215 Peninsula with Herbie Standpipe questions

DaddyFish · May 6, 2021

Working on setup of 215 Peninsula with Herbie drains (one primary, one secondary/emergency) and could use help, please. Currently have return piped directly into tank with a hose for testing purposes.

* Tank is tall (30")
* Return Pump is Sicce SDC 9.0 (variable DC)
* Maggie Muffler caps on both 1.5" standpipes, primary (fleece) standpipe is currently 1/4" lower than secondary (unfiltered) standpipe. Primary standpipe is 1/4" lower than bottom of weir slots.
* Weir slots are 1.25" tall, but as is the case with most peninsula tanks, there's not a lot of slot area in the overflow face.
* Two 1.5" drains reduced to 1" just before the 90 elbow down to the sump.
* Trigger Systems Platinum 42 Sump (limited by design to 1" drains).

*** Due to space limitations and such, I was not able to add a gate valve to the primary drain. It is unrestricted except for the 1" reduction that's hard-plumbed and it dumps into the fleece filter section (Trigger Platinum Sump). Secondary drain that dumps directly into the sump center section does have a gate valve that I intent to use for restricting the unfiltered flow into the sump/refugium section. (No skimmer will be used.)

QUESTION - What's your typical standpipe height (in relation to weir slots) for a Maggie Muffler/Herbie setup?

QUESTION - System flow seems to be maxed out at roughly 1100 gph (pump running at 30% unrestricted with 1.5 meter head height), anything above that eventually starves the return chamber. Is it viable to substantially lower the primary drain standpipe to increase the drain flow? If so, how much would you suggest (1/2" below weir slots, 1" below weir slots)?

QUESTION - Is there any hope of reducing the drain noise in the sump, or is 1100+ gph too much flow velocity through a dual-1" drain system to be quiet? Do I have unrealistic expectations (see videos below)?

HD_Reefer · May 7, 2021

Doesn't look like you're getting full siphon on the main drain, so you will need to lower it. The ER drain should be slightly below the middle of the weirs, or at least that's how I run mine. Without a gate valve on the main drain and having a reducer on the main drain, I can't imagine you would ever get it to run silent.

DaddyFish · May 8, 2021

Turns out the limiting factor in the system is the weir slot(s) area. There isn't enough slots/opening in the weir to support much over 1400 gph, which is also less than 100% of what a 1" Sch-40 PVC Standpipe will carry in my configuration. I substituted a Sch-80 standpipe at roughly 4" below overflow water height and the system balances out at 75% pump. I estimate that to be roughly 5600 lph/1486 gph.

If I want to run lower than 1400 gph, I'll have to add a primary drain gate valve somewhere, maybe inside the overflow box on the standpipe itself. Here's a video of the test setup using 1" Sch-80 standpipe running at 1400 gph. The Gyres are the loudest thing now!

DaddyFish · May 17, 2021

Settled on several plumbing changes, including downsizing the 1.5" main drain to 1" Sch-80. Without room underneath to install a 1.5" gate valve on the main drain, I opted for installing the gate valve on the standpipe inside the overflow box.

The system is now well-balanced and dead silent at 48-52% power on the Sicce SDC 9 return pump. I estimate the cumulative head pressure to be roughly 10-feet/3-meters, which means I'm moving just under 1,000 gph. That's a very respectable volume for a 245 total gallons system. It's also the absolute maximum flow sustainable by the available weir slot area.

I am running a high water level in the Trigger Platinum Sump, and TS is working with me on the sensor setups. Seems I received an "updated" sensor bracket that is longer than the older model. That is restricting how high I can set the fleece chamber sensors and causing me some problems.

At this time the tank has saltwater at 1.021 sg, pH 7.85, ammonia 5.6 mg/L and Seachem Stability flowing.

There remains a TON of electrical to complete with the Hydros-4 and Hydros-XS controllers, ATO system, lots of sensors for pH, temp, water levels, leak roping and more to install. Under cabinet lighting, Tank-to-Tank transfer for continual water changing... the list goes on and on and... but there's progress!!!

YouTube video link

YouTube video link

ca1ore · May 17, 2021

None of the videos show for me, so hard to make much sense of your setup. When you say the slots won’t handle more than 1,000, do you mean that the display water level climbs above the top of the slots. Unless you are really slot limited, that seems weird to me. Moot point I suppose as 1,000 gph ish is more than enough for a 215. If you do the math, you’ll find the tank probably holds more like 190 if it’s a standard 215.

DaddyFish · May 17, 2021

ca1ore said:
None of the videos show for me, so hard to make much sense of your setup. When you say the slots won’t handle more than 1,000, do you mean that the display water level climbs above the top of the slots. Unless you are really slot limited, that seems weird to me.

I added YouTube links...

And yes, that's exactly what I mean. The overflow box must have originally been designed for the much smaller stock drain (1") and not modified to accommodate my custom 1.5" drain. Communication with Planet Aquariums was non-existent from my perspective until months after the order was placed, and then very minimal. It has not been a good purchase experience.

YouTube video