cl plumbing ?

[daytonaconnecti]

i have two pumps that have 1'' water supply in the tank, and 3/4'' out lets intoo the tank,my question is if the pump or something lower breaks or has a leak whats going to keep all the water from siphoning out of the tank?

 

[CarlaW]

A closed loop is self contained, it won't drain your tank if the power goes out. If you have a leak, well that's another story.

 

[daytonaconnecti]

thats what i ment, say a fitting breaks, or a ellbow, is their any way to stop the water,

 

[Krish]

It will usually only stop when the water drops below the nozzle head because with a closed loop, you don't have a hole drilled in the output to break the siphon because that it something you don't want to happen on a regular basis. So if your closed loop is connected to say a spray bar that is located at the bottom of your tank...Then you'd need a raft when you got home:shock:

 

[daytonaconnecti]

i have my back flow tube goes almost all the way down, maybe a one way ck valve. would stop the flow once it stops..

 

[fishermann]

Bill don't usea check valve very unreliable unless cleaned very regulerly. Drill a 1/8" or so hole somewhere in the presure line either just under the water or just above the water level in the tank. Since I don't think you are running a sump it well be better if the hole is above the water level, usally on the underside of an elbow so the small stream blows down onto the surface. If you had a sump you could drill it in the line just under the surface and the water drain back into the sump down to the hole and then vac break, but you don't want any water draining back. The other good thing about having the hole below the surface is it stays wet and won't accidently plug up from salt creep, which is one thing you well have to check for once in awhile with it above.

 

[daytonaconnecti]

1/8 hole, that will be big enough? so all it needs to do is break the vac,is that right?

 

[fishermann]

Yeah that is all it needs to do and you don't want to big a stram blowing water into the tank.

 

[daytonaconnecti]

that little hole is great insurance with the scwd alternating do i need a hole in both lines or just one

 

[Clownguy]

Well let me tell you from my recent personal experience if an elbow or hose lets go there is nothing you can really do. I had a hose pop off of one of my lower outlets in my tank about 3 or 4" off the bottom fall off and I lost a 100 gallons. It didn't help that my sump pump kept pumping the water out of the sump too. Not that this will happent to you, I have been in the hobby for 18 years and this was the first time that anything like this had ever happened to me. The bigger concern for me was making sure you have enough ball valves and unions so that if a pump needs to be replaced or fixed you can just turn a couple of valves and take the pump off.

Chris

 

[daytonaconnecti]

thanks, i do have ball valves and union. i have learned one thing, whan it comes to pumps, you get what you pay for....at least thats what i have found

 

[fishermann]

Bill What is the other skimmer you have and I take it you run both and that they are hangons since you don't have a sump. Chris had a hose come off that did not haave a clamp on it, so make sure all your hoses are quality ones and use stainless hose clamps, you can buy them at most marine stores, usally the ones in hardware stores say stainless and the band is but the screw is not, make sure they are all stainless. Another possibility if your pumps are self priming ones you could drill a small hole say a few inches below the surface on the intake pipe and that would break the suction should something happen below, this well not work if the pumps are not self priming.

 

[daytonaconnecti]

they are not self priming, so i put a 1/8 just a little below my water line, on my pressure line, on the back down tube, and will let the side tubes just loose vac at the out lets if it runs a little lower on water, i hope this will help thanks.....

 

[fishermann]

Sounds like you have it figured out, just make sure everything has clamps and change out hoses every couple years and you shouldn't have any problems. Your pics of it looks good. Make sure the intake line has intake holes as high a possible so that if something was to go wrong it won't drain to low, BUT you don't want them so low as to lose your prime on the pumps when you do a water change.