Herbie Style Drain question. Please help before I drill!

[tdkee1]

Hi guys/gals. I need your help on this one before I drill my tank for a Herbie setup.

Just bought a 225 room divider tank with a overflow box on one side and a dry box to hide cords on the other side.

Overflow box has a single 1'' drain at the bottom. Dry box on other side has nothing. Just a square tunnel that goes from the top of the tank straight through the bottom. Only there to conceal cords or plumbing for a room divider setup.

There is limited space in the overflow box and I cant drill another hole next to the full siphon drain for an emergency drain.

My question is...
Can I drill the 1'' emergency drain at the top-side of the dry box with an elbow pointing upwards above the water line? Or does the emergency drain need to be inside the overflow box next to the full siphon line?

Hopefully you guys/gals can give me some pointers or let me know if there is a better way to go about this.

Im also trying to figure out how to include my 2 FX5's into this filtration setup with 6x2 feet of space underneath the cabinet. Thanks.

 

[tdkee1]

Heres a pic of the tank in its current state. Hopefully it will give you a better visual of what Im talking about. Overflow on one side, plain box on the other side to hide cords.

 

[tdkee1]

anybody? could really use some input.

 

[Dan F]

The "emergency" drain can be separate from the restricted syphon drain.

Like you said, you run the line through the dry box and have an elbow pointing up. Position the top of the el a little bit below your final water level, which will be determined by the height and size of the overflow and the GPH of your pump. Then you can fine-tune it by putting a short length of pipe that you can cut down to just the right height.

When you first start your pump you will have the gate valve on the syphon line wide-open. The overflow will be noisy because of both the long drop of the water and the gurgling noise of the syphon sucking air. Slowly close the gate valve until the gurgling stops. Watch the level in the overflow box, which should stabilize after a few minutes. You can very slightly open the valve to drop the level or close the valve to raise the level. I like to aim for an inch or two below the overflow teeth.

The emergency drain should be just level or a tiny bit above the water level.

On my 210 Aqueon tank I run one overflow as a restricted syphon and have a stand pipe in the other. I positioned the standpipe high enough so that about 80-90% of the water drains through the syphon side and 10-20% through the stand pipe side. It is quiet enough that you can barely hear it even when the house is dead quiet. I could have run two Herbies, but I like the look of the built-in return lines that come with the "Megaflow" Aqueon tanks.

 

[tdkee1]

thanks Dan! you the man!