Pre-drilled bottom drains - silent and safe?

[redcoatd]

Hi,

Have been working on a BeanAnimal overflow on a 75g, but now tempted to upgrade to 120, mainly for 24" back-to-front depth.

Have found a tank on Craigslist, but it's pre-drilled with bottom bulkheads in the back corners.

Is it possible to make this kind of set up silent? And protect it from overflowing if there are blockages?

cheers!

David

 

[Flippers4pups]

With overflows you could go " herbie" drains.

 

[sleepydoc]

Are there corner overflows or just holes drilled in the bottom? How many and in what locations?

A bean is easiest to set up with holes drilled in the back, but could conceivably be set up with bottom holes. Alternatively, you can simply drill the back holes and either plug all the bottom holes or use them for return flow.

 

[redcoatd]

Both I've looked at have one in each back corner, one had overflows already, one without.

What would I use to plug them?

 

[toomany]

Both I've looked at have one in each back corner, one had overflows already, one without.

What would I use to plug them?

You can use some glass siliconed over the holes to plug them. Or, put bulkheads in and plug those.

I'd go with the glass over the bulkheads.

No reason you can't do a Bean or Herbie out the bottom. After all, the plumbing has to go down under the tank anyway.

Fwiw: I run a Herbie out the bottom of my tank.

 

[iced98lx]

I plugged the holes on my 180 with bulkheads, tore out the overflows, and put in an overflow on the end (Peninsula style) and drilled 3 holes for a bean-animal inspired drain.

 

[zachts]

If it has four holes just do a bean overflow using the stock holes. I'ts a little trickier but really all you have to do is run stand pipes up from the bulkheads and make sure they are sealed well at the bottom......plus you can use the fourth hole as return and not have any pipes sticking out behind the tank. Meaning it can sit closer to the wall and looks cleaner IMO. Pretty much what I'm planning since where I want my tank I have to have it right on the wall due to an adjacent doorway and cant cut into the wall to run lines out the back since it's on a stair well and there is a double joist below the wall making drilling down to the basement where I want my sump room impossible, or at least not practical since I don't want bends in the drain lines.

 

[SGT_York]

You can't split the pipes in a bean animal between the two overflows. The easiest way to do this is just two herbies one in each with the return over the tank. There are always issues with the reef ready overflows the teeth are the significant failure in regards to the flow. The best way is to just buy a new plain glass tank and custom do it yourself. Two herbies works very well with very little issues.

 

[redcoatd]

Thanks for the responses...

If the bottom is pre-drilled does that mean it's not tempered and can drill other holes (I've only seen some with 2 holes, 1 in each back corner). I like the idea of having 4...

If I add a coast-to-coast on the back, I can include the two existing ones

 

[zachts]

You can't split the pipes in a bean animal between the two overflows. The easiest way to do this is just two herbies one in each with the return over the tank. There are always issues with the reef ready overflows the teeth are the significant failure in regards to the flow. The best way is to just buy a new plain glass tank and custom do it yourself. Two herbies works very well with very little issues.

Why is a bean setup in this case any different than running dual herbies? except that with two herbies you have to run the return over the tank.

The bulk of the water flows down the full siphon. some flows over the open channel and the emergency pipe stays high and dry unless there's a problem by which time the open channel has kicked in at full siphon. Works just the same as the original design intent, only draw back to using the stock reef ready overflows is crappy surface skimming.

 

[sleepydoc]

Thanks for the responses...

If the bottom is pre-drilled does that mean it's not tempered and can drill other holes (I've only seen some with 2 holes, 1 in each back corner). I like the idea of having 4...

No - the bottom may have been tempered after the holes were drilled.

Why is a bean setup in this case any different than running dual herbies? except that with two herbies you have to run the return over the tank.

The bulk of the water flows down the full siphon. some flows over the open channel and the emergency pipe stays high and dry unless there's a problem by which time the open channel has kicked in at full siphon. Works just the same as the original design intent, only draw back to using the stock reef ready overflows is crappy surface skimming.

The dual herbies have two independent water chambers (unless the water level in the overflows is above the weir, the fluid dynamics of each is independent of the main system and each other.) A bean animal needs one system to work properly.

