Ah, good point. So most people just glue?
Silent and Failsafe Overflow System
- Thread starter JohnL
- Start date
Mrramsey
NEO Reefer
Gluing is fine. In my case I didn't I just used a little aquarium safe silicone to aid in sealing any potential air leaks. That being said uncle is right in the fact that it really should be glued. But in my case you saw I forgot to paint the elbows black lol. I will make new ones over the summer .
skeeter_ca
Active member
Got a question.....I'm designing a very narrow long acrylic Nano tank(7.5). I was wondering if a Bean would be the best choice. I was hoping to use 1/2" thin wall pvc pipe for all 4 pipes(3 for the Bean and 1 return). The flow rate will be about 100gph. Will this work using the smaller 1/2" thin wall pipe? Also since this will be sitting on my desk I will need to make a 90degree turn just after the adjustment valve and have flex hose going to the sump under my desk. Will that be ok?
skeeter
skeeter
Mrramsey
NEO Reefer
Sounds like an interesting concept. A mini bean.... Technically I would think it would work.
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Hello All,
I am new to this forum but I have read the entire original Bean post as well as dozens of this one and I have a couple of questions that I do not believe have been covered for my proposed application. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have set up an indoor aquaponics garden. Everything is set except for a few issues with aquarium. I have a grow bed on top, a 40B tank below and a 27 gallon sump tank below that. I originally built a dual overflow, dual drain pvc overflow using an aqualifter pump to maintain siphon. I have this set up in a carpeted basement and I cannot deal with the inherent flaw of this system. If my pump fails, overflow is inevitable. I have decided to drill the tank and do a Bean overflow. I am using a 633gph pump from sump to tank. I am planning on using 1-1/4" bulkheads.
When my grow bed fills, my sump lowers by 2-1/4". I have read that drains should be 1/2" to 1" below water line for this set up to operate properly. I need mine to be approx. 3" below high water line to accommodate the water height fluctuation and still have a silent system. It seems this will cause a lot of back pressure.
Question 1.
If I were to drill several holes in the drain line, either slightly above or below the high water line, will this system work and be silent?
Question 2.
Will 1-1/4" bulkheads with 1-1/4" pvc plumbing work well for a 633gph pump or should I reduce them to 1"?
Thank you all for any help.
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Hello All,
I am new to this forum but I have read the entire original Bean post as well as dozens of this one and I have a couple of questions that I do not believe have been covered for my proposed application. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have set up an indoor aquaponics garden. Everything is set except for a few issues with aquarium. I have a grow bed on top, a 40B tank below and a 27 gallon sump tank below that. I originally built a dual overflow, dual drain pvc overflow using an aqualifter pump to maintain siphon. I have this set up in a carpeted basement and I cannot deal with the inherent flaw of this system. If my pump fails, overflow is inevitable. I have decided to drill the tank and do a Bean overflow. I am using a 633gph pump from sump to tank. I am planning on using 1-1/4" bulkheads.
When my grow bed fills, my sump lowers by 2-1/4". I have read that drains should be 1/2" to 1" below water line for this set up to operate properly. I need mine to be approx. 3" below high water line to accommodate the water height fluctuation and still have a silent system. It seems this will cause a lot of back pressure.
Question 1.
If I were to drill several holes in the drain line, either slightly above or below the high water line, will this system work and be silent?
Question 2.
Will 1-1/4" bulkheads with 1-1/4" pvc plumbing work well for a 633gph pump or should I reduce them to 1"?
Thank you all for any help.
Mine is officially up and running and I'm loving it so far. I did crack one of my bulkheads from over-tightening my pvc threaded the slip adapter, so only running one channel + emergency. I'm running 1" bulkhead PVC for each, and my pump is a Eheim 1260. My main channel is turned down from full flow about a quarter turn. Since I'm not running a ton of flow through (5-600gph) I find I don't need the third so I have it capped off for now. Any reason why that would be a bad idea? It starts/stops fine without overflowing and is very quiet.
Mrramsey
NEO Reefer
The third open channel is crucial as it regulates the flow. It is the self adjusting part. I highly recommend that you get your bulkhead fixed and get it going.
skeeter_ca
Active member
I was just concerned if a "mini bean" would work because some have complained that with too slow of a flow, it won't restart the siphon after a shut down without some fiddling. Also as asked before is there any problems putting in a 90degree elbow right after the adjustment valve? I thought I had read that it needs to be as straight of a shoot as possible to the sump.
skeeter
skeeter
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
You can experiment with drilling holes, this will likely work. A better solution would be to retrofit a fixed height box into the sump (if there is no room for a fixed height baffle/compartment. A bit of creative thinking would prevent the waterfall (during sump low cycle) from the box from being noisy. (Maybe 3 sides higher than the max water level and 1 side with slanted discharge chute from the container rim to the lowest sump level).
