Is a gate valve necessary with a DC pump?

[ibryson]

I have the Reef Octopus Varios 8 DC pump (2700gph) for my 180 gallon tank. I am working on the plumbing now and am wondering why I would need gate valves on the return lines if the pump is controllable. Cant I just tune the pump to achieve the proper flow? One line might get a little more flow than the other but surely that wont cause any issues...

 

[nereefpat]

You may want a ball valve and union in place to service the pump.

But, no, I wouldn't use a gate valve for that situation.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

As long as you do not do a Herbie drain its OK.

 

[ibryson]

As long as you do not do a Herbie drain its OK.

Cool! I have durso drains. Dual overflow boxes.

 

[nereefpat]

As long as you do not do a Herbie drain its OK.

For siphon drains, you valve the drains, not the returns.

 

[benjammin03]

Cool! I have durso drains. Dual overflow boxes.

It won't be long before you'll want to convert the dursos into a bean animal or herbie. I set up a 210 with dursos and there was so much sound from the water rushing through the system. If you are you still in the process of setting it up, I would highly recommend running the returns over the top and using both overflows for a herbie or bean animal drain. I wish I had just done that from the beginning instead or ripping it out and starting over after deciding I couldn't handle the sound.