Leaking!

[Reefinmike]

Yes sir. Just run the return over the top but be very certain it cant accidentally flop out. A short piece of soft silicon tubing connecting your return pump to hard plug significantly reduces noise and vibration. Dont try to get away with the clear vinyl stuff from the hardware store, it carries vibrations just as well as hard pvc.

Don’t attempt to use that ball valve to dial in the drain for a herbie overflow, you’ll just frustrate yourself to no end. You need a gate valve. I only have to tweak my valve a hair once every few weeks and it is SILENT! You should minimize all restrictions as much as possible for a herbie drain, especially the emergency drain. I used a threaded fitting(restricts flow) on my gate valve so i can remove and clean it but i dont run much flow through my tank so thats ok. Otherwise you can see I use glue in bulkheads and schedule 20 pipe for my emergency drain to maximize potential flow.

 

[Reefinmike]

I cant tell from your pictures, do you have two 1” bulkheads or a 1” and a 3/4”? How big is your return pump? Depending on pump size and if you have a 3/4” drain, it may be smartest to use the 3/4” for your gated full siphon drain and the 1” as the emergency overflow. A 3/4” line at full siphon can carry a ton of water.

 

[Nick C]

Yes sir. Just run the return over the top but be very certain it cant accidentally flop out. A short piece of soft silicon tubing connecting your return pump to hard plug significantly reduces noise and vibration. Dont try to get away with the clear vinyl stuff from the hardware store, it carries vibrations just as well as hard pvc.

Don’t attempt to use that ball valve to dial in the drain for a herbie overflow, you’ll just frustrate yourself to no end. You need a gate valve. I only have to tweak my valve a hair once every few weeks and it is SILENT! You should minimize all restrictions as much as possible for a herbie drain, especially the emergency drain. I used a threaded fitting(restricts flow) on my gate valve so i can remove and clean it but i dont run much flow through my tank so thats ok. Otherwise you can see I use glue in bulkheads and schedule 20 pipe for my emergency drain to maximize potential flow.

So for this variation, the shorter one is constantly pulling water in, while the taller one will only pull if he gets to high. What kind of pump are you running to replenish that kind of draining?

 

[Nick C]

I cant tell from your pictures, do you have two 1” bulkheads or a 1” and a 3/4”? How big is your return pump? Depending on pump size and if you have a 3/4” drain, it may be smartest to use the 3/4” for your gated full siphon drain and the 1” as the emergency overflow. A 3/4” line at full siphon can carry a ton of water.

They are both 1 inch

 

[Henry1953]

You can also fit an O ring over the male end in between the two threaded fittings and you won’t have anymore leak

 

[Nick C]

You can also fit an O ring over the male end in between the two threaded fittings and you won’t have anymore leak

I cut about that first 90. Pulled it off the bulkhead. and went with a slip. Idk why i threaded it to begin with, Also put a union on that patch.

 

[Reefinmike]

So for this variation, the shorter one is constantly pulling water in, while the taller one will only pull if he gets to high. What kind of pump are you running to replenish that kind of draining?

Correct, you dial in the gate valve such that it pulls water at a full siphon just a hair slower than the pump returns it. You generally want a very slight trickle going down your emergency drain. Mine is easy enough to adjust so its just a few drops a minute going down the emergency drain. I used a 1.5” pipe in the emergency drain in my overflow to increase head pressure and draining potential should my main drain ever clog. I run about 550-600gph through my 90 gallon setup. I have the full siphon drain legged back to the corner of the overflow. A couple 45’s would look nicer and give less restriction but im not too worries about it, the drain easily handles the flow with the gate valve dialed in about half way.

Good news that you have two 1 drains, you will not have any issues putting any reasonable amount of flow through your tank.