external overflow for 375

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Yup! Bean animal runs the same as a durso drain, except it is quiet and move much more water. So you will have three holes drilled in the overflow, one will be your full siphon, majority of the water will be flowing through this hole. Second hole will be the balance drain, the one that keeps the system stable. You want just a trickle of water going down this one. It keeps the water at a proper level, if the siphon slows this makes up for it, if it picks up this one takes less. The third is a dry emergency drain, it should never have water in it unless you have one plug up, then it kicks in and saves your butt. A pretty neat system!

So your siphon and trickle drains you go right down over your media. I'd route the emergency into the main sump or really where ever you have room for it. A bit more to it then that but not overly complicated.
 
fishguy306 said:
Yup! Bean animal runs the same as a durso drain, except it is quiet and move much more water. So you will have three holes drilled in the overflow, one will be your full siphon, majority of the water will be flowing through this hole. Second hole will be the balance drain, the one that keeps the system stable. You want just a trickle of water going down this one. It keeps the water at a proper level, if the siphon slows this makes up for it, if it picks up this one takes less. The third is a dry emergency drain, it should never have water in it unless you have one plug up, then it kicks in and saves your butt. A pretty neat system!

So your siphon and trickle drains you go right down over your media. I'd route the emergency into the main sump or really where ever you have room for it. A bit more to it then that but not overly complicated.
Click to expand...

Thanks for breaking the design down better for me. Seems like a safe system. You think a sump with filter socks would be better for this?
 
As for how you run your sump that is your call. I've never used filter socks before so I can't really give an opinion on them. That said, a lot of people like them. If you go the sock route you still need to figure out something for biomedia

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OP --

This is like deja vu all over again. I'm posting a link to a GREAT discussion on this when I was planning out my tank last year. It has flow rates, number of drains, and some people's REAL LIFE experience with drain size and flow rates on their tanks. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?573991-Drains-size-for-540-Gallon

I ended up going with 2 inch drains on my tank in case I wanted bigger pumps later. I've had the tank up 3 months, and I now want bigger pumps--so I'm glad I did that. BUT, like "SEANBURCH" said in the discussion above, 1.5 inch would probably still work--but I don't KNOW. With 2 inch drains, I DO know.

What fishguy said about the coast to coast overflow -- I wish I'd taken that advice seriously when I was planning my tank. My tank would be cooler with a coast-to-coast inside the tank, across the top. Or even better, if you really have the room, coast-to-coast outside the tank. Only problem I can see with coast-to-coast is supporting the pipe. You really need to think about that. You don't want the weight of all the PVC pipe to be supported by just the PVC cement on your bulkheads--they might leak if you do that.

Midwest Customs makes nice tanks, shipped to you, high quality work. Chris built my sump, too. The way he did the sock holders on my sump supports the pipe, that was his idea. He also made me see the light about letting him build the sump, too. Glad I didn't go with a used tank for my sump for a couple reasons.

I run Herbie style overflows on mine, I'd have done Beanimal but didn't have room in the overflow towers I ordered. I had Herbie style overflows in my head, that's what I had Chris build, and that's what I got. Works great, dead silent, but I have to play with it sometimes. I THINK Beananimal is just as silent, with less adjustment on your part. I think "JC1119" has a beanimal and a Herbie, so he'd be the one to say how they work in real life.

But, you're gonna have to have all this figured out when you call Midwest and order. They've heard of Herbie and Beanimal, but they won't be able to tell you how to set it up, how it works, how the overflow should be, etc. You'll need to tell them that. They will know drain size and flow rate, though.

Here's a link to another tank build discussion by JC1119. I built my tank by just reading his, set mine up the same way. I'd never done a big tank, never had a sump before. I just read his tank build thread, thought about it alot, asked questions here. That was all I needed to design then order the tank, plumb it all up, and get it working. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...23425-300-gallon-SA-CE-community-build-thread!!
 
ragin_cajun said:
OP --

This is like deja vu all over again. I'm posting a link to a GREAT discussion on this when I was planning out my tank last year. It has flow rates, number of drains, and some people's REAL LIFE experience with drain size and flow rates on their tanks. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?573991-Drains-size-for-540-Gallon


I ended up going with 2 inch drains on my tank in case I wanted bigger pumps later. I've had the tank up 3 months, and I now want bigger pumps--so I'm glad I did that. BUT, like "SEANBURCH" said in the discussion above, 1.5 inch would probably still work--but I don't KNOW. With 2 inch drains, I DO know.

