Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

Good point on the fuge flood. I may try this...

Siphon line will have 1" bulkhead and reduce to 3/4" pipe, the ball valve will be at the sump level.

Open channel will be 1" bulkhead and increase to 1-1/4". Will just use a maxjet in sump to feed fuge.

Would I increase the odds of the full siphon kicking in better if the open channel bulkhead was drilled 1/4" or 1/2" higher than the siphon bulkhead? Or properly tuned the siphon line should kick in with the bulkheads even, just might be a little slower?

Thanks again. Not as much info out there for the low flow setups.

James
 
Floyd, I just read your link and started laughing as soon as I was reading...I'm a dentist too. :) Thanks for the link.
 
what I would do it a 3/4" siphon line and a 1" open channel. Increasing the 1" to 1.25 below the bulkhead probably wouldn't reduce the chance of it gurgling, because that's going to happen at the narrowest point. IMO at least.

As far as the placement of the bulkheads, yes. Reference the original design regarding that question. siphon hole should definitely be lower. that's for an internal weir and no external overflow. With an external overflow and holes in the bottom you can worry about that after the fact (and adjust the heights of the pipes)
 
Floyd R Turbo said:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2061389

And yes 1.5 for all 3 pipes. Don't reduce down, IIRC you may have a problem getting the upper pipe to purge all the air. Correct me if I am wrong anyone

you don't really need a ball valve on anything but the siphon standpipe. However some put one on the open channel and then tune that with the siphon closed I think. However I would rather have no valve on the OC, because if it starts to operate on full siphon, then it will flush and gurgle loudly, alerting me to an issue. Otherwise you could theoretically never know the siphon line was clogged, and then if the OC clogs you have a problem. The point of this system is 'failsafe' so why set yourself up for failure
Click to expand...

I would say reducing down probably isn't ideal but that's what I have setup right now. Only because I already had 1" pipe plumbed well before ever going with this solution and it is more then enough to handle the flow I'm currently using (~700gph). But just in case I find later on down the road I want higher flow or any other reason I drilled and using 1.5" pvc and about a foot down reduce down to the 1". I don't have any issues with the siphon or have any gurgling. Ideally though it would have been nice to have 1.5" all the way through. I do have the ball valves down by the sump in my basement. I put a ball valve on each line just on the off chance I wanted to swap around the roles in the overflow or test a full failure of both the siphon and open channel which I was able to do successfully. I do leave the open channel ball valve full open though in normal operation.
 
I will be needing help soon. Here is a photo of the new tank I am having built.
100_48201.jpg
 
Hi everyone,

I am currently running the Beananimal overflow and have been for quite some time. While, its never given me any major issues, unfortunately in my case it hasn't really never been "set and forget." That said, the issues have never been annoying enough to where a simple turn of the gate valve didn't fix it right away and once adjusted, it works awesome.

However, lately it has become a real pain and I cannot figure out why.

What happens is that the water level slowly rises (over the course of a few days, say 7-10 days) and then the emergency pipe kicks in and drains the overflow box almost entirely. It can run at that really low level until I adjust it without a problem but it is obviously very loud and changes the water level in my sump.

To give you an idea, it is now running at the level in the picture and while Ive adjusted the gate valve to almost closed, the water level rises slowly but ends up dropping again.

photo-11.jpg~original


As you'll notice from the picture, the water level doesn't even reach the downturned elbow on the main siphon line. The two little black lines painted on the overflow, are the marks of where the water level stays during normal operation (somewhere in between or at those marks).

Ive checked the main siphon with a pipe snake for clogs and can't find anything. What's frustrating is that when I do get it to work again it'll work for days flawlessly and then suddenly out of nowhere, I look and and all the water in the overflow box is gone.

Also, even micro adjustments to the gate valve seem to make a huge difference in the water level. It has been eternally difficult to tune this thing lately.

Any ideas what might be going on?

Thanks for the help!
 
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It sounds like a classic "herbie" with a dry open channel. The system is never fully balanced and ends up gurgling or flowing into the emergency. The system should be setup to utilize the open channel standpipe.

It is hard to tell from the photos what the rest of the setup looks like. Did you follow the plans fully or adapt to your own design?
 
Here's what I did for mine and so far it seems to work.

Siphon line as low as possible (open end about 1" from bottom of overflow box)

Open channel positioned such that the centerline of the horizontal portion of the tee is about 1" above the top of the highest point of the siphon plumbing

emergency standpipe about 3/4" above the centerline of the OC

When stabilized during running, I adjust the valve such that the stability point puts the water line at right about the centerline of the horizontal portion of the OC.

From your pic above, it looks like the waterline is barely above the siphon intake, and you are running the siphon 100%. You should not have it set this way, you need to be running a percentage of flow through the OC all the time, or else it won't be 'set and forget'.
 
Thanks guys....Im going to see if I can take a picture of the set-up later today and post it so you guys can help me analyze it more. I did follow the directions here: http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

And I think I followed them pretty precisely unless I missed something.

@Floyd R Turbo, Im pretty sure that that is very close to how I have it set up. Ill take pics later and you can verify if we're on the same page.

Thanks again.
 
Well, I think I found the problem.

I realized the issue was not with the overflow, but instead with my return pump changing its flow rate and today it had stopped completely. I took it apart to find out why and what I found was pretty sad. I had a blue linkia star that I had to relocate to my sump because I had an asterina outbreak and I bought a Harlequin to control them.

Well somehow, he got over the baffles and apparently made his way inside the return pump. It must have been a slow process because like I said, this has been going on for quite some time. When I pulled the return pump apart the poor little guy was wrapped all around the impeller. Needless to say, he didn't make it.

Now that the return is running at its full flow , the overflow is working perfectly. So all seems solved for now.

That said, I took a picture of my overflow anyway just to see what you guys think. Im not sure if it's supposed to work this way or not, but every time I restart the system the water level in the overflow box varies a bit. Sometimes I have to adjust the gate valve to compensate. This has always been the case. Is that normal?

photoJPG.jpg~original


To be more clear, the open channel is set up taller than the full siphon. The airline on the open channel does not reach the water unless of course it rises too high. The emergency standpipe has an upturned elbow that sits way above both the open and full lines.

All the ends of the pipes sit about a .5 inch below the water line.
 
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It shouldn't need adjustment every time you cycle power. I think I have read of some the take a while to reach equilibrium again. How long have you let it sit after a power up? What is the water lever difference before and after the power cycle?
 
Bean,

I'm having a custom rimless starfire 40BR (36 x 18 x 18) built with an external glass overflow. I need recommendations on the dimensions for the external overflow so that it will be able to hold all of the plumbing peices and elbows etc for your system. I'm not going to do it the entire length of the tank but It will be 18" long. So... how deep and how tall should the overflow box be to accomodate your silent and failsafe overflow system?

Thanks in advance!
 
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