" and 3/4" sizes, in the plumbing dept.

For a nifty one piece unit with an intake screen, check out the plumbing bin at your local hydroponics shop. They also sell pieces to go larger, at some shops.

For a bit more, and some pictures, use the search feature and look for "conduit bulkhead" without the quote marks.

Here is one site with pictures.
http://www.truetex.com/bulkhead.htm

[dbosman@msu.edu]

Oh, yeah, check out Ted Judy's fish room video on his fry rack.

[Chakaga]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I'm glad that now I can go to the Lowe's and tell them exactly what I need. I'll post some pics when I've got a functional model!

[Chakaga]

I've got a leakproof overflow design set-up now on the sterilite containers, and thank you a thousand times for the idea of using electrical PVC. Now I'm stuck on how to return water to the system from the sump. I picked up a 55 gallon for the sump and I'm gonna get a pump, but how do I set up a pump to pump water into all four of the shelves evenly?

[Jeffww]

You can either split it for the number of tubs you have or can cascade the tubs so that one fills from the return and overflows into a another tube that empties into the next tub and so forth.

There's no real way have ensuring the same flow into each tank...

[biogenetic40379]

i would do what jeffww described. you could do some crazy ball valve set up but imo it would not work as well as just daisy chaining them together. Lets get some pics

[james1542]

you could connect your pump to a hard pvc line that runs over all your tanks, with those threaded valved tapped into it. Or you could run a flexible line off your pump, and have it tee off and run to the various tanks, with a small ball valve (pretty cheap for airline tubing size) to control the flow to each tank. When purchasing the pump keep in mind the height it can lift water, and get something that can go at least a foot above all your tanks. I was at Home depot last night, and in the garden irrigation system area, there was a thing that connects to a hose that splits off to 12 small lines, with ball valves on all of them. Not sure how leak proof it is but it was around 10 bucks.

[GraphicGr8s]

Originally Posted by biogenetic40379

i would do what jeffww described. you could do some crazy ball valve set up but imo it would not work as well as just daisy chaining them together. Lets get some pics

If you're daisy chaining them (series vs a parallel setup) what happens if by some freak incident one pipe gets blocked up?

[biogenetic40379]

graphic, it would depend on how it is all plumbed. If you set the sump up to allow for a power out (water would rise in sump, lower in display tanks based on level of bulk head/ input pipe) no flooding should occur.