Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

You could just go with uniseals. They pop right in and are pretty low profile.
A uniseal seams like a very good idea. This would forgo needing the front be removable for certain types of maintainance. One would still use a standard bulkhead to pass through the tank as the uniseal looks to be more for curved junction installations and not as robust. A small nipple could be used between the bulkhead and uniseals to attach the overflow box inside. If the overflow stood off the back of the tank about a half an inch instead of up against it, that little extra bit of distance could almost double the skimming length because the back of the box could now be utilized as well. I will have to look into this further.

One thing that concerns me is having the opening directly opposite a flat sheet of acrylic will seriously decrease the flow though right? I could be wrong but I though unless a pipe has a decent amount of clearance in front of it it will slow the flow kinda like an elbow.
There is about a 1/2" from the bulkhead to the front of the box. This isn't much different than the traditional configuration where elbows place the opening not far from the bottom of the overflow box. So even if there is a little restriction, it shouldn't be more than the traditional setup which has its openings near a flat surface and an elbow and that setup has been working fine... Of course I'm still in prototype and development so I can't speak definitively but I haven't seen any major issues yet.
 
I'm sure that it's buried somewhere in this gigantic thread, but I'm just tired of reading and searching, so hopefully you guys can help me out here.

I am installing an external bean overflow on the side of my tank. Below are a couple pics of the overflow box that I installed today. Is installing an external bean the same as the internal? I'm looking for help on how to plumb everything. thanks for any help.

I should also note that the internal overflow has not been installed yet. I just did the external box today and hope to get the internal box installed this week.


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here is the problem i am having right now i have set up the fail safe system !
1" bulk heads to 1 1/2" down pipes on a 75gl tank but what gph pump would be best with this system ?
 
here is the problem i am having right now i have set up the fail safe system !
1" bulk heads to 1 1/2" down pipes on a 75gl tank but what gph pump would be best with this system ?
 
Thanks Uncle.

I found the problem. I was using a filtersock on the siphon and it was raising the water level too high over the siphon outlet.

Siphon is purging just fine now.



It should not present a problem, the use of sanitary tees, was to facilitate maintenance.

There are a few things that cause start up issues. Look over your plumbing carefully. Air leaks, in the siphon line can cause start up issues. The drain outlets being too deep in the sump can cause start up issues--not more than 1", less may be better. The air tube for the open channel being too low causing the open channel to head to siphon, before the main siphon can purge the air. Horizontal pipe runs can and do cause start up issues, air can be trapped in the lines.

Sounds to me like you are not getting the air purged out of the out of the siphon line. Double check your outlet depths, if you have horizontal runs, angle them down, rather than horizontal. Follow the adjustment procedure to the letter.
 
Will this work:

18" wide internal weir in back corner. External overflow with beananimal plumbing.

How far out into the tank does the weir have to sit? Does it cut down on noise if it is angled slightly?

Can I just drill 1 1" diameter hole in the tank glass between the weir and external overflow and just let the water flow through? Do I need a bulkhead for this hole? I know I need bulkheads for the external overflow.

Will limo tint on the weir glass be ok? Tint the inside or outside?

The weir will be flat and have a top. How big should the separation be for the water to flow through in between the top and lower weir?
 
I just got a 75g tank that I want to drill for this overflow. Gl*******s drill bits claim 1 3/4" will work for "their" 1 inch bulkheads but will that work with any 1" bulkhead from like Lowes? Sump will be 30g with eheim 1260 with 3.5ft head loss so probably only 300gph, would 1" fittings be too big for that?

If you have, or can find calipers measure the ID body (threaded) part of the BH, bulkheads do very by manufactures . My 1" BH call for a 48mm hole saw 48 mm = 1.88976 " bigger then what yours call for @1.750"
 

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I could really use some help here. I have everything I need to setup my tanks and now just need to make my overflow boxes and drill my holes. I have been reading as much as I can but am still a bit unsure the dimensions of the boxes and placement.

My tanks are 2x 40g breeders (36l x 18w x 17h). I will be doing 2x 1" drains and 2x 1/2" returns on each. My flow from my return pump will be about 400gph (but I could get a different pump).

After reading up I was thinking of doing a weir internal with external for plumbing. What dimensions should I make each of these? I need to have a local glass shop cut it for me and I will be doing it myself (first time).

Also how far down should I drill the returns and the holes from the back into the external? Should I use 1" holes between the two boxes or could I use 1/2" (how many holes can each hole saw cut before it no good)?

Where should the weir internal be placed and do I just make a box or should the front pane be shorter or slanted for skimming?

Also if anyone has any links to pictures or dimensions I can use to bring to the glass shop that would be great. Should I use 3/8 glass?

As you can tell I really need some help here and any and all is greatly appreciated!
 
Can you split off the full siphon drain into a fuge or will that affect the siphon/setup ? My return pump would be too weak to split off it looks like :(
 
Bean,
You system works so well. I hear absolutely nothing, as the water travels down to the sump. Thank you.

What I can hear however, is a slight trickle of water as it passes over the overflow into the external box. I have raised the water level in the external box almost to the level of the water in the main tank. I can still hear the trickle, especially when my vortech kicks up, as it seems to push more water into the overflow.

