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We decided that we were not going to run the waterfall and river all the time so we needed to take this into account in our plumbing design. The 4 inch pipe that runs from the sump to the waterfall is about 80 feet long and holds a lot of water. We didn't want that water draining back into our sump and spilling down the drain. We also didn't want the pipe to freeze in the winter if we should get a cold snap. Here is our solution. From the pump we put in a valve so we can throtle the volume of water going over the waterfall. Next we put in a check valve so that the water would not run back into the sump. After that we put in a "T" fitting that necked down to a 3/4 inch valve for a pipe drain. What this allowed us to do was retain all the water in the big pipe when we turned the pump off but still be able to drain the pipe to prevent freezing in winter. So far this seems to be working really good. We haven't had a really cold snap to see if I get all the water out of the pipe when I drain it but I believe we do.
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