You could theoretically set up a bean system by having the siphon and open channel stand pipes in one corner and the dry emergency (and return) in the other corner, IF the pipes are configured such that the emergency kicks in when the water level is above the top of the overflows. The pipe heights would also have to be arranged properly so it starts up correctly.

The problem with this is you take the already poor skimming of the corner overflows and cut it in half, and you have a huge 'dead' zone in one corner. If you're really set on keeping the corner overflows, you can probably do it.

Personally, I am getting ready to tear down my tank am planning on tearing out the (single) corner overflow, plugging the holes and drilling holes in the back for a bean with a coast to coast overflow. I only have one overflow with 2 holes, so I would have to drill no matter what.

Here's a link to someone who converted their dual corner to a coast to coast. Not sure if it's still up and running, but it worked at the time...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2212298

 

[zachts]

No - the bottom may have been tempered after the holes were drilled.


Here's a link to someone who converted their dual corner to a coast to coast. Not sure if it's still up and running, but it worked at the time...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2212298

That would be a very simple mod for an existing RR tank. You'll have to plug those pesky bottom overflow inlets though on the corner boxes.

 

[SGT_York]

+1 to sleepydoc.

The issue with splitting the drain lines between overflows is that each weir is designed to handle 50% of the flow. A siphon is designed to handle 90+% you either have a very poor emergency drain and stagnant water or a working siphon/emergency in one and an incredibly loud durso in the other. The only workaround is to raise the water level above the weirs but that creates a miriad of problems and makes it near impossible to tune. Two herbies, one in each overflow is the simplest approach.

 

[zachts]

+1 to sleepydoc.

The issue with splitting the drain lines between overflows is that each weir is designed to handle 50% of the flow. A siphon is designed to handle 90+% you either have a very poor emergency drain and stagnant water or a working siphon/emergency in one and an incredibly loud durso in the other. The only workaround is to raise the water level above the weirs but that creates a miriad of problems and makes it near impossible to tune. Two herbies, one in each overflow is the simplest approach.

Or just connect the two with a C2C. but only if you don't want to run a line over the back for return..........

 

[uncleof6]

Hi,

Have been working on a BeanAnimal overflow on a 75g, but now tempted to upgrade to 120, mainly for 24" back-to-front depth.

Have found a tank on Craigslist, but it's pre-drilled with bottom bulkheads in the back corners.

Is it possible to make this kind of set up silent? And protect it from overflowing if there are blockages?

cheers!

David

Do yourself a favor, and don't buy a tank off of Craigslist. Much of the time the tanks will leak, or need resealing, and 120s are not exactly expensive tanks to buy new. Buy a blank slate tank, and you can do the drains the "right" way, not have to deal with reef ready it is not issues, as well as someone else's castaway the quite possibly they should have paid you to haul off for them.

 

[swclown]

For a Herbie setup with RR overflows like the OP described, is it better to connect the two siphons and then the gate valve and then to sump or two independent siphons and two gate valves with one for each. I just dry-fitted my plumbing and have the two connected before the gate valve with two independent emergencies. Is this going to be a problem?
Don't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[fishgate]

Do yourself a favor, and don't buy a tank off of Craigslist. Much of the time the tanks will leak, or need resealing, and 120s are not exactly expensive tanks to buy new. Buy a blank slate tank, and you can do the drains the "right" way, not have to deal with reef ready it is not issues, as well as someone else's castaway the quite possibly they should have paid you to haul off for them.

This is good advice but I also think it most important on a used tank to look at condition. If the previous owner was a total slob and the tank wasn't cleaned or looks like it might have never been cleaned then I steer clear. It takes but an hour or so to clean up a tank. The fact that they were too lazy to do that speaks volumes.

 

[uncleof6]

For a Herbie setup with RR overflows like the OP described, is it better to connect the two siphons and then the gate valve and then to sump or two independent siphons and two gate valves with one for each. I just dry-fitted my plumbing and have the two connected before the gate valve with two independent emergencies. Is this going to be a problem?
Don't mean to hijack the thread.

Although there is backup for the system (provided the emergencies are DRY emergencies not the poorly thought out "trickle of flow" deal,) we don't want to intentionally set up a system such as this with a single point, that causes both siphons to fail. Connecting the siphons creates a single point of failure, or "decreases the reliability.") Also, joining the two siphons will *usually* decrease the flow capacity of the system.