You can reduce the size of the siphon standpipe if you wish... but I would not reduce the size of the open channel or emergency. Again experimentation in your actual setup may yield workable results with all 1" pipe, but I can't say for sure.
uncleof6
Active member
You don't need 1.25" bulkheads for a pump that won't get close to 633gph, after it is all said and done....1.25" bulkheads will be way overkill. Technically, you don't need 1" bulkheads, however .75" is too small and too easy to clog up. If you have a choice for drilling holes, use 1.75" holes for 1" bulkheads, though for the open channel 1.25" pipe on the 1" bulkhead would be a be a good idea as Bean indicated.
Most aquaponics set ups I have seen have the "fish tank" as the low point in the system. Water is pumped from the fish tank, up to the flood tank, then periodically, the flood tank dumps into the grow bed(s). I am not certain how yours is supposed to work, or where there will be continuous flow, but double gravity feed (grow beds/tank/sump) is going to be a problem if it is continuous flow; if the flow to the grow bed is periodic with continuous flow through the "fish tank" then it may be fine. I am also thinking that if you have a power out/pump failure flood issue, changing the drain system is not going to help much with that... When I was looking around I found a sentence that read: "stock your armored military vehicle," and I said nope. I don't mind translations, but I don't really want to translate the translations... :celeb3:
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
I already have the 1-1/4" bulkheads as well as a 2" bit that I bought a while back for my 90 gallon starfire tank that I have yet to set up, so I was planning on using them. I can add a 1-1/4" to 1" reducing bushing to these if 1" would be more appropriate but I would prefer to not have to buy more bulkheads and a new bit. If I am understanding you both correctly, I should use the 1-1/4" bulkheads with 1-1/4" pipe for the open channel and emergency and I should reduce the main bulkhead and pipe to 1"?
I have a pump that fills the grow bed (on top of system) from the sump. It fills about every ten minutes during the day and drains via a bell siphon back to sump. I did not want the water height in aquarium to fluctuate which is why I chose to use a sump tank. Since I am using an aquarium for the fish rather than a stock tank, I put the tank in the middle so it could be seen. I have enough volume in the sump to accommodate the grow bed and aquarium. I had this set up with a diy BOT Overflow using an aqua lifter. It worked fine but it was noisy and had a large failure potential. If I add the separate constant height area in my sump, I think I should be able to get the Bean overflow to work properly with my current setup.
Thank you for your advice.
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
I already have the 1-1/4" bulkheads as well as a 2" bit that I bought a while back for my 90 gallon starfire tank that I have yet to set up, so I was planning on using them. I can add a 1-1/4" to 1" reducing bushing to these if 1" would be more appropriate but I would prefer to not have to buy more bulkheads and a new bit. If I am understanding you both correctly, I should use the 1-1/4" bulkheads with 1-1/4" pipe for the open channel and emergency and I should reduce the main bulkhead and pipe to 1"?
I have a pump that fills the grow bed (on top of system) from the sump. It fills about every ten minutes during the day and drains via a bell siphon back to sump. I did not want the water height in aquarium to fluctuate which is why I chose to use a sump tank. Since I am using an aquarium for the fish rather than a stock tank, I put the tank in the middle so it could be seen. I have enough volume in the sump to accommodate the grow bed and aquarium. I had this set up with a diy BOT Overflow using an aqua lifter. It worked fine but it was noisy and had a large failure potential. If I add the separate constant height area in my sump, I think I should be able to get the Bean overflow to work properly with my current setup.
Thank you for your advice.
Attachments
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Sorry for the poor pictures. I am not sure how to make sure they are vertical when posted. They are correct when viewed from my laptop but are appearing turned. Hopefully you can at least get the general idea.
Drain Depth for Aquaponics Application
Sorry for the poor pictures. I am not sure how to make sure they are vertical when posted. They are correct when viewed from my laptop but are appearing turned. Hopefully you can at least get the general idea.
uncleof6
Active member
The description was sufficient, so don't worry about the pictures, though I fixed them for you.
What I am getting is you have continuous flow tank/sump via BA system, and intermittent flow via separate path, bell siphon grow bed/sump. That is what I was wanting to know. You may wish to consider a backup for the bell siphon just in case.
As far as the bulkheads go, it was an if sort of thing: if you did not have/or already drill, etc. Like Bean said, give it a test run, if there is a problem just bush the siphon down to 1". No sense getting another hole saw. 1.5" bulkheads would be more likely to have an issue with the flow rate.
What I am getting is you have continuous flow tank/sump via BA system, and intermittent flow via separate path, bell siphon grow bed/sump. That is what I was wanting to know. You may wish to consider a backup for the bell siphon just in case.
As far as the bulkheads go, it was an if sort of thing: if you did not have/or already drill, etc. Like Bean said, give it a test run, if there is a problem just bush the siphon down to 1". No sense getting another hole saw. 1.5" bulkheads would be more likely to have an issue with the flow rate.
Attachments
Excellent! Thank you for the advice and for fixing my pictures. I do have a backup overflow at the top of the grow bed with separate drain in case of bell siphon failure. I will update once I get this all set up in the next few days or so. It is so fortunate to have guys like you and Bean to discuss this stuff with. Your knowledge and experience is invaluable. Cheers.
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