check valve when power goes out!

reefkoi

reefkoi

Premium Member
I need a couple valves for the 2-2" drainlines into my sump. I would want these to close only when the power goes out, so my sump wont overflow. I believe they stay open when power is supplied, then they close when power is interupted. A regular check valve wont work, and I know I have seen these somewhere but I cant seem to find any now.
Thanks, Chris
 
You must be thinking of a solenoid. Might be hard to find one for a 2" drain! Why not run some PVC up from the inside of the bulkhead? Say your tank is 24" tall. Use 23" of PVC and only 1" of water can possibly drain out.
 
Do you have a photo of your drain setup so we can see what you mean?

I'm just having a hard time visualizing how you can have two 2" drains 'wide open' yet still maintain the water level in your tank when it's running... you must have a helluva return pump. :D
 
you have to get the right kind other wise it will reduce your flow. My brother uses one on he's 240gal. Ill ask him tonight when he gets back what its called.
 
here are some photos

here are some photos

o.k. yeah here are some photos, and yes it is 600 gallon and I really wish I had gone with 4" drains as the 2" ones are somewhat restricting it. I have to keep the 2- 1/3 hp sequence pumps valved down a bit so the tank doesnt overflow. and the sump is 150 gallon the biggest I can fit into the mechanical space I have so this is the only way I can think of doinf it so the sump doesnt spill over during an outage(I tried it 1 time and it did start to overflow)
The 2 pvc pipes are the drain lines they turn up inside the overflow box and I made durso standpipes out of them all 2" pipe.

febtank.jpg

drainlines.jpg


Sorry its messy in there and the tank is just getting setup since august so its a little barren but getting established slowly! Its not cheap buying coral and rock for a 600 but I actually want to have room for corals for years that way I dont outgrow the tank right away
 
You would need some very large NC (normally closed) all plastic solenoid valves. These guys ar going to cost several hundred (of not a thousand or so) each. Your better bet is take a serious look at your overflow design and your sump operating level.

You should also consider that even if you do pony up and by them, yhey will still be prone to failure, clogging, leaking, or not closing due to calcification and algea.

You may also want to consider not running such a high volume through the sump and instead use those big pumps on closed loops (or at least one of them).

Bean
 
yeah o.k. well I may look into a re-do of somesort then, not sure how making one of the pumps into a closed loop will help, the sump will still fill up the same amount in a power outage, I guess I'll have to maybe do battery backup on the pumps? then atleast they would run for a while while I get the generator going? Any other thoughts?
 
I just thought of an idea, if I raise the input level of the durso I would not fill up the sump as high. As long as it flows enogh I think this will help. See my overflow has 4 -2" inlet screens that are mounted into 4 -2" bulks drilled below the water level below the overflow slots (see my pic above) so if I raise the durso inlet above them by only an inch then thats probably 30 gallons less to go to the sump during no power. Does this make sense? note: that the bulks are always underwater so I dont think the flow would be impeded, but I will check it out and let you know
 
well yes it makes sense if I raise that top level a little bit then that means less water in the sump, as long as the inlet of the durso pipe is always underwater then flow should stay about the same huh?
 
I am going to go downstairs and pull out the durso standpipe risers, cut 2 new ones 1" longer replace and see what the flow does, then if it works shutdown the system and see if it overflows. I'll report back..............unless a bottle of whiskey distracts me and I get nothing done :0
 
Well, it may reduce flow a bit due to the elbows. It seems pretty foolproof to me :)

If you wanted to play it safe bring it up to 2.5" PVC, not 2". Of course they will both work :)
 
yeah I dont want to re plumb everything, so I am going to see if I can make a slight mod and make it work. Hindsight I would have had a much larger overflow made, or 2 I guess that way the slots are only 1-2" below water level. If I had come here and used the calculators RC offers for overflow and sump volume requirements instead of relying on the tanks manufacture maybe I could have avoided this little problem alltogether.
Thanks,
Chris
 
Unless I completely misunderstand what's goin' on here...

You really need to install something like an overflow that will automatically balance the outflow to the return flow. You're balancing drains to returns. It's nearly impossible to balance flows like this, as you have probably discovered. You can mess with it and add doodads or whatever, but eventually something will change or a pump will fail and it will drain the tank on the floor. Best to fix it now before you have a mess and lose a lot of livestock. Sorry, I'm not trying to be negative.

You COULD do something like Mercer's drawing if the top riser section is sizable (like a small box) and open to the atmosphere, but it's going to make a lot of noise, not flow a lot, and still not going to work very well. If it's closed it will siphon the tank dry.
 
After looking at the photo, what you could also do is put an elbow in each bulkhead pointing toward the water surface, then fit the screens inside the elbows... that'll knock down quite a bit of drainage (this is assuming your durso mod doesn't work).

Nice setup by the way! :thumbsup:
 
yeah thanks for all the info, I dont think my picture helps, I think it appears that my drain lines are really low allowing the tank to drain, that is not the case, the top of them has an air hole drilled so it cant siphon, only gravity feed. the lines go into the overflow at about mid tank but then elbow up to within about 3 inches of the water level. With the sump half full at normal capacity that doesnt leave enough room for 3" of tank water to come into the sump. So I moved to inlet of the durso pipes up an inch and that solved it. They should be around 2" below water, I just had them too low. If I hadnt posted and got my brain thinking it would not have been done, So thanks to all!
Chris
 
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