Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

[uncleof6]

Not sure if this has been addressed, probably has, but there's a lot of pages to read through now so I thought I'd ask if anyone else has tried changing the order of the pipes?

Not for any special reason other than spacing problems it would work out better for me to put (from left side of the tank to middle ... overflow holes are on the left)
Emergency, Open Channel, Full Syphon.
|==O==O==O===============|

this be fine?
Thanks

The order of the pipes does not matter at all.

JTL: I give BeanAnimal a chance to jump on the complicated ones, before I butt in. It is his thread after all.

Regards,

Jim

 

[Bzar]

Great, thanks for the help uncle...don't want to start glueing before consulting the pro's

 

[BeanAnimal]

Great, thanks for the help uncle...don't want to start glueing before consulting the pro's

What is not glued yet? Do you see bubbles in the disharge of the siphon standpipe? I would suspect that the system will not balance because there are air leaks in the siphon standpipe.

Photos of the setup will help.

 

[uncleof6]

What is not glued yet? Do you see bubbles in the disharge of the siphon standpipe? I would suspect that the system will not balance because there are air leaks in the siphon standpipe.

Photos of the setup will help.

Bzar was asking about the order of the standpipes in the overflow... JTL has a balance problem.

Jim

 

[BeanAnimal]

Ahh.... well glue away then

 

[Doc_Polit]

Submerging the pipes is critical for silence, (no splashing water) but not really for the operation of the design. My experience with trickle filters is they were noisy no matter what. But then this is a distant memory :beer: It is probably relative. My systems are silent now. I really don't see any reason you CAN'T run the drains in the top of a trickle filter, as it will not create back pressure in the pipes similar to submerging them too deep in water, or connecting to a skimmer. But do not join the lines into one pipe. Keep the three separate.

Jim

Is there any reason that this would not work? I want to use the bulkhead on the side of my sump for the inlet as opposed to an inline pump.

I just do not want to sacrifice quiet operation.

Thanks again.

 

[uncleof6]

The reason this will not work, is because the full siphon has to purge all the air out of the standpipe, and the drainline before it will start. The way you wish to set it up, will put too much back pressure on the siphon, and it will either not start, or will not start soon enough. The simple solution is to run both pipes as you have the secondary one shown, and use a plug in a bulkhead to seal the pump intake hole in the sump.

I see you only have two drain lines. Bean's design uses three. A full siphon, an open channel (durso) and a dry emergency. Using only two lines eliminates the failsafe feature of this design.

Regards,

Jim

 

[JTL]

Jim,
I guess Bean didn't have a solution. I have no air leaks but it is very difficult to adjust. I had to leave town so it will have to wait a couple of weeks.
John

 

[BeanAnimal]

Without photos and/or more information, it is going to be hard to give any more advice. The system should be fairly easy to adjust under any normal circumstances.

 

[ataller]

Setting up a new tank and I am looking at using your design. For the new setup I would like to feed my skimmer directly from the overflow.

If I use the Beananimal design, can I split off the siphon to feed the skimmer? Will splitting the siphon some how ruin its effect?

Thank you,

Adam

 

[Enjoy]

Hey Bean I really want to incoperate this overflow system into my new tank. I had a custom tank built with a C2C overflow. There are three 1" bulkheads in the bottom of the overflow compared to the back wall. What is the best way to go about plumbing to acheive the same effect?

Here are some pics to explain.

Thanks everyone!

 

[BeanAnimal]

It makes no difference where the bulkheads are (bottom of box or back of box) the standpipe design will work the same. Instead of using a TEE on the back of the box, the standpipes will enter through the bottom of the box. The TEES and ELBOWS will be inside of the box.


Look through the thread and you will see plenty of photos of both styles

 

[salt h20]

Because I don't want to punch more holes in my living room floor.

I fought with this for a while too. I finally went and got a standard size floor register and cut the hole that size with a jigsaw between the floor joists. When I moved, the register was inserted into the hole I cut, and looked like it had been there forever. I think if you choose your floor hole position wisely, (between joists, a couple inches from the wall) you can run all the pipes required through this size cutout. I had 2 1.5" drains, and 2 1" returns with room left over.

 

[ahmedess]

Hi beananimal,

i have some questions regarding your overflow system:

1- where exactly should i drill the three holes relatively to the tank's water level
2- can i use a small overflow box instead of the c2c and will that cause a noticable change in the sound of water falling into the overflow box?
3- if i use 1" drain pipes instead of 1.5", in what way will that affect the system?

 

[Xgame2k]

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I was wondering if something like this would work? I know it needs revisions. It is just a rough sketch of a thought. Im working with a 450 gallon w/120 gallon sump and hammerhead pump. My goal is to take out my ridiculously large overflows and replace them with pvc pipe to a c2c and glue up some live rock to cover the pipes so no fish get stuck. There are two 3.5 inch and two 2 inch pre-drilled holes on the bottom of the tank where my overflows are now.

 

[Xgame2k]

???

 

[tat2shawn]

Im setting up this beananimal drain on an internal overflow. question is can I use just a standpipe with a strainer on top for the emergency drain? I may have an issue with fitting a tee with upturned elbow on the emergency drain. TIA

 

[BeanAnimal]

Hi beananimal,

i have some questions regarding your overflow system:

1- where exactly should i drill the three holes relatively to the tank's water level
2- can i use a small overflow box instead of the c2c and will that cause a noticable change in the sound of water falling into the overflow box?
3- if i use 1" drain pipes instead of 1.5", in what way will that affect the system?

The water level of the tank is not that important. There will be a weir between the tank water level and the standpipe bulkheads. Most folks like to place the top of the weir at the bottom edge of the trim, so that at no time will the tank's water level be visible below the trim. The box needs to be deep enough to hold the standpipe plumbing. Your bulkhead holes should be no closer than 1.5 hole diameters from each other or the edges of the glass panel.

The smaller the box the less surface skimming and the more chance of the water creating a waterfall noise as it goes over the weir.

You can use 1" standpipe for low flow systems. You have not indicated teh size of tank or proposed flow rate, so most of your questions are kind of hard to answers. That said, most scenarios have been covered in the 2,000 odd pages here. It sucks to read them all, but you will be an expert after you do.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I was wondering if something like this would work? I know it needs revisions. It is just a rough sketch of a thought. Im working with a 450 gallon w/120 gallon sump and hammerhead pump. My goal is to take out my ridiculously large overflows and replace them with pvc pipe to a c2c and glue up some live rock to cover the pipes so no fish get stuck. There are two 3.5 inch and two 2 inch pre-drilled holes on the bottom of the tank where my overflows are now.

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I can't really see what is going on. Can you repost it or link to a full size version?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Im setting up this beananimal drain on an internal overflow. question is can I use just a standpipe with a strainer on top for the emergency drain? I may have an issue with fitting a tee with upturned elbow on the emergency drain. TIA

Photos would help... but in general yes, just a strainer on a standpipe will work.