PVC or Tubing?

As some of you may know my 60g will be going up on friday and I was just wondering the pros and cons of plumbing the overflow/return with tubing or PVC. To me it seems easier to just run a tube from the HOB overflow to the sump and a tube from the return back to the DT. What do you prefer? Why?

 

A tube from the return is what I use, but because I'm splitting off the water to my sump/fuge I use PVC pipes primarily from the overflow box. I do have a small section of tubing when my pipes have to go from vertical to horizontal. This allows me to take it apart if I need to.

 

I used tubing on my 55, but was never happy with the way it looked. On the 100g build I just started I plan on using pvc. If you are going to be using tubing look for the black tubing used in ponds, its uv resistant. The clear tubing will grow more algae in it than the solid black. And the black tubing looks nicer. I have that now and even thouigh it looks better than the clear I still dont care for it. Another downfall I found with the tubing is you need to get barbed fittings for all the valves, I think they cut down on flow alot.

 

in my build of my 50 gallon i am working on currently i have pvc going from the overflow to the sump and the return has tubing to take the water to the tank.

 

I used PVC for the end points (like, just out of the bulkhead on the overflow, for about 8" on the return, etc.), but vinyl tubing to connect it all.

I did it this way because I had an established tank that I was adding onto, though. If I had a brand new setup, I'd do PVC all the way.

 

I originally set up my tank with clear tubing but thought the fittings were restricting the flow so I changed to PVC and I was right. I had to dial back my return once I changed over to PVC.

 

I have clear tubing now but when I get a new tank I will be doing PVC. Don't get me wrong I like the tubing but I want something with a little more sturdiness when I up grade.

 

I way over size my hose so I don't care it's a little slower, but I use pvc for 90 turns and other things, but I run tubing in-between because it's easier to plumb

 

I used tubing at the beginning but HATED IT!!!!. Looks horrible.. 2 days later I went to PVC.. Look a million times better and I was able to route it exactly where i wanted it without having some parts sagging down like tubing does.. PVC all the way