Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

[uncleof6]

Hi people, sorry if this is asker before. l wonder if Beananimal method is compatible with a surge method, namely Carlson Surge Device. My system is on the planning phase so l want to design it as flexible as possible. lf the water volume of the surge tank is smaller than the extra volume in the sump, design seems to be safe to me. l will not run SCD on 7/24, and while running it l'll turn the ATO off.

Regards

Generally, no drain system is compapitble with surge systems. For that matter, surge systems are pointless fluff, that do not perform any vital role in the system other than make more setup work...

 

[uncleof6]

Hi everyone, I installed a 300 gallon system with the bean animal overflow system and it works great except I hear a gurgling sound that is coming from the 1/4" tubing on my second drain. Can anyone give me a suggestion how to eliminate that? I would really appreciate it.

Best
Bob

Your system is out of adjustment, and too much water is going down the open channel, causing it to behave just like a typical Durso standpipe, when the flow rate is too high. It is after all, a standard Durso standpipe...

 

[uncleof6]

I got that part. What I'm looking for now is a tutorial. Or if someone could tell me where, and how big the holes are gonna need to be for my tank? Do I go with the size used in the original design or since my tank is a different size do I use bigger or smaller PVC and bulkheads?

The only reason I asked for a specific place is because I really don't have time to go searching a 300+ page thread. Although I would much rather be looking through this thread all day instead of working :bigeyes:

I guess I could just start picking random pages and go that route..

Does anyone know how deep and wide the overflow box should be? I plan on using one of the 30" sides of my tank for the coast to coast overflow, so there's a lot of surface skimming going on.. I was thinking like 30x4x4 does that sound right?

HUH? A tutorial? I am sorry, this entire thread is a tutorial, sans a few left curves, and is mandatory reading for anyone setting up this system. The images at the beginning of the original thread, and Bean's website, are all the tutorial needed for anyone to set this system up and run it. It is a one size fits all design, it works as designed, and folks only get into trouble with it when they "do it their way."

You don't have to "read the entire thread," skimming it page by page would suffice. This thread actually starts here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310585

and is longer than 300 pages.

 

[Eud]

By the way, after two days of patience and small adjustments and closing my 1.5" gate valve almost entirely it takes about 3 hours and then mine goes dead silent, even going from upstairs, across the basement ceiling (with about 1 foot over 8 feet drop), and then down to the sump. All 1.5" PVC and built to specs except for the horizontal run. It's doing about 750gph and could easily handle way way more.

It goes just like BeanAnimal describes, just with a very long time constant, heh. Emergency initially drains, open channel starts going as siphon is pushing out air, when open channel gets going the emergency stops (water level in box drops), and eventually the flow switches over from the noisy open channel to the siphon as air is slowly purged from the siphon. The open channel gets quieter gradually and eventually goes silent. Maybe it will start faster once there's some slime in the pipes.

I might double up my pump anyway to speed up the siphon purging the air. Three hours is a long time to wait for the siphon to push out all the air, but the sound during this process isn't terrible. Just sounds like a regular durso while the open channel is running.

 

[uncleof6]

Thanks Maui.
So now, what about the size of PVC. Should I be using 1" of 1 1/2"?
The tank is going to be a coral only tank. More of a frag tank actually, with all types of corals. Softies LPS, SPS..so if BeanAnimal was getting 2000gph with his 1.5" PVC, should I be moving more or less GPH for my size tank?

Max flow rate through a 1" bulkhead with 1.5" will depend on the length of the drop. With a 24" drop, it will max out around 1500gph. 2000 gph is a rather vague number—without the "length of drop" context.

 

[Dotterer]

By the way, after two days of patience and small adjustments and closing my 1.5" gate valve almost entirely it takes about 3 hours and then mine goes dead silent, even going from upstairs, across the basement ceiling (with about 1 foot over 8 feet drop), and then down to the sump. All 1.5" PVC and built to specs except for the horizontal run. It's doing about 750gph and could easily handle way way more.

It goes just like BeanAnimal describes, just with a very long time constant, heh. Emergency initially drains, open channel starts going as siphon is pushing out air, when open channel gets going the emergency stops (water level in box drops), and eventually the flow switches over from the noisy open channel to the siphon as air is slowly purged from the siphon. The open channel gets quieter gradually and eventually goes silent. Maybe it will start faster once there's some slime in the pipes.

I might double up my pump anyway to speed up the siphon purging the air. Three hours is a long time to wait for the siphon to push out all the air, but the sound during this process isn't terrible. Just sounds like a regular durso while the open channel is running.

Awesome to hear Eud!

 

[thcmusic]

Hello to all - I am (re)building a 120gal 48x24x24 and will be using the original Beananimal design spec as posted on the first few pages of the thread. I'll have an internal toothless C2C the entire length of the tank. I'll be using 1" bulkheads with 1.5" pipe to the sump.... all EXACTLY per the design....

