Rubber pipe connectors?

[drydock]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I wouldn't use the rubber. You could, however, glue in unions (rather than couplers) where the cut pipes join, that way you can disassemble and reassemble anytime you need to.

Having said that though, if it was me, I'd just replace the bulkheads and replumb. It's a pain in the you-know-what, but if I was setting up a "new" (new to me) tank I'd want to be starting fresh...

Ya, I think I was trying to get cute with wanting to have an adjustable drain if I ever needed to move my sump around... simple is better, so I think I'll just glue it all in place.

Next question... the return bulkheads are all under the surface of the water. I THINK I have enough room in my sump if the power goes out to cover the backflow (about 25 gallons of free space before my sump would overflow) Should I be using some sort of check valve? What type would work best?

[midgetwaiter]

A PVC flap check will run you about $30, they work pretty good but they can get stuck. Don't bet the hardwood on it, make sure you have enough room in the sump if it fails.

[Parker]

Ahh I see now why you don't want to replumb that.

Do your returns have siphon break holes in them?

[drydock]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

A PVC flap check will run you about $30, they work pretty good but they can get stuck. Don't bet the hardwood on it, make sure you have enough room in the sump if it fails.

If you can't rely on them, what's the point???

Originally Posted by Parker

Ahh I see now why you don't want to replumb that.

Do your returns have siphon break holes in them?

No the don't. The way that the returns are set up, I don't think they would help. They bulkheads are about an inch below the water level. There wouldn't be a siphon to break.

Two of them exhaust straight out from the bulkhead, one has an adjustable arm on it to direct flow some more. I suppose I could use pvc or lockline and bring it up over the waterline and then down again and then drill siphon breaks...

[Delphinus]

Yeah, having had a few check valves fail on me, I don't trust them anymore either. Indeed, what's the point. They work to a point but I guess eventually the slime buildup inside the pipes gets to be too much to form a seal or maybe the spring starts to corrode.

Another idea with locline is just have the nozzles exhaust near the water surface. This is what I do on my tanks. (And then just have enough flow inside the tank to mix it up.) That way there's no siphon hole to get clogged. On one tank I had vermetid snails and valonia growing over my siphon holes on a weekly basis, I grew weary of constantly scraping them clean every couple of days, so I just pulled the whole manifold out and replaced it with locline outputs.