Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

I'm in process on my beananimal drain system for my 200g w/ external OF.

The heavy duty gate valves I got for 1.5" plumbing from Bulk Reef Supply are very heavy and don't offer any bracketing for attaching them to supports. So I'm wondering if I should plan for it to be "upright" (perpendicular to the standard valves on the beananimal designs).

My question is, would it affect operation of the siphon channel to have a two right angle elbows, one before and one after the gate valve?

(The end of the tube will be 1" below the water level of the sump.)
 
Bean, don't think I ever told you thanks, but I have my overflow working as it should. I am very happy with the design and the quietness of the system. I am still just running water through the system looking for problems, but haven't had any more. I moved the return drain lines up and down in the sump until I found a balance and it works great now. Thanks!:smokin:
 
Need Help with Fuge Drain

Need Help with Fuge Drain

Bean
I need some advice although it's not related to your design I thought that with your experience of overflows you could help.
I have a fuge with a discharge chamber which has a gravity drain back to my sump which is about 12" lower.
Here's what I started with:

GRAVITYDRAINTOSUMP.jpg~original


The problem was that bubble caused by the water flowing over the weir into the discharge chamber got back to the sump where they were sucked into my main pump intake. I had to keep a fairly large flow to the fuge to keep the water level about two thirds up so the bubbles didn't enter the drain. I don't want this much water flowing through my fuge so I tried this to fix it:

newoverflow.jpg~original


Same problem. I went to Lowes and picked up a tee and cap. I cut off the vertical PVC and added the tee with the hose connecting to the horizontal and the cap on the vertical. I installed a John Guest valve fitting on the top of the cap and ran a 1/4" line into the fuge discharge chamber (just like your design). My thinking was that at pump shutdown for feeding the water in the fuge discharge chamber would be uncovered and break the syphon. Didn't work so I closed the valve and I'm back to where I started.
Any ideas on how I can keep the water level high with a low flow?
Thanks
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The reduced flow allows air into the setup due to the siphon.... you need to resrtrict the the discharge line to allow a lower volume siphon. However, in doing so you will also create more of a likliehood of a blockage causing a flood.

Better setup... a siphon with an open channel/emergency. You can valve the siphon back to get things in balance just like the full size overflow.

Other options would be to put a P trap just before the sump and an air vent. You could also use a pile of rubble or a bucket to catch the bubbles...

However, my opinion is that high flow sumps work better so I would not reduce the flow :)
 
Hello Bean.
Someone may have already asked this, but I did not see it.
Where did you get your large overflow box made at?
The only one I saw was from glass holes.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14248280#post14248280 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gravity316
Hello Bean.
Someone may have already asked this, but I did not see it.
Where did you get your large overflow box made at?
The only one I saw was from glass holes.
Click to expand...

I had a local glass shop cut me the (2) pieces for maybe $25. I used silicone to build the box and attach it inside the tank. Use glass for a glass tank.. and acrylic (solvent welded) for an acrylic tank.
 
hey bean i have a question for you I have set up my tank based on your system and have a external overflow except my bulkheads are run through the bottom of the overflow and my main siphon drain will not get a siphon or really flow any water at all yet my open channel flows fine

here's a pic
siphon%20drain.jpg


the siphon and open channel are at the same height so that aint the problem any advice will be appreciated thanks
 
1) raise the open channel by 1/2" - 1" to force water into the siphon.

2) ensure that the siphon standpipe is not submerged too far into the sump.

3) you can drill a small hole or two in the siphon standpipe just above the normal operating waterline of the sump.
 
I can not remember what your proposed flow rates were. The street els can be pretty restrictive. I would not use the elbows on the emergency drain. Instead I would use a simple straight pipe to maximize its potential :)
 
It is all 1" plumbing and after head loss I think it came in at 700 GPH. Not to much. I wanted 1/2" but was affarid of the noise that you had mentioned, so I went bigger to be safe.

I will look at makeing the emergency a straight shot.
 
Hey Bean,

I'm planning on doing this on a smaller scale on a smaller tank (24 x 24 x 20) and plan on using 3/4" fittings. I believe I asked you previously if that was adequate sizing for about 300-400 GPH flow (obviously not much) and you said it should be fine.

Anyway, one of the things I'd like to do is use 3/4" black vinyl tubing and John Guest or Mur compression fittings rather than spa flex, rigid PVC or hose barbs to make connections to the ball valves and bulkhead fittings. Do you think these would be effective in terms of being air tight? I like the idea of using them because they make things a little more modular and easier to disconnect for maintenance and modifications.
 
Bean,

I've been reading this post for close to 3 hours now and your answers seem to be thorough, honest, and easy to understand. I'm fairly new to the hobby and currently running a 72gal bowfront that slurps like crazy and your improved design seems to be what I'm looking for.

I am currently brainstorming a setup of a 120 gal for my finished basement and incorportating the aquarium into the wall as a room divider. My original intention was to seperate my large room into two seperate rooms with the aquarium visible from three sides, but not sure how to run the drains. The aquarium will be 48"x24" and my original thought is to put the 3 drains on the unvisble side, but not sure there will be enough surface skim even if I run the overflow the full 24" along the side. Can you or anyone feed me some ideas and knowledge? Or do I need to loose the third side view of the aquarium and have overflows on both sides and only have the aquarium viewed from the two seperate rooms.

Keep in my I am brainstorming and gather information to make up my design. The aquarium will be glass and I will have to ensure the sides are not tempered, so assuming they're not tempered what are your thoughts.

Thank you
Everyone for all the knowledge
 
The 24" of surface skimming may not be "ideal" but it is still more than MOST 120G tanks have.

I would use an external overflow box so that it is not visible from the display area.

I would use (1) or (2) large closed loops plumbed through the end wall and/or bottom of the tank and run them with an Oceans Motions or Variable Speed Reeflo Pump (talk to Reeflo, or look for the thread by LiveForPhysics here at RC.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I prefer the "room divider" look instead of the peninsula look, but to each their own.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14268133#post14268133 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Canadian
Hey Bean,

I'm planning on doing this on a smaller scale on a smaller tank (24 x 24 x 20) and plan on using 3/4" fittings. I believe I asked you previously if that was adequate sizing for about 300-400 GPH flow (obviously not much) and you said it should be fine.

Anyway, one of the things I'd like to do is use 3/4" black vinyl tubing and John Guest or Mur compression fittings rather than spa flex, rigid PVC or hose barbs to make connections to the ball valves and bulkhead fittings. Do you think these would be effective in terms of being air tight? I like the idea of using them because they make things a little more modular and easier to disconnect for maintenance and modifications.
Click to expand...

I am not sure how they do with negative pressure. I would imagine they should be fine though.
 
Thanks Bean. I'll give a try and post some photos if they work because it would plumbing and any necessary modifcations really easy (not that glueing and threading fittings together is difficult). :)
 
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