Modified Herbie Method

[SoDak]

I have a 120g tank with 2 overflows and the holes are for 1" bulkheads. I wish it only had 1 but whatever. My question is would it work if I had the two 1" lines connect into a 2" PVC "main drain line" via a 2"x2"x1" Tee. I would then use a 2" gate valve to regulate the full syphon. My thoughts are it would be easier to regulate with just 1 gate valve and much less piping in my sump area. One thing I would have to do is make sure my emergency overflow stand pipes are at the same height or water would flow down one more than the other (in my previous Herbie set ups I have let water just trickle down the emergency drain). But I thought I would see if anyone had tried something like this before and if it worked or not. Thanks in advance.

 

[Reefing Madness]

:bump2:

 

[SoDak]

I will give it a shot and see how it goes...

 

[rollermonkey]

What if you get a clog below the 'T'?

Then you'd drain your sump and flood out.

 

[SoDak]

The emergency overflow line would have to clog as well for the sump to drain. But you bring up a good point to think about. If there is a clog in a line it could effectively take out two drains. I was thinking about capping the end that doesn't drain into the sump and using various Tru-Unions so I can disassemble portions of the PVC to clean out if need be.

 

[GrampaDon]

You maynot need 2 drains into 1....How much water do you figure is getting returned to the DT.?

 

[SoDak]

Probably not enough to need 2 1" lines but the tank was built with 2 overflows and I don't want to just cap 1. I want to minimize the amount of PVC lines running through my cabinet. With this route I end up with 2 instead of 4.

 

[SoDak]

Well maybe more than a single 1" will be needed. I looked up the flow and 1" is roughly 350 GPH