....EXCEPT I am not sure how to model the first elbow into the bulkheads (since a 1-1/4" to 1" street slip-spigot elbow does not exist). How important is it really? Am I ok using just a 1" street spigot slip elbow? Am I asking for a vortex issue? I want to minimize the (horizontal) dimension of how far the elbow extends towards the front of the tank - thus I like the "street" aspect. Is there another way to accomplish this?

 

[Eud]

I was told it is actually a 1" street elbow. The 1.25 came from his outside measurements.

 

[thcmusic]

Another question I have is: My sump is currently set up with two socks. Is there a problem with splitting the siphon drain in half with a Y fitting just before the socks? I was thinking of using a 1.5" to two 1.25". Will it create any kind of negative impact on beananimal performance?

 

[asudavew]

Getting ready to drill my 180.
It is a Perfecto. 60x24x24
So I need to double check figures.
Any help or input would be appreciated.

I'm getting ready to drill for 1.5" bulkheads.

The hole size will be 2 3/8".

So I will need 2 3/8" from top of glass plus half the hole size... So 3 9/16" to center minimum?


Does that seem right?

And 2 3/8" minimum between outside of the holes.

So 4.75" between the centers?

Is the glass 1/2" below the trim?

 

[tuber]

Hello to all - I am (re)building a 120gal 48x24x24 and will be using the original Beananimal design spec as posted on the first few pages of the thread. I'll have an internal toothless C2C the entire length of the tank. I'll be using 1" bulkheads with 1.5" pipe to the sump.... all EXACTLY per the design....

....EXCEPT I am not sure how to model the first elbow into the bulkheads (since a 1-1/4" to 1" street slip-spigot elbow does not exist). How important is it really? Am I ok using just a 1" street spigot slip elbow? Am I asking for a vortex issue? I want to minimize the (horizontal) dimension of how far the elbow extends towards the front of the tank - thus I like the "street" aspect. Is there another way to accomplish this?

did you try http://pvcfittingsdirect.com/new-category-57/?sort=priceasc for the reducing street elbow ? I built from hard to find fittings there.

 

[Jrod4]

I was told it is actually a 1" street elbow. The 1.25 came from his outside measurements.

Its actually 1.25 inside diameter of the water inlet side. Its 1.25 to accept a 1" pipe. The OD of 1" pvc is roughly 1.25.

And correct it is just a 1 inch street elbow, nothing fancy. They sell them at lowes.

 

[Volkman]

Internal overflow plumbing?

Internal overflow plumbing?

Hi everyone, just about ready to do the plumbing and get some water in this puppy! I have a miracles 180 tank with a center, internal overflow. It's drilled with two 1.5" drains and two 1" returns. I was going to use one of the 1" returns as the third down pipe. Basically what I am asking is because of the internal overflow, I would just run a longer PVC pipe below the sanitary tee to the valve which I would have underneath the tank correct? Make sense? I tried to do a quick search to see if others are doing this and how so, but the thread is so big and popular, its kinda hard to narrow things down., so hopefully I'm not being too redundant.

Thanks!

 

[Volkman]

Drilled on the bottom. Not the back. FYI.

 

[uncleof6]

The only way you can utilize the 1" bulkhead in this system is if the 1" bulkhead is used for the main siphon. Otherwise, would be to short circuit the safety features of this drain system. The siphon bulkhead needs to be the "flow limited" point in the system.

Don't think that would be a good idea, as it would limit the flow rate to ~ 1500 gph (depending on the length of the drop) and this tank should be around 1800 gph on the low end.

 

[Volkman]

Hmm, if I remember, I asked bean a while back and he had said it wouldn't be a issue, just use the third, 1" for the last of the three drains and I'd be good. No? Beananimal?

 

[the_deeb]

Is there any particular advantage to threading a cap for the open channel and using a John Guest fitting for the hose versus just using a PVC to hose barb adapter like this:

This one is a 1" spigot to 3/8" hose adapter. It seems like it would be much simpler to just put one of these into the top of the PVC tee on the open channel. Am I missing something?

 

[Volkman]

Not from what I see, looks like the same kind of end result. ??? Do not take my word for it though, still very much learning about this system.

 

[Jrod4]

Is there any particular advantage to threading a cap for the open channel and using a John Guest fitting for the hose versus just using a PVC to hose barb adapter like this:

This one is a 1" spigot to 3/8" hose adapter. It seems like it would be much simpler to just put one of these into the top of the PVC tee on the open channel. Am I missing something?

I just put a 1.5" to 3/8" bushing in mine and then screwed in a 3/8" NPT with 1/4" JG fitting on it. All of it avalailable at lowes, including 1/4" hose.

 

[thcmusic]

Another question I have is: My sump is currently set up with two socks. Is there a problem with splitting the siphon drain in half with a Y fitting just before the socks? I was thinking of using a 1.5" to two 1.25". Will it create any kind of negative impact on beananimal performance?

Bump