Herbie Standpipe anyone

Ok ladies and gents... I'm looking at setting up a Herbie system for my 29 gallon reef... I'm still in the building process so it's an empty tank, making my live easier =) But here's my dilemma... I dont know where to start on this... I dont want to risk drilling the bottom as i bought this second hand and don't know if the bottom is tempered or not. I'm almost positive that the side glass isnt tempered though, what kind of weir system do i need to make this work?

Anyone have pics? Any idea where to get it? Or how to make it a DIY type thing? I know means drilling 2 holes instead of 1, is this hard to do?

Looking for anything i can get!

Thanks!
-Scott

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/herbie-overflow-video-79073.html

 

Thank you, that is a good explanation to what the Herbie Standpipe does. I'm really looking to find out about an overflow for it now so i can get it all set up for the back drilled holes... Any suggestions where to get the overflow?

Thanks
-Scott

 

Well for a Herbie, it depends on head pressure above the stand pipe, so you need a drilled tank. The only other way to make it work would be to make a external overflow bow. You still need to drill the side wall.

You should just do a Bean Animal. google it. There is a thread on RC. Point is you do a coast to coast overflow in the tank, and drill holes in the back glass. There are three equal sized pipes instead of using two for Herbie. Herbies are really meant for pre drilled reef ready tanks. Once you go off script, then you are really just making your own overflow. A Bean Animal would be worth looking into. They both operate under the same principles, just setup different.

You can read my Herbie write up in my sig.

 

Guess i may have worded it wrong... I dont have anything against drilling the glass on the back of my tank, i just dont wanna chance drilling the bottom since ive heard a lot of tanks have tempered bottoms.

So ill check out the bean animal setup for sure and see about that... Question is, do i have to drill 3 holes for the bean animal setup? And is it pretty well silent?

Lastly, would the bean animal take up a lot of real estate in the tank? It's only a 29 gallon tank lol.

Thanks
-Scott

 

Right, drill the side and do an external box on the back for a herbie. The bean uses three holes, but it is failsafe. Most folks that do them are for big tanks and it is 1.5". But you could use 1" or even 3/4 for a 30 gallon. Sort of a lot of work for a 30g, but it is silent, failsafe and you would not have to worry about a siphon overflow box.

 

ok so after doing a bundle of research on overflows and the herbie method and the bean animal method, I think i'm gonna go with the bean animal. It is indeed a lot of work for a 29g tank, but it's in the bedroom and I gotta keep the lady happy, thus silence and safety are key...

Here's my plan... I am going to do an almost coast2coast overflow along the back of the tank, probably about 24" on the 30" back to have room for returns. I only want that for max surface skimming and it will be a lot less noisy than a small overflow. I'll use smaller bulkheads for this since I dont need 1500 gph through the sump/fuge.

I really am only looking to achieve about 300 gph or so through the sump, and set up a closed loop SCWD for the DT flow.

Since I have a glass tank, can anyone give me some insight on the best way to build my overflow box? Probably out of glass and silicone yeah?

Also, how big does the box need to be for depth and distance off the back wall of the DT for this kinda setup?

thanks for all the help!
-Scott

 

Here is the main Bean thread on RC. Bean actually answers so that is really the place you want to ask questions on this.

Silent and Failsafe Overflow System - Page 71 - Reef Central Online Community

300 gph will be plenty through the sump and you can easily do that with 3/4". Also.... the coast to coast for 24" is actually a good thing. When you do it the whole length of the tank, then you have to do something for the returns. So it will be easier on you. Silicone and glass will work good.

Also... you probably don't want to use power heads or take up tank space, but a closed loop on a 30g seems like a lot of work.Plus it uses a lot of juice to move a bit of water.... but on a 30 it would not be that much.