Initial Volume for Herbie set up

[erm0715]

This may be a dumb question but how do you determine where to stop filling when running a herbie set-up? First time running this set up and plumbing everything myself. I filled the tank enough it's draining from siphon line into sump. I *thought* I had sufficient volume but return pump was pumping water faster than drain line fully open. I need to be able to close the drain line a bit to fill up the overflow box and get rid of the noise from the siphon line wide open pulling in air as well. I'm just not trying to overfill and flood my sump. I almost did when one of the returns pull a siphon so I adjusted it closer to top of water level.

More info:

120g tank
~30-40 trigger system sump
3/4 drain, 1inch trickle line, 1inch emergency drain, 3/4 return line (2 internal overflow boxes)
jebao dcp-8000 sine wave return (set at minimum 30% to start)

 

[mrpontiac80]

This may be a dumb question but how do you determine where to stop filling when running a herbie set-up? First time running this set up and plumbing everything myself. I filled the tank enough it's draining from siphon line into sump. I *thought* I had sufficient volume but return pump was pumping water faster than drain line fully open. I need to be able to close the drain line a bit to fill up the overflow box and get rid of the noise from the siphon line wide open pulling in air as well. I'm just not trying to overfill and flood my sump. I almost did when one of the returns pull a siphon so I adjusted it closer to top of water level.

I just recently started a new tank with a sump after AIOs, so I’m no pro, but I’m thinking you could fill the tank and allow it to drain into sump until it’s as full as your comfortable with with no return pump running. Then you could turn it on and adjust the drain from there. Did you use a gate valve on your main drain? Can you decrease your return pump flow?

 

[erm0715]

I just recently started a new tank with a sump after AIOs, so I’m no pro, but I’m thinking you could fill the tank and allow it to drain into sump until it’s as full as your comfortable with with no return pump running. Then you could turn it on and adjust the drain from there. Did you use a gate valve on your main drain? Can you decrease your return pump flow?

Good call, I can try that. I have a valve on the main drain line and the return pump is DC so it's also adjustable. I just need to have the main drain partially closed when it's all said and done to increase the volume in the overflow just enough for the trickle line. That'll work at least for determining total volume as long as I don't pull and additional siphon like on that return line again. Fortunately this sump has an additional unused compartment for ATO that has weirs so after pulling a siphon some dumped into that compartment.