bean animal

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

hey guys..i have my tank home now with a coast to coast external overflow ...i got my bulkheads from BRS  inch and half for overflow and 3 quarters for returns    does anyone have a picture of what  peices i need  to finish all 3 holes

 

[Duke]

if you look at my build page i have some pretty detailed shots of the 3 pipes being put together.

 

[spyd]

http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx/

This has a good idea of what you need. Without a doubt though, you will need to purchase a PVC gate valve for your full siphon line as it is a million times easier to fine tune. Be sure to use another ball valve in line with the gate valve if you need to disconnect your tank for whatever reason. This prevents needing to reset your gate valve.

You will need the following:

3 - 1 1/2" Sanitary Tees. The problem is they don't make them in PVC sch 40. I used 1 1/2"  grey PVC-DWV TY's. They are PVC gas venting fittings but they will do the job.
3 - 1 1/2" socket x spigot PVC 90's for the upturn and downturn 90's. Spigot allows for minimal fittings.
3 - socket x MPT (male pipe thread) PVC adaptors. These go on the top of the stand pipes to screw your end caps on. Depending on your bulkheads, you may need an additional 3 of these if they are threaded as oppose to slip.
3 - 1 1/2" FPT (female pipe thread) PVC end caps
1 - 3/8" MPT x 1/4" tube adaptor. You can pick this up at Lowes. They are manufactured by Watts. http://www.wattscanada.ca/pages/_products_details.asp?pid=5913
You will also need to drill and tap a hole in one of the end caps to allow for this 3/8" MPT x 1/4" tube adaptor.

That should be it. A place like Emco or Marks Supply (in London) would be a good place to get your fittings or order them in. The PVC gate valve is expensive but well worth it. Spears is the manufacturer. There is a Spears dealer near London called Plasco Welding. You can also buy them online at jlaquatics. Obviously, you will need some 1 1/2" PVC pipe as well. When you assemble these pieces, DO NOT glue them at all. They don't need to be glued because they are in the water table so no leak will occur. This way, you can adjust the heights of them as you see fit and also easy to replace something if need be.

If you have any more questions let me know. I just set mine up so everything is still fresh in my mind. For now.....  :?

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

All my bulkheads are threaded  on the inside on both ends

 

[spyd]

Gotcha. You would need a total of 9 - 1 1/2" MPT x socket adaptors. 3 would be to connect your drain lines. 3 to connect the stand pipes inside your overflow and 3 more to connect the end caps to the stand pipes. Are the holes drilled on the bottom of your overflow or on the back panel? I am assuming the bottoms with this installation as that will play a factor as well.

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

It is a external coast to coast overflow. Built by miracles. There's 3 holes on the bottom. And the returns are drilled on the top back corners. At the ends of the overflow  but on the back pane. There is a 2 inch notch on the back pane into the overflow

 

[Duke]

seems like alot of extra stuff.. look at this picture.

you need
6 threaded adapters for your bulkheads
2 t's
2 90's
2 end caps.
3 unions

 

[spyd]

Very true Duke. As per your pic, you can just use a straight stand pipe on your 3rd emergency stand pipe to save on fittings. Other than that though, not really any additional pieces. The extra mpt x socket adaptors for the end caps are just so you can make them removable in the event that u want to scrub your pipes internally.... Like anyone really does that.... He could just glue them in place like you did, but by adding the cheap socket adaptors, you can at least have access to the tops of the standpipes if he wishes.

A tee will work in place of the PVC-DWV TY's. The only difference is the slope of the TY's angles the water down towards the drain a little nicer than a tee would. Same cost on these 2 parts at the end of the day.

 

[AdInfinitum]

http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx/

This has a good idea of what you need. Without a doubt though, you will need to purchase a PVC gate valve for your full siphon line as it is a million times easier to fine tune. Be sure to use another ball valve in line with the gate valve if you need to disconnect your tank for whatever reason. This prevents needing to reset your gate valve.

Have you had issues tuning your system? The intent of the design is to minimize/eliminate the need for fine tuning.  As long as the siphon is handling the bulk of the flow (but not all) the secondary drain has an extremely broad range through which it should operate silently since the drain noise from a Durso comes mostly from turbulence as it approaches capacity.  I just have ball valves on mine and it is just a ballpark setting and forget it. If the secondary starts to handle enough flow to make any noise it's a sign that there is a serious blockage in the primary siphon.

Anyone else have input on tuning these types of systems?

 

[Duke]

ball valve works great for me. i have a slight trickle/drip coming from my secondary pipe.. if something gets in the main pipe the flow in the secondary will increase and ill notice it when i take a peak into the sump, other than that its good to go. set and forget for a year now with zero issues. i dont see a gate valve being needed.. but i would have used one if i could have found one when i setup everything if the price was comparable to a regular ball valve.

 

[spyd]

With a gate valve, I am able to completely match the flow into the overflow with the full siphon speed. This means my 2nd stand pipe acts all most as an emergency stand pipe. The water does not even reach the top of it. This way, I was able to completely eliminate the need for a 3rd stand pipe in my setup as I didn't want too massive of an overflow.

 

[AdInfinitum]

With a gate valve, I am able to completely match the flow into the overflow with the full siphon speed. This means my 2nd stand pipe acts all most as an emergency stand pipe. The water does not even reach the top of it. This way, I was able to completely eliminate the need for a 3rd stand pipe in my setup as I didn't want too massive of an overflow.

That becomes the original Herbie silent design 2 pipes one tuned siphon and one "failsafe" Durso....

BeAn refined the original design adding the low-flow 2nd Durso to eliminate the need to "fine tune" the system which also means that any dirt/algae/calcium build-ups, changes in return flow etc. would no longer necessitate adjustments.

Honestly, My system is currently running like yours with the siphon dialed to keep the overflow level below the secondary intake elbow and has been for a while but that is for another experiment that I am messing around with....

The original Herbie can be run with some flow through the secondary as well and the BeAn upgrades really just add an "industrial level" of safety/redundancy and take tuning and maintenance to near zero.

 

[spyd]

Very true. My setup has the stand pipes of a Bean Animal system but it is really running like a Herbie overflow as I don't have the 3rd stand pipe. Has anyone ever seen water hit their 3rd emergency stand pipe before just out of curiousity? I find them a little redundant in some systems. I understand them completely if your overflow is open enough to allow snails inside. There is no way for anything to get in mine as it is external and protected by the teeth in the acrylic overflow. I guess algae build-up could occur but to completely block a 1 1/2" pipe would be quite surprising.

 

[Duke]

i couldnt even get water in the 3rd stand pipe at all, i tried by blocking the main drain but the secondary just took over before the 3rd pipe even had a chance to get any water it in.

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

Isnt the purpose of the 3 rd pipe only for when the first 2  plug up

 

[spyd]

Yes it is. It is the last fail safe. I was just curious if someone has ever actually seen it used before. A 1 1/2" pipe easily moves 2000gph so I couldn't imagine the 3rd one ever actually being needed. It's definitely great for piece of mind though.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Remember, BeAn's original design employed 1.25" which has half the capacity of 1.5"...We all probably opted for 1.5" because of availability and now have systems that could handle ridiculous flow rates...