Advice for a gate valve with a single durso

[Sugaryhobgoblin]

Hey, I know there are some people rushing to tell me how irresponsible this is, rightfully so, but I just had an epiphany and want to double check with the brass. I'm renovating my 180 gallon tank and taking the water level down about a foot, and while I'm at it I'm trying to address this noisy durso I've been running. It's a single pipe, no gurgling up top, but the bubbles in my sump are like front row at a black sabbath concert. I think it's just because my PVC is too big for the flow my pump provides, but reducing it is a bit of a hassle, odd sized fittings have been hard to come by. Which leads me to my question; still a noob all things considered, so would love the help.

I've heard you never run a gate valve on a single durso, because a blockage would cause a flood. Thing is, my return chamber runs dry quick, and I'll have probably 10x the space in the display if a blockage occurs. In this case, could I use a gate valve? I have no experience with gate valves.

Do I have this right?-gate valves let you adjust the flow of water into the sump, so you can dial in the air/water ratio? What's the difference between gate and a ball valve? And most importantly, will this solve my bubbling issue if I bother with it? Any other overflow styles you would recommend instead? Ideally without needing to drill new holes unnecessarily.

Attached is a picture of my just emptied tank, return is on the left, to the sump is on the right. I'll be taking the display baffles out and cutting them to change the water line. Was originally gonna patch and cut new holes on the back, but this has me reconsidering. Bought this tank second hand and I'm just now realizing they probably ran a dual durso and had the return pumping in some old plumbing I removed. Don't really want to do that, because the renos I have planned will look crummy with two overflows, but interested to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

 

[TX_REEF]

a gate valve allows micro adjustments, think closing a sliding door as much or little as possible. Ball valve literally has a ball of plastic with a hole drilled into it, when you turn the level the hole gets smaller, so it’s much less precise to adjust. Either option will allow you to tune the amount of water down the drain to eliminate air intake, with the gate valve being more precise and less prone to clogging.

Please add another drain, you really need to have an emergency drain when you have a sump.

 

[disaster999]

If what you said is true that you have a small return section and have enough headroom in the display tank that running the sump dry will not result in overflowing the main tank then I don't see any issues. Not ideal, but if there are other limitation in your setup preventing you to run a second drain, then this is the next best thing.

I ran my tank like that for 10 years. I specifically designed the tank's normal water level such that I could pump all the water in the return chamber into the tank and still will not overflow it.

 

[Wicket]

I have a single durso in my display tank with a gate valve on my drain. I installed an optical sensor in my overflow about a 1/2" above the normal water level that is connected to an auto shutoff on my return pump. If my drain clogs and the water level starts to raise the sensor well automatically kill my return and set off the alarm so I know there's an issue and my apartment won't flood.