Plumbing Questions

[Whoyah]

I am planning on changing over to 1" pipe from 3/4" soon for my tank/sump connections. There is a few things that I am considering that I would like to get everyones opinion.

Item 1: I am considering installing union joints on both the in and the out lines. I think this would help the installation go more smoothly and it would allow me to maintenance or change this easier. My concern is about them leaking. Anyone have any experience with these?

Item 2: I currently have standard T-bar PVC ball valves installed. I really don't like them since they stick really bad, which makes adjusting them a real pain. I was thinking about going with PVC gate valves instead. I understand they are easier to adjust but I don't have any first hand experience with them. They also seem to be twice the price and not as easy to come by. Any opinions?

[dakar]

1. Never had one leak on me yet, and they sure make life easier when moving and changing things around. A good investment IMO.

2. Eventually it seems all valves will end up getting clogged at some point, not sure if one would be better than then other. Best defense would be cleaning the pipes every now and again, you can get commercially made ones, or one of the flexable shotgun cleaners work well, even a rag and string would help . (just don't run it through your shotgun afterwards :D)

[bjpembo]

i agree with dakar, never had a union leak, i have several on my tank. as for the ball valve so far mine work ok. the ones on my closed loop i have never tried to turn but then again they've only been on my tank for about 3 mths. the one that is between my return pump and my tank i turn every couple of days since i cut off the flow to my sump when i feed so it works fine. i see no problems with a gate valve other than the price and the extra time it takes to close it. if you had a serious leak and had to shut it off quickly the extra spinning time may cause problems, other than that, the output of my skimmer, an aqua c ev-120 is controlled by a gate valve and 2 years later it still works fine. a way to help keep those valves free would be to put unions on either side so they can be easily removed and occasionaly soaked in vineger to remove the deposits on them and keep them operating freely.