After two days of work repairing a leak that I never found in my clam tank I am determined to put in a check valve that works. My experience with the inexpensive flapper PVC check valves has been poor. The first that I had just stopped working (sealing) and the second cavitated constantly no matter what adjustments were made. I had both installed in a vertical position. I have been looking at several other brands and wanted any opinions about what you may have had experience with or knowledge of? The models of I have looked are : Wye Check Valves - which I can't find much info on but it uses a plasitic spring to seat the check. There would be some loss of flow but my pump is way over powered so I have plenty of spare flow. Around 40.00 Plasto-o-matic - this is a positive position valve in which it is normally closed unless there is flow that opens the valve. It is well made and the company has the best information on its valves, including a video. Around 67.00 Spears and Hayward valves - are both ball check valves that must be used in a vertical position which is not an option right now with this configuration. Cost around 40.00 Putting a whole in the returns of this aquarium to break the syphon is not an option on this tank setup. It just occured to me that perhaps I could add more lock line to the current returns that rise from the bottom and could curve at the surface and back down, then I could drill a small hole that would mechanically brake the syphon. What do you think? p.s. I just thought of another option - what if I put a loc-line y that would split the 3/4 line into two 1/2 inch lines for which they make a check valve for. Odd that they do not make a check valve in the 3/4 size that I am using. I do not think that I would be restricting the flow by using the two 1/2 instead of one 3/4. I like this option the best because it is cheapest but then I would have to depend on 8 check valves not to fail. Is there NO PERFECT SOLUTION? Maybe this isn't such a good option. I hope that there are others that waffle back and forth on stuff like I do.
The spring check valves are normally not recommended because of the spring rusting. If you are willing to drop the cash on it, that diaphragm CKM check valve from plast-o-matic looks like a great solution. I will be spending the extra money on a couple when I get my new tank... I say that like it is going to be tomorrow or something, yeah right :lol:
I have noticed that the Locline joint are not pressure worthy. I would expect a slow leak from them even if they broke the surface. Every one of the joints below the water would be letting a bit of water drain back down. Not sure how fast it would happen so that may not be an issue for you. If you decided to avoid the check valve you could do a variation of what you proposed with the locline. Instead paint some PVC pipe black and make that your riser to replace the majority of your locline. Put a 90 on the top of it so that the top of the 90 comes close to the surface and drill an anitsiphon hole there. Then put a short stub of locline coming out of the 90 for adjusting the direction of the flow. I have used that Plastikote paint on a powerhead inside of my tank. It is supposedly reef safe and seems pretty durable.
Thanks for the opinions - I am really up in the air on this one. I would do the PVC syphon break but with the aquarium already set up and sand in the bottom (the returns come from the bottom of the tank) it would be almost impossible to remove the lockline and replace it because of sand. I am stearing clear of the lock line checks due to your statements. I emailed plast-o-matic and they got back to me promptly. I think that I will go that route - I would have paid twice the money to not have to go through what I have in the last two days. Thanks everyone - I will let you know how the plastomatic does.
I purchased two Plastomatic check valves from USCO today. They have one inch connections and will go on the clam tank and main tank as soon as they come in. I will post some pictures after they are installed. The more I think about what Joe had to say about aquarium supplies seeming to be not as good quality as perhaps they should be - I have to agree. The best products seem to come from outside the hobby from other industry applications.
Yes I will agree with you. I think about the thermometers especially. BUT... IceCap Ballasts, and from my experience, Sequence pumps are very well made products. IceCap will do what is needed to help you out. And my Sequence ReeFlo Dart is a great pump.
I got the check valves in today, but will not have a chance to install them untill later in the week. After inspecting them it will be interestin to see if there is much flow reduction. I kind of suspect that there will be because there doesn't seem to me much travel of the plunger when the valve in open. How would I go about measuring the out put through the check valve before and after installation? Is there a cheap way of doing this without having to have an specific instrument to measure it?
It is a very technical device I like to call a bucket... LOL If you can take and time how long it takes to fill a bucket of so many gallons, say 5 gallons.... If it takes 10 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket then you say ok 60 seconds (a minute) devided by 10 seconds is 6, then multiply how many gallons your container is by that number, in this case 6 you get 30 gallons per minute, then multiply by 60 again and you will have gallons per hour, in this case 1800 GPH. You may want to use a different container since you are using a dart which is rated at 3600 gallons per hour which would equate to 5 seconds to fill a 5 gallon bucket (Yikes! theres a lot of water on the floor now!). I would reccomend a trash can. If you need help just ask.
