Ball Valves On Drains?

[z28pwr]

I'm working on finishing my plumbing on my 600 gallon tank and are debating wether to use ball valves or not for the drains. I already bought the ball valves, but I'm having a hard time getting all the plumbing out of the way for the G5 skimmer and in reality I should only need the ball valves in case my overflow fails and my Dursos fail aswell. Do you guys use ball valves on your drains on large tanks ?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I've never heard of using a ball (or any shutoff) valve on a drain...

 

[dsandfort]

Ball valves are the elixir of reef tank construction. Tis better to have them and not need them than to.....well, you get the point.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I have plenty of ball valves and other valves.
I've just never seen valves used on drains.
I suppose a ball valve might be appropriate to place on an emergency drain located at the bottom of the aquarium (in case you needed to drain the whole aquarium), but I don't see a place for ball valves on overflow drains.

 

[svb57]

I have a 725g set-up and have ball valves all over the place....

 

[Double-J]

I feed my skimmer directly off my overflows and use a ballvalve to make sure the skimmer is getting 100% water with not air. I also have a backup 1.5" hole in each overflow that sit higher so it acts as a safety incase the bulkheads feeding the skimmer get clogged or whatever.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Re: Ball Valves On Drains?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9569890#post9569890 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by z28pwr
I should only need the ball valves in case my overflow fails and my Dursos fail aswell.

If this is the case I would skip the ball valves. What kind of overflow do you have, anyways?

 

[Untamed12]

I have gate valves on my both my primary overflows, but that is specifically designed to restrict flow so that the overflow works silently and one needs some redundant designing to ensure that it is safe to run that way. A ball valve wouldn't work in that application.

In addition, I have a ball valve on one of the primary overflows. It's a really long answer to explain why...Simply, it feeds a second sump and is part of the water change system. I stop the flow into that sump, exchange the water, then restart the flow into that sump.

 

[Amphiprion]

I use a ballvalve (with a pre-filtration with a screen to prevent clogging) to add some back pressure on the drain to prevent air from getting into my overflow-fed skimmer. Seems to work pretty well, as long as the sump can handle the added volume in the overflow box.

 

[cbui2]

i have ball valves all over the place and use spears gate for fine tunning skimmer, return and reactors.