How to prevent a back syphon

Discussion in 'General Reef Topics' started by saltyfresh, Mar 2, 2011.

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  1. scott26

    scott26 Ritteri Anemone

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    Check Valve = FAIL

    Drill holes it will work easy enough or raise your return house so it is closer to the surface of the water.
     
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  3. M-Ocean Man

    M-Ocean Man Flame Angel

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    100% agree - just keeping the returns near the surface is all you need to do. All it takes is one snail to be on that syphon break at the wrong time - and your backup syphon break is shot.

    With keeping the returns high and close to the surface - you create surface agitation and have a safe failproof method of preventing a sump overflow upon powerloss/shutdown.
     
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  4. twelvebeer

    twelvebeer Spaghetti Worm

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  5. link248

    link248 Ritteri Anemone

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    Siphon break

    Watch my video, I covered the siphon break in it

     
  6. link248

    link248 Ritteri Anemone

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    Twelvebeer, everytime I go to post my video, I post it and you've already beat me to it. You're too quick
     
  7. twelvebeer

    twelvebeer Spaghetti Worm

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    I beat you to it! ;D

    Great video! Thanks again!
     
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  9. AZDesertRat

    AZDesertRat Giant Squid

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    The ONLY foolproof method of backsiphon control is an air gap period.
    No drilled holes and no check valves both of which can and will fail given time.
    Remember Murphy, he is looking over your shoulder and knows when the most inconvient time would be for a failure. All it takes is some food. algae, an anemone or snails or in the case of a check valve even a single grain of sand, it does not have to be a catastrophic failure, even a trickle will flood given time.

    Design your returns so they are just slightly below the surface so with a very small easily calculated backflow the return is exposed to atmosphere and the siphon breaks. No maintenance and water cannot jump up hill so its impossible to defeat.

    In my case I have a 60" 100G display and my returns are 3/4" below the surface. The maximum amount or water I can possibly flow back is 3.5 gallons so I always make sure I have at least that amount of freeboard in my sump at all times. The skimmer works best at a lower level so I actually have 8 gallons of spare room in my 30G sump so flooding is never and issue and I can sleep soundly at night.
     
  10. mulder32

    mulder32 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    I have my return outlet high enough that it provides great surface agitation, and it breaks the siphon very quickly.
     
  11. thepanfish

    thepanfish Flying Squid

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    Use the hole method but add a peice of rigid airline tubing to prevent it being clogged so easily.