What fishguy said about the coast to coast overflow -- I wish I'd taken that advice seriously when I was planning my tank. My tank would be cooler with a coast-to-coast inside the tank, across the top. Or even better, if you really have the room, coast-to-coast outside the tank. Only problem I can see with coast-to-coast is supporting the pipe. You really need to think about that. You don't want the weight of all the PVC pipe to be supported by just the PVC cement on your bulkheads--they might leak if you do that.

Midwest Customs makes nice tanks, shipped to you, high quality work. Chris built my sump, too. The way he did the sock holders on my sump supports the pipe, that was his idea. He also made me see the light about letting him build the sump, too. Glad I didn't go with a used tank for my sump for a couple reasons.

I run Herbie style overflows on mine, I'd have done Beanimal but didn't have room in the overflow towers I ordered. I had Herbie style overflows in my head, that's what I had Chris build, and that's what I got. Works great, dead silent, but I have to play with it sometimes. I THINK Beananimal is just as silent, with less adjustment on your part. I think "JC1119" has a beanimal and a Herbie, so he'd be the one to say how they work in real life.

But, you're gonna have to have all this figured out when you call Midwest and order. They've heard of Herbie and Beanimal, but they won't be able to tell you how to set it up, how it works, how the overflow should be, etc. You'll need to tell them that. They will know drain size and flow rate, though.

Here's a link to another tank build discussion by JC1119. I built my tank by just reading his, set mine up the same way. I'd never done a big tank, never had a sump before. I just read his tank build thread, thought about it alot, asked questions here. That was all I needed to design then order the tank, plumb it all up, and get it working. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...23425-300-gallon-SA-CE-community-build-thread!!
Click to expand...
Thanks man, a lot of good advice there. Feel like I know more what I want now. Talking with Chris the other day I had no clue.

I was thinking about the weight of all the pvc too. Maybe a brace can be on the metal stand somehow. Want to try keeping the drains and returns straight up and down going to the sump. Having the filter socks all in the middle and return pumps on each end of a 60" tank. What do you think?
 
Where is the tank going? How much space do you have? What's the situation in the room? For example, lotta people have a wall in the house that's common with their garage, so they can just knock the wall out, put the tank in, and then they have plenty of room to access it from behind if they're in the garage. Or maybe a closet in the house if they knock a wall out in the bedroom--something like that. In my case, I had to put my tank against an exterior wall of my house, so I couldn't do all that. So that meant I had to have a bigger room to put my tank in, couldn't really do an external coast-to-coast. My tank had to be against the wall--although lucky for me, I decided to leave a 10 inch gap between the wall and the back of the tank. I couldn't have installed the tank without that gap, and now with the water in it, the tank ain't moving.

I guess what I'm getting at is ..... a beanimal with coast to coast is going to make your tank take up more space in the room. That's the ONLY disadvantage.
 
ragin_cajun said:
Where is the tank going? How much space do you have? What's the situation in the room? For example, lotta people have a wall in the house that's common with their garage, so they can just knock the wall out, put the tank in, and then they have plenty of room to access it from behind if they're in the garage. Or maybe a closet in the house if they knock a wall out in the bedroom--something like that. In my case, I had to put my tank against an exterior wall of my house, so I couldn't do all that. So that meant I had to have a bigger room to put my tank in, couldn't really do an external coast-to-coast. My tank had to be against the wall--although lucky for me, I decided to leave a 10 inch gap between the wall and the back of the tank. I couldn't have installed the tank without that gap, and now with the water in it, the tank ain't moving.

I guess what I'm getting at is ..... a beanimal with coast to coast is going to make your tank take up more space in the room. That's the ONLY disadvantage.
Click to expand...

I won't have access to the back of the tank. It's going up against a thin wall with my kitchen on the other side. Have to leave a gap like you did.
 
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