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Air valve for Durso


Brianemone

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Any type of overflow will fail if it is to block.

Reef....If you have an airhole anywhere above the waterline of the DURSO, you WILL get NOISE and a half siphon.

The air mixing in from the drill hole will cause air injection. This will be noisy even if the hole is 1mm or 0.5mm.

My hole will let air out, but not in, so it pushes whilst initially starting the siphon and as the siphon starts, it gradually over about 20 seconds turns into a solid full siphon, the air movement changes direction and my valve shuts. The valve is designed for ozone systems, so is very rugged and reliable.

Will require maintenance occassionally.

The only time it will ever be an issue, is if a power cut turns the system off and when it fires up, my valve fails.

But that has just the same chance as a snail going in the pipe.

Luckily if a snail swims near my 32mm intake he will be too small to do any thing and more than likely end up in sump with a headache.

I have done my homework on this and it is as safe as any other system.

It is the only way of getting 100% silence as far as I can see. You are all welcome to inspect!

Lets just hope none of ours block.

8)

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I also have an emergency switch directly next to the overflow that turns the outside main sump return OFF. (If an overflow is to occur). I know I may be at work......but hey at least i might be home!!

Not too much of a problem, it will only be 350 litres of sump water on the floor! :-?

(ON THE TIMBER)

Picture205Small.jpg

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Reef....If you have an airhole anywhere above the waterline of the DURSO, you WILL get NOISE and a half siphon.

The air mixing in from the drill hole will cause air injection. This will be noisy even if the hole is 1mm or 0.5mm.

Cracker your wrong about this mate, you have it all backwards.

They way you have set yours up why don't you just dump the air valve (its doing nothing) and the elblow and just have the TAP. And if you put the TAP on the underneith of the tank, you wouldn't need to get your hands wet to change it.

As for blocking, I don't think what you said it right. In you setup a snail could cause you to spill saltwater all over the top of your tank. Do you have snails? If you didn't have the TAP closing the intake (using the good old PROVEN air hole) then that snail could pass thought the plumbing.

Not critising you mang, just pointing out what looks to be a small flaw in an otherwise outstanding setup.

Pie

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I have to disagree Pie, i dont understand how a snail can block a full siphon. The intake is so powerful it would suck a mandarin down the pipe.

My design is NOT a DURSO design...It is based on one.

You got to remember full siphons have serious pulling power, Much more than a half siphon. Plus half siphons add a lot of air to the sump system which can get back to the main display.

You may have to see it in action to understand. All I know is my level is fine, (1 inch below tank level and super quiet).

My business partner is an ex 22 year veteran plumber and between us nutted out the best way.

A standard DURSO does not operate a full siphon. Mine does.

And yes, we thought about salt creep, snails and everything else.

My DURSO stand pipe sits in the base like yours, so I can pull the whole thing out in 2 seconds for maintenance.

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Had a good play with all sorts of options, as I am paranoid about 380 litres of SUMP all over my lounge.

Definitely sticking with full siphon as the complete silence is awesome.

Had Chris over today to drill another hole for EMERGENCY overflow.

This overflow is above standard water line by about 20-50mm. (About 5mm below "SPILL OVER ON TO THE CARPET" level! :)

Any small blockage or FULL SIPHON issues that cause the level to rise will go down emergency pipe straight to SUMP. Its 20mm, so should take a fair bit of risidual overflow.

NOTE FLAME ANGEL BEING NOSEY!! :)

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Hansen fitting in place......Fully plumbed and running again tomorrow.

Picture218Small.jpg

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Reef....If you have an airhole anywhere above the waterline of the DURSO, you WILL get NOISE and a half siphon.

I run with the recommendation of the inventor of the Durso, no need for an air valve, If noise is a problem i will turn my TV off :D

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Controllable outlet with Stainless grate. 32mm "D" class. (Red valve).

(Will keep an eye on stainless other wise will change to plastic).

Picture322Small.jpg

Residual overflow set 40-50mm below spill over zone.

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This system works incredibly well....I have ZERO noise and the difference between tank and overflow level is around 15mm.

If anything blocks or fails the upstand residual will take a further 30% if required.

Upon initial pump startup, the residual overflow is used at about 50% of its capacity for about 5 minutes whilst the Main valve adjusts and removes all its air. If the residual was not in place it would spill over before main outlet gained momentum.

Took hours to adjust, but once set, stays extremely stable.

No spillage onto floor.

:D

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Hi ya looks really nice, and quite. But I can help being concerned that you have missed the point (s) of the durso, the first reason is silence, which you seem to have covered but the second and more important is that they are self adjusting. To illustrate this say you go on holiday as soon as you walk out the door some algae, seaweed, what ever, blocks a little bit of your over flow, water starts going down your top backup over flow. I can only see one of two things happening, 1) if your top over flow is plumbed out side slowly you will lose the water in your sump, return pump will burn out, all bad. 2) your top over flow does go back to your sump, all will be good for a while but if the lower over flow keeps getting blocked, top over flow is smaller, maybe gets some of the same crap that is blocking the lower in it, can't keep up, water on the tv....

I also wonder why you have the tap in the over flow, if you had it under the overflow you could adjust without getting wet plus would save the cost of a tap (I assume you have one under as well?)

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Maybe I'm not clear on what is being done, but I can't see how you cant see an issue with it, the system is designed for a constant amount of water if this amount changes, either because the amount of water increases (not so likely) or because the flow out is restricted (very likely) then it stops working. Simple.

To over come this the over flow has been added, the problem being the over flow suffers from the same rules as the primary. i.e. if the flow increases (now likely because if the primary is blocked the water is going to increase), or the flow is restricted (also quite likely because something has already restricted the primary), then you are in the pooh.

A durso on the otherhand is designed with built in backup, this is because you make them to never run anywhere near close to maximum, therefore if your flow increases or the pipe is restricted it doesn't matter because you have a huge safety factor.

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