Beananimal Overflow - Ball or Gate Valve?
 

Is it ok to use a ball valve on the full siphon or will it not have the fine tuning that a gate valve will provide?

Thanks.
TW

It's one of those things where you hate it because you're going to drop $30 for something you'll only use once, but a gate valve is worth every penny. Makes life SOOOOOOO much easier.

less jerking around with a gate valve

Seems I can't find a gate valve locally.

If I am patient will I be able to find the sweet spot with a ball valve or will it just not happen?

i dunno, but a 1.5 inch gate valve here is 80 dollars.

Gate valve is the only way to go. I would never be able to tune the ball valve precise enough to get what I need. I have a ball valve branching off my main line to my refugium and that's hard enough to get right.

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It sucks to drop a lot of money on one valve but well worth it

I use a ball valve on my setup and it works flawlessly. Plus once it's set you never have to mess with it.

+1

you're luckier than me, find I'll open up my valve maybe a couple of times a year to clear snails, then it's readjusting time again.

Where have you looked?

With a ball valve, small changes make a big different. Over time as junk builds up in the valve, snails get in there, etc, everything will go to crap and you get to do everything over again. Ball valves aren't just more sensitive to adjustments, they tend to be "sticky". So, when you want to go and make that fraction of a turn adjustment to dial it in, it's next to impossible to do so. It''l stick, you'll overshoot it and you're right back to where you started.

Seriously, do it once and do it right. You'll put in a ball valve and regret it as soon as the tank is up and running to the point where having to change the valve is a nightmare, if not impossible.

In Victoria Blue World, Safari, Andrew Sheret. Van Isle Water closes early on Saturday so I was out of luck.

Order from J&L I guess. Any ideas?

I was thinking van isl water, or I would think Wes tech irrigation on Alfha st. Would be your best bets.
But a Monday wait.
J&l would ship Monday get it tues.

Can you use a smaller diameter drain line to get a cheaper gate vavlue? Full siphon drains a surprising amount of water compared to a partial siphon.

I suspect you can by with a ball value it will just mean a lot more fiddling because of the overshoot scubasteve mentions. I find I need to make tiny adjustments - a few degrees turn on a gate value that requires multiple full turns to fully open or close.

I plan on using a gate valve to dial in the proper flow and a same diameter ball valve in the same line for any shutting off of the drain line, then I never have to worry about resetting my flow.

Tyler, there are a couple people in Van today going to J&L, they might be able to grab one for you.

Thanks for all the responses. Probably gonna order one. I'll have to be sump-less for a couple days. Luckily I have a small bio-load.

Thanks again.

I posted a "hail mary" in the buying forms. If no one has a gate valve in Victoria it looks like I'll have to order one.

Just want to make sure that this will do the trick? I think I want the slip to slip rather than threaded.
Please advise.

http://www.conceptaquatics.ca/index....-ii-sch80.html

Thanks in advance...

That will do the job. When you plumb it in just make sure you use a 'union' on at least one side of it so you can remove the valve and re-use it if you move/upgrade etc etc.

Dunc

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With a Beananimal overflow it's similar to a herbie but has a third drain which is a standard standpipe. The idea is to adjust the valve so you get a small amount of flow through the standpipe. This is easily achieved with a ball valve, I see no reason really to spring for a gate valve. If you want to fine tune it with a gate valve then simplify the overflow and go straight herbie with only two drains but IMO using a gate valve on a Beananimal kind defeats the purpose of that particular design.

I actually put slip-slip unions on either side of my gate valve. That bastard is expensive, so it's getting recycled through many future builds.

I wpuld go threaded, I just setup my Bean animal, and took photos, will be posting on my 187 gallon tank build later today