No emergency drain on herbie?

[shane reef]

Can you run a herbie drain system without the emergency overflow? Has anybody done this? I was thinking of putting a long extension on the end of the siphon and drill a lot of holes to prevent it being blocked. Will this work? Thanks

 

[oldbones]

It's not a Herbie without the second overflow. If you only have one, you will struggle getting it adjusted properly, and the level in your overflow will constantly fluctuate. This will be aggravating.

Does your tank have two holes? If so, you may be better off using both for a true Herbie drain, then piping your return over the top.

 

[shane reef]

No emergency drain on herbie?

Yes it has two holes. Is there no way to plumb it with only one drain?

 

[oldbones]

You could use a single Durso, but it will never be as quiet or reliable as the two line Herbie.

 

[Breadman03]

No. With a Herbie, the second drain isn't an emergency drain so much as it is a variable drain.

Since you are limiting yourself to two holes, set up a proper Herbie and plumb your return over the top of the rim.

 

[dadummy]

if you don't have an emergency drain and the "herbie" fails syphoning you will have water on the floor

 

[shane reef]

Ok so I did over the top return, one full siphon, and an emergency drain. Tuned a little with the siphon valve and dead silent. Now got to work on pump sound,lol. I also can't believe I have a mag 18 on a 60cube full blast. Is that too much flow?

 

[malawinovice]

Yes too much flow. Any where from 3-5 times the display volume. Match to the skimmer flow. Sicce 1.5 or 2 would be better matched.

 

[stingeragent]

You can get a silicone mat to place the pump on. Also I found on my return pump that the plastic screen or whatever you wanna call it vibrated like crazy so I took that off.