BeanAnimal Drain System Demo Video

[mmn]

If you are interested in seeing one of these things in action, here's a vid. If not, this gets real boring real fast! The only exciting part is when power is restored and the thing fills the overflow the first time and then flushes before self-adjusting. Gets a little violent!

I've spent about 6 months researching, building and testing this thing on my 12g tank with a 55g sump - outside of course!

The vid is about 6 minutes and is in 2 3 minute parts. The first part is the cycle viewed from the sump and the second is the same cycle viewed from the overflow. The cycle is steady state -> power off -> drain -> power on -> self-adjust -> steady state.

Going from power off to steady state takes a little over 2 minutes.


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Regards
Michael

 

[sleepydoc]

Nice demo video - thanks for posting it.

I think it might be useful for some people to see a picture of the drains entering the sump as well as a detailed description of your plumbing & overflow configuration (hole size, location, overflow size, etc.)

 

[mmn]

Should be 125g - not 12g tank!

 

[rickztahone]

pretty cool video, thank you for sharing it. I can't believe how large a 12g looks on video! .

I am planning on doing a BA setup as well and have been doing much research. Would you mind sharing the dimensions of parts used like bulkheads and pipe diameter etc? Also, what kind of pump is that, and are you satisfied with it?

 

[BlackTip]

Awesome, thanks.

 

[mmn]

pretty cool video, thank you for sharing it. I can't believe how large a 12g looks on video! .

I am planning on doing a BA setup as well and have been doing much research. Would you mind sharing the dimensions of parts used like bulkheads and pipe diameter etc? Also, what kind of pump is that, and are you satisfied with it?

Bulkhead and pipes are 1.5". The pump is a DC 9000 which has a 1.5" NPT output. Way overkill for this application. So far it's working great but no real time on it yet.

 

[rickztahone]

Thanks. I just saw your signature and feel dumbing for asking the question lol. I plan on doing 1" BH and 1.5" pipe hopefully in a similar application to yours

 

[mmn]

Nice demo video - thanks for posting it.

I think it might be useful for some people to see a picture of the drains entering the sump as well as a detailed description of your plumbing & overflow configuration (hole size, location, overflow size, etc.)

I tried to follow as best I could the design principles laid out in Bean's thread.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14058978&postcount=1

The holes for the 1.5 inch BH's are equally spaced from the right edge and placed such that the top of the flanges is 1/4 inch from the bottom of the trim observing required distance between holes and edges. The two active drains are a straight shot with 2 45 degree elbows to the skimmer section. The dry emergency drops to the return section.

The overflow is sized so that the top is right at the bottom of the trim line. The bottom is about 1 inch below the elbows and the same dimension in width. Worked to about 5.25 inches with these elbows.

I will say there was a bit of a surprise the first time I fired this up with baffles in the sump. I had had it running and tuned several times with no baffles. Ran with full pump power and return valve full open with no problems. The valve on the siphon was about half open. When I put the baffles in, they are spaced one inch apart and the 1st and 3rd are 9 inches with the middle one raised 1inch, and fired it up the flow overran the baffles! I thought it was gonna blow them out! I should have expected this, but it's my first build and it's been an adventure of discovery all the way.

So I had to drop the pump power a couple of clicks and readjust the siphon valve to get the flow you see in the video, which seems to be about the max those baffles can handle. When I calculated the flow at full tilt before the baffles were inserted I figured about 1650 gph using the head loss calculator and the chart that came with the pump. I have not yet tried to calculate what the flow rate is now.

Edit: Here's a FTS showing the plumbing before the baffles were in and the back was painted.

 

[woodnaquanut]

Should be 125g - not 12g tank!

I was going to be really impressed you beaned a 12g. and now I find out it's just a hohum 125!

Just kidding.


Nice job on the BA and the video.

 

[gt93pony]

Thanks for the video...it helps to see a visual after reading volumes about the bean animal.