If you look up "Carlson surge device" you'll see that they have a similar design in the surge tank. The tank fills to the top of the U-tube and then siphons the tank empty to the bottom of the U-tube.
Anyhow, personally I generally caution against check valves. Without due maintenance/cleaning the seal can fail (the technical reason is that goo grows on the insides of pipes.) Plus they put a bit of backpressure on a pump slowing the flow some.
I second untamed's suggestion for over the top. Just drill a wee little hole at the water surface and this will introduce air into the pipe when the pump is shut off, thus breaking the siphon. The only thing is you have to make it a chore to clean the hole out every few weeks to ensure it's not clogging on you. At least with my tanks this hole seems to be the favourite spot for valonia, I guess I should be glad that it doesn't grow everywhere else but I'll get a 2mm valonia in the hole and it seals it up perfectly.
So I just take a nail and pop it when I see it there.