What type of Overflow drains?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

CANAMONSTER

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2012
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Barrie
Just wondering what you guys like using for an overflow. Is anyone using Herbie or Bean Animal?

Overflow boxes or just regular drilled drain holes?

I like the Herbie/bean idea as it gives loads of flow with 1.5 inch pipe, but I am wondering if two 2 inch regular drilled drains would be easier and just as much glow ( noisy for sure)
 
I'm running a beananimal. I drilled a 90g reef ready tank and added a 3rd drain on the back pane of glass for my lowflow drain. I tested out the herbie and didn't like it. I wanted something more set it and forget it.

9ugqkTX.jpg

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The bottom two holes are 1" the third hole I drilled is 3/4". I run a mag 9.5 @ 600-700 gph at head. I tested it with two pumps and I'll handle almost twice that amount.

Dead silent. Its been set up for a couple months or so now. I haven't touched the gate valve once since setting it up.

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I run a Beananimal on our 135 and it's great. Plumbed with a Ghost (Reef Savvy) overflow. Quiet and virtually floodproof.
That being said, I'm still partial to our dual Herbie on our 300. One Herbie setup per box is even quieter than the Bean and impossible to flood. One gate ties the 2 together and it's set and forget like the Bean but with the advantage of one more drain.

We run a number of other 125-220 tanks in our garage using Dursos and overflow boxes and they work well, just a bit noisier.


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I'm running a beananimal. I drilled a 90g reef ready tank and added a 3rd drain on the back pane of glass for my lowflow drain. I tested out the herbie and didn't like it. I wanted something more set it and forget it.

9ugqkTX.jpg

953g1MB.jpg


The bottom two holes are 1" the third hole I drilled is 3/4". I run a mag 9.5 @ 600-700 gph at head. I tested it with two pumps and I'll handle almost twice that amount.

Dead silent. Its been set up for a couple months or so now. I haven't touched the gate valve once since setting it up.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

Interesting! So you have two stand pipes and one on the back wall?
 
I run a Beananimal on our 135 and it's great. Plumbed with a Ghost (Reef Savvy) overflow. Quiet and virtually floodproof.
That being said, I'm still partial to our dual Herbie on our 300. One Herbie setup per box is even quieter than the Bean and impossible to flood. One gate ties the 2 together and it's set and forget like the Bean but with the advantage of one more drain.

We run a number of other 125-220 tanks in our garage using Dursos and overflow boxes and they work well, just a bit noisier.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app


So you have two Herbie's? So two stand pipes in each cormer? What size pipes? I will check out your build!
 
Interesting! So you have two stand pipes and one on the back wall?

Yeah I bought the reef ready tank brand new actually. I wanted to do a simple herbie set up. After some tinkering around I decided the beananimal setup was more what I was looking for so I drilled the brand new 3/8" glass with a $7 Chinese hole saw lol.

Same concept as bean's original design from reefcentral. The third hole just handles a small amount of water, kind of a buffer zone between the dry emergency and siphon. I staggered the 3 drains a few inches apart. With the venturi pickup vent hose the 3/4" drain can flow over 400gph under siphon and reliably went full siphon every time I closed the gate valve on the main drain. I went with 3/4" because of the small footprint and 1-3/8" hole fit nice and safe between the overflow walls.

Works great though. Like I said I havent touched the gate valve since I set it up. It restarts flawlessly and reliably after each water change

Kind of a weird assbackwards setup and I only did it because it was a single overflow reef ready tank. But it works.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...0g-40b-sump-on-the-cheap-(ballin-on-a-budget)
I did a weird thread all about the build


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So you have two Herbie's? So two stand pipes in each cormer? What size pipes? I will check out your build!

Yes a Herbie setup per overflow box joined by a single 2" gate above the sump. 1 1/2" drains on all 4 lines..... Way overkill but we may use this as a salt setup down the road so we built a lot of headroom into the system.




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I also think I will do a Herbie as I don't like the third pipe. Herbie drain is around 2500 gph so plenty of flow.
 
I also think I will do a Herbie as I don't like the third pipe. Herbie drain is around 2500 gph so plenty of flow.


Beananimial is by far the best overflow system out there. I am building one in my plywood tank. They are 100% silent when built properly, and you can't ask for a better failsafe when we are talking about massive amounts of water potentially on the floor in a clogged pipe situation. That is what the third pipe is for. I will never have a tank that doesn't use a beananimal overflow, which is why I am building one into my current 720 gal plywood tank..Herbie's are second best, so if that is the option you go with I'm sure you will like it, but would you sleep better at night knowing that if something gets clogged in your drain you aren't gonna have lots of water on the floor and a burnt out pump?

If it's just the look of a third pipe that you don't like, you may want to consider the benefits that third pipe comes with..
If you make the box right, you won't see any of the pipes at all..Aesthetics are easy to fix, but replacing fish and pumps can be costly and heartbreaking..

There are three things that come with a properly constructed beananimal overflow,

*Safety
*Silence
*Efficiency

That's just my 2 cents though, there are many ways to do it and I don't want to try and cram my way down your throat, just want to share from my experience.
 
Herbie has two Stacks, if one clogs the next will be there. No water on the ground. Bean has two back ups.
 
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