I know sponges have maintenance issues, but what is everyone thoughts about putting a thin piece of sponge underneath the teeth ( so if the sponge becomes blocked with detritus, water will just flow over instead of backing up). Is there another safer way to quiet the water flowing through the teeth?

Adam
 
Bean,
You system works so well. I hear absolutely nothing, as the water travels down to the sump. Thank you.

What I can hear however, is a slight trickle of water as it passes over the overflow into the external box. I have raised the water level in the external box almost to the level of the water in the main tank. I can still hear the trickle, especially when my vortech kicks up, as it seems to push more water into the overflow.

I know sponges have maintenance issues, but what is everyone thoughts about putting a thin piece of sponge underneath the teeth ( so if the sponge becomes blocked with detritus, water will just flow over instead of backing up). Is there another safer way to quiet the water flowing through the teeth?

Adam

We advocate the use of a straight flat weir--No teeth. The trickle you hear is due to channeling by the teeth. A sponge will not only become a maintenance issue, it will mess with the dynamics of the system, altering the flow rates through the overflow, variable on how dirty or how clean the "pad" is. Not a good idea. Better idea is to eliminate the teeth. I like the way bean put it. Teeth are nothing but eye candy, looks good--accomplishes nothing--but make a noise in an otherwise silent system.
 
We advocate the use of a straight flat weir--No teeth. The trickle you hear is due to channeling by the teeth. A sponge will not only become a maintenance issue, it will mess with the dynamics of the system, altering the flow rates through the overflow, variable on how dirty or how clean the "pad" is. Not a good idea. Better idea is to eliminate the teeth. I like the way bean put it. Teeth are nothing but eye candy, looks good--accomplishes nothing--but make a noise in an otherwise silent system.

Depends on the flow and the size of the weir. I get the trickle noise too, without any teeth, but it's a small (22" linear span) weir and high (3500 gph measured) flow. Above a certain volume of flow per linear inch of weir, you won't get laminar flow and you'll hear the trickle noise.

My solution was just to equalize the heights on both sides of the weir as much as possible. It works well for a few weeks, then needs a little adjustment, then it's fine for a few weeks again, etc. It's still way better than not having the Bean system in place.

Simon
 
bean i need some help here with this
here is the problem i am having right now. i have set up the fail safe system !
1" bulk heads to 1 1/2" down pipes on a 75gl tank but what gph pump would be best with this system ?
because i know right now i have it closed down with almost 850 gph and i realy want to get the most out of the system and cut down on my power heads
 
QUESTIONS ABOUT MY SETUP. PLEASE HELP:

I know mine is a little different, but my fishroom is on the other side of the wall so I didn't have a choice.
Would like to get some thoughts on why it doesn't seem to be flowing as much as I would like. Some of you weighed in on bits and pieces earlier, but now that I've had some time with the system I have a pretty good idea of how it's working and can explain it all a bit clearer so we can try to work it out and get it performing as good as possible.

Basically, I plumbed my tank using the BeanAnimal setup but I did three things differently. For one, I ran straight through the wall before going into the sanitary tee and ball valve. This means there is about 8 extra inches of horizontal run that BeanAnimal doesn't normally have, straight out of the internal C2C overflow. Second, even after that, I don't have much straight vertical drop. I have just a little before going horizontal again and then some low slopes to the sump. And third, the drain pipes are 1" instead of 1.5". I don't normally like a lot of flow through my sump, typically keeping it at around 4-5x and that's probably where I am now. Thought I would save a few bucks on plumbing. But I feel like I should still be getting a lot more with this style setup. So I'm about to do what I should have done in the first place and redo all the drain plumbing with 1.5" the way the BeanAnimal was originally designed. I'll still have the horizontal runs and low slopes but I'm wondering if the larger diameter will make a difference? The main siphon drain does seem to be running as a siphon (no air), but if you put your hand under it in the sump it doesn't feel like that much more than the open channel that's letting air in. The difference I can feel on my hand is mostly the difference of the air bubbles coming out of the open channel pipe, verse the solid feeling column of water coming out of the siphon pipe. I would think it should be a much more noticeable difference? If you go back inside to the tank and plug the airline, that open channel does start flowing a lot more water and the level of water in the overflow drops. So I figure it's safe to assume that the main drain is purging the air from the lines and running as a siphon. But my startup seems different than everyone else's. When i start the pump, my overflow fills up and immediately goes right to it's normal working level. Everyone else's from what I heard has a few minutes of water running at a higher level, draining down the emergency drain, before the air purges from the main drain and starts flowing full siphon and drops back down. Mine doesn't do that at all.

I've read over Bean's website a thousand times, and from what I can tell everything else is set up the same. My drains end about an inch or two under the water surface of the sump. Any thing else you can think of? Do you think the size of the plumbing is the issue or something else? The system functions as it should with the emergency drains and all that, and it's flowing enough for what I need. I just expected A LOT more flow so I'd like to make any adjustments I can to maximize it, even if it still doesn't reach the proportions of the original design.

Pic below to give you an idea of what it looks like.

TIA!

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