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Check Valve not ...

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Checking. What's up with that? We (and by we, of course, I mean John) installed the check valve tonight in the 65 overflow and it a) didn't check... it let the water dribble back slowly, but STILL... isn't is supposed to stop?! and it also leaked and no matter how tight he made the hose clamp the hose connection still leaked.

He bought this at the boat store (marine 3/4" plastic check valve). Is this not the right thing or did we get a bum one? Why was the hose connection leaking if we were using 3/4" hose?!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Last night I heard *Drip* *Drip* *Drip* onto the kitchen floor. That was the 65 leaking through the floor. *sigh*. Somehow the plug had come loose and the return pump had stopped. We have it on a UPS so that it isn't as likely to stop because of power failure and SO much water returns through the return tubes. I know I could just drill a hole in it but I really wanted to install the check valves so that I didn't have to limit the sump volume as dramatically.

TIA.
 

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
This may be a stupid question.. But you have the check valve set so the flow is going the proper way right? I also think that some have to be mounted vertically and some horizontally.. I have an extra 3/4" check valve you can have if you want it. It has the hose barbs on it. It cut back the flow on my pump to much so I just drilled a back siphon hole and said forget about it.

If you want to try it and see if it works..it's yours.. (hopefully I can find it in all my fish crap!) I'll ship it to you if you want it.

HTH
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Thanks for the offer. There's already a squid in line which is diminishing the flow plenty so I don't want to decrease the flow any more than I already have... did you get this from Marine Depot? They claim no flow loss on theirs. If that's where you got it from then I guess I'll just get hubby to drill the darn holes (he's resisting). Should probably do that anyway since when the valve fails we'll still end up with water on the kitchen floor.

The valve was installed properly. If you blow into one end it flows freely (as you would expect) and if you blow into the other side you can hear the air wheezing through. When under pressure from the tank water the water continued to drip (not run, but if the power is out prolonged it won't matter if it is a drip or a flow) through the valve. Sooner or later that would produce same said puddle. LOL.

Thanks again for the offer!
 

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have a 1 1/2" true union transparent check-valve on my return pump but its only there as a convenience to prevent the backwash through the pump churning up the detritus in the return chamber only to be pumped into the display when I restart the pump, not a necessity. I think I got it from Marine Depot, not sure. It's a slip fitting that you have to use pvc glue on. IMO you should not be relying on the check valve to prevent flooding. Your sump should be large enough to accept the overflow water and siphoned water from the return lines. A small hole in the return line 1/2" below the tank water surface will reduce the amount of siphoned water. Also, it sounds like your check valve may have metal parts. Although they are most likely stainless steal, they will still eventually corrode possibly further fail (hose clamps especially) and possibly leaching nasties. JMO and HTH

One other thing. Does the checkvalve have barb fittings and your clamping tubing to it? If so.....you may want to add another clamp. Or, I have also seen checkvalves that are ment to be clamped to hard pipes, they have flexable ends with hose clamps sort of built in which won't work with tubing unless you use a nipple somewhere. (haha he said nipple)

Anyway....hope that helps.

BTW.... Getting a bum check valve from a marine store is not uncommon.
 
I remember saying in chat last night that check valves tend to fail when you need 'em most.. Sorry to hear of your mini flood..

I have ZERO check valves here.. Properly placed siphon breaks will always do the trick, are free to install, and even THEY are not infallible (gotta periodically check them to make sure there's nothing blocking the hole). But they do work better then check valves ;)

I also agree, check valves bought at a boat shop may have undesireable metals, stainless or even (gasp) Brass! Most boat stores figure you will be using a boat in SW and FW, and brass is a tough metal for SW use. But brass is made of copper and I believe nickel.. DEFINATELY not what you want in your tank..

FWIW, JMO, YMMV
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
It is all plastic as best I can tell... Where's the drill?! hmmm.
 
I have check valves on my sumps in the basement, I know they are very old and things really aren't made like they were years ago, but mine have rubber balls in them, not plastic, you might try to find some with rubber. Mine are PVC but they are grey not white not sure if that makes a differance or not. GL and keep some old towels handy!!!
Mike.
 

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I got my check valve with the set up when I purchased it. (a 120 gallon w/wood stand, w/wetdry,skimmer,glass tops,heaters a fluval 403,light strip(worthless),a 20 gallon high setup and a whisper filter) all for $500.00! What a deal that was!

Mine sort of looks like the ones from Marine Depot..maybe a bit larger...but it is hard to tell.

Just drill them holes and be done with it! ;)
 
C

concept3

Guest
Marine Depot has these check valves. They are true union, and you can see the purple primer that I used......
chec%20valve%20on%20pump.jpg



check%20valve.jpg


I only use the check valve as redundancy to prevent water from going down into my neighbor's condo (which I had already done in the past :) )
My loclines are just under 1/2 the water's surface and they act as a siphon break just in case. My sump is also a 20 gallon tank that always holds at least 10 gallons of water, and the stand it sits in is built in such a way that any overflow of water will stay. It's like having a sump sit in a bathtub. The stand base is siliconed all around at the seams and painted latex black almost 6 times. I can't say I rely on the check valve, but it certainly gives me a little more peace of mind especially when you're worried about getting harrassed by your neighbor for damages, and he's not the smallest guy on the block either!

The last time water went downstairs, I had to give him a powered subwoofer as a "sorry" because his went dead and I felt bad( not correlated to flooding). Now it's all I hear every night.
 
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