Herbie Overflow

Luke Schnabel

Luke Schnabel

New member
My 120 gallon tank has been up and running for about two weeks now. The overflow kit that came with it is producing a ton of noise and bubbles in my sump. My tank has Two corner overflows in which both have an return and overflow in them. I put ball valves limiting the flow, reverse dorso on the lines and still making tons of noise and bubbles.
I was reading and watching videos on the Herbie Overflow and was wondering if i could use that on my tank. One side would house the siphon part and the other side would house the emergency. Would that setup work since they are not in the same overflow box?
 
Do the drain lines extend under the water's surface? If not, try extending them to about 1" below the surface of the water.

You could convert if you place the open and emergency drains in one and the siphon and a return in the other. I would suggest to use the largest pipes for the Open and the Emergency drains and use the smaller pipes for the return and the Siphon drain.
 
BTW, putting constraints on an open channel drain (or running all drains as siphons) is a very bad idea - you are asking for a floor.
 
ca1ore, I would only use one side as a siphone and the other side would be an emergancy line.
Shawn, my drains are about 1" under the overflow, I think the kit that came with the tank is just a poor set up.

If I put the siphone on my left side about 5"-6" down from the water line and the other side will be an emergency drain still 1" from water line, would that work. The overflows are both 1.25" PVC. I would think that all my water flow would be going to the side with the siphone...
 
My 210 has 2 overflows (( reef ready )). I put 2 Herbies in each (( full siphon and E-drain in each one )), that are completely separate from each other. Has been running since December without an issue.

Part of the problem that you could run into with having the E-drain in a separate overflow is that the water would become fairly stagnate.

I just ran my return over the back of the tank. For some that is an aesthetics issue, but it doesn't bother me. My return is right next to the overflow, so it looks like it would if it was coming up from there.
 
The siphon line is throttled back by a ball valve to force about 10-15% of the water to go down the open line. The emergency should always stay dry except for during, well, an emergency. The open channel should remove enough water from the overflow to prevent stagnation. If you put the siphon too low it will dictate the water level in your tank if the overflow wall leaks.

Another option, although it would involve a bit of work, would be to remove the two overflow walls and run the pipes up to a coast-to-coast overflow. Hiding the pipes from view would have to be done in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to you.

@ Todd, not knowing his situation and preference, I ignored the possibility of running the return over the back of the tank. Your method would work very well as long as he throttles his drains back to match his return pump's output, which should be done either way. It's a shame that most reef-ready tanks are pretty limiting in plumbing choices. Four foot tanks often only give you two bulkhead holes, three if you're lucky. until you get up to six foot tanks, you have to be very creative to accomplish what you want. I myself would love to see all RR tanks come with five holes as standard and six as an option.
 
Luke Schnabel said:
ca1ore, I would only use one side as a siphone and the other side would be an emergancy line.
Click to expand...

I think I misread your initial post where you say you have ball valves limiting the flow - I thought drains, but I guess you meant returns. Never mind ....
 
So your suggesting just about an inch or two under my overflow for the siphon side. And as luck has it my returns have a hole in the top pointing water down into the overflow compartment to stop any would be siphon from pump shut up, meaning it will have some sort of water flow to the amergency drain.
If it wouldn't be such a hassle I could do two herbie drains, one on each side and have the return go up the sides.
 
I love herbies but the prob with 2 corner overflows is it is very difficult to impossible to balance herbies in both esp if running a wavemaker. I speak from experience tried this with a 6' long tank with dual overflows. My suggestion would be to go with the durso stand pipe in this case in both. Running main siphon in one overflow and the emer drain in other is that the emer drain water side will go stagnant.
 
I was running a wavemaker that switched which powerheads were on it would pull water level low in overflow nearest the running pwer head causing it to slurp and cause water in the overflow farthest away to go into emer drain then when they switched the opposite. If your power heads are all running at the same time at same power may not be so bad but if creating a wave could be problematic
 
Tigerdragon said:
I love herbies but the prob with 2 corner overflows is it is very difficult to impossible to balance herbies in both esp if running a wavemaker. I speak from experience tried this with a 6' long tank with dual overflows. My suggestion would be to go with the durso stand pipe in this case in both. Running main siphon in one overflow and the emer drain in other is that the emer drain water side will go stagnant.
Click to expand...

Were you running dry E drains when you were having this balancing issue?
 
Now I don't understand why there would be a balancing issue with 2 siphon drains 6" under the level clashing or whatever. How was it evident that there was problem with balancing?




/
 
My sipohons were 6" below and it was very evident dont get me wrong i love the herbie style set up right it is dead silent. Just sharing my experience with dual overflows the powerheads i was running were not pulsing like the new ones When one is on the other is off and vice versa now if i had been running my rw15's at that time prolly would not have had the issue as much as i did
 
Make a silencer I did it's super easy and for me it is more then quiet enough if I put a door on the front you can't hear anything
 
Set-up question. I'm planning to use herbie on a 54g corner tank with sump in basement. It's predrilled with a 3/4 and 1". The 3/4" will be the siphon. My question is do I (can I) go from the 3/4" to 1", then run to basement or do I need 3/4" the whole way?
 
I hooked up my one side as a herbie. My thoughts are if you have two corner overflows you'll need to have both sides a herbie and not just one. So tomorrow ill be adding the herbie style to the other side. Ill have to drill out holes for my emergency overflow on the both sides.
 
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