bean animal overflow problem

[firefightered66]

Good afternoon everyone as usual I have a problem. I just installed a Bean Animal overflow in my buddies frag tank. It is built just like the one in the original BA post with the exception of only having 1 ball valve. The 2 main drains are approx. 1" under the water level of the fuge and the emergency drain is sitting just above the water line. I can not seem to get the crazy thing adjusted. If I have it wide open it will fill the overflow box and then drain quickly and keep repeating the cycle. If I turn it down it will drain down and begin a sucking noise. What can I do to fix this problem?

 

[wonderz]

if you turn the opening of your main drains to face down it will eliminate the sucking noise.

 

[E Rosewater]

If you're running a standpipe on your siphon, lower it further under the water level to stop it from sucking air. In my overflow I run no standpipe on the siphon, just the bulkhead, I do this to stop any build of detritus in the bottom of the overflow.

 

[firefightered66]

I have 3 standpipes with 90 deg. elbows. 2 turned down and the emergency is turned up. When I kill the power and let the fuge fill to max and then turn the power back on it will fill my coast to coast untill the return pump starts sucking air. The BA will not even start to drain untill I loosen the cap on the main drain. I guess I'll have to cut the emergency drain down a little to give the return pump something to pump. I just dont know how to stop the surging of the BA when I put the cap back on........

 

[reefernutz]

Need some pics to diagnose. If your full syphon tube is not lower than your secondary, the secondary will keep kicking in and never let the full syphon establish.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

The problem might be in the 1 1/2" bv; it may not be giving you a fine enough adjustment to keep the water level just right. I have a wye and a 1" gate valve that acts like a super syphon tuner. I too can't see running a stand pipe for the syphon drain in my system.

 

[madean]

Yeah my guess is its because your using a ball valve instead of a gate valve. It can be done with a ball valve its just harder to do. A gate valve gives you more room for adjustment because it closes and opens slower. Change out the valves and follow what has been pointed out earlier in others posts about standpipe height. Trust me the valves make a huge difference.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

At this point save some money with two valves; even out of the box, a 1" gate and 1 1/2" ball w/ wye is at least equal in cost to a 1 1/2" gv and gives far greater control.

 

[SGT_York]

If it is sucking air it is not closed enough, the only exception is if your secondary drain is going in which case you need to raise that inlet, as it is preventing the siphon from forming. It sounds like the siphon starts to drain then breaks which fills the overflow back up, if the water goes down and keeps down it's working closing more will eliminate the slurping sound.

Lowering the emergency drain will make matter worse, you might need to add more space to you return sump section. Again this is theoretical without pictures to diagnose.

 

[Daimyo68]

Pictures of the sump will definitely help here, as well as sump size and return pump being used.

If your return pump is sucking air, then you may not have enough water in the sump for a "running" level, which may even prove to be not a big enough return chamber in the sump.

So, obviously, make sure all you plumbing is air tight, then follow the below steps.

1 - Make sure that the secondary air tube is at the correct height in the overflow box. If it's too far down, it's not going to let the siphon channel work properly.

2 - Turn the Return Pump off. Can you add SW to the sump? If so, add roughly a gallon or so, and you can remove excess later. (1" bulkhead with 1.5" plumbing holds roughly 1-2 gallons in the siphon channel when it's running, depending on the length of your drain pipes)

If you can't add at least a gallon, your going to need a bigger sump, and can stop now.

3 - If you were able to add water in step 2, then continue by turning the return pump back on, and adjusting the siphon.

4 - Once you have the system adjusted, remove excess water from the sump to where the running water level should be, while it is running.

5 - Once you have your running water level in the sump, turn the return pump off and let it drain down. You shouldn't overflow if you followed #1,2,3,4.

6 - Turn the return pump back on. The drain system should catch up within a couple minutes (seems to take longer with a Ball Valve vs Gate Valve in my experience).

If the return pump is still sucking in air, then your return chamber is too small, and you will need to redo the sump so that the return chamber accommodates more water volume.


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