Herbie Overflow Questions

[jef4y]

For those of you who have plumbed a herbie or bean animal, I have a couple of questions.

On the full-siphon, how far below the overflow water line do you want this pipe? 1", 2"??

On the secondary/emergency drain, how much of a height difference do you want between that and the full siphon? Half inch?

Right now I cut 2 tubes, the full siphon about 1" below the overflow slots and the emergency 1/2" taller than that. I'm just thinking I may not have enough of a difference between the two to make it work right, but I'm not 100% sure. Any advice would be great!

Thanks.

 

[rdnelson]

Jeff, on mine, all three holes are cut at the same elevation. The partial drain and full siphon have 90s angled down and the emergency drain has a 90 angled up. Seems to work fine and is how it was shown in the detail on the web page put together by the guy who came up with the bean animal.

Go to his link and scroll down to the drawings: http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx/">http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx/</a>

Here is a picture of mine.
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[jef4y]

I'm only doing the Herbie, so I don't have the 3rd drain. Just a full siphon and a partial/emergency drain.

I went into the back of the tank about half way down so that if I ever wanted to change the plumbing to something different, I could.

I wasn't going to put an inverted 90 on the full siphon, but can. I just don't see the use to it really.

Overall, by having the 90's in opposing directions you have a height difference of probably about an inch or maybe a touch more. I don't know that it makes a ton of difference, but I want to make sure my full siphon can keep that full siphon without the emergency/secondary drain impacting it. I think that will simply be a matter of tweaking and suppose I can do all that after install.

I am curious though as to why you have the T/Wye joints on the back and the caps. Is that just for cleaning? I wasn't planning on installing them. Just a 90 straight down to the sump. I didn't see a good reason on BeanAnimal's site either except for the one with the airline attached (which won't matter since I'm not using that portion).

 

[rdnelson]

JeF4y;778608 wrote:
Overall, by having the 90's in opposing directions you have a height difference of probably about an inch or maybe a touch more. I don't know that it makes a ton of difference, but I want to make sure my full siphon can keep that full siphon without the emergency/secondary drain impacting it. I think that will simply be a matter of tweaking and suppose I can do all that after install.

Don't glue the 90s on the inside of the overflow and just barely put them on. That way you can pull them off easily. I do that with my partial drain each time I start it up. Helps get the air out quickly and then it runs dead silent.

Edit:

JeF4y;778608 wrote:
I am curious though as to why you have the T/Wye joints on the back and the caps. Is that just for cleaning? I wasn't planning on installing them. Just a 90 straight down to the sump. I didn't see a good reason on BeanAnimal's site either except for the one with the airline attached (which won't matter since I'm not using that portion).

Yup, the wyes are for clean outs. At anytime I can unscrew the tops and clean out the vertical portion. I think if you read the narrative on that site it talks about that.

 

[eagle9252]

all 3 of mine are same height.

this is the only pic i could find. i also only have the other end 1" in the water. any deeper it takes longer to level out on start up.

if your in the neighborhood stop by.

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[jef4y]

Okay, so I think overall I should be good with what I have. I will have to fire it up and see, and that's coming very soon!! Thanks for all the feedback and pictures!

And Rich, you're probably right, it likely explains the clean-outs in the text, but I'm so freaking ADD that, oh look! Something Shiny!