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Herbie Overflow Plumbing Guide for Quiet Reef Aquariums - gmacreef
The Herbie method can quiet down your aquarium drain and eliminate microbubbles. The guide includes helpful diagrams and explains each component.
gmacreef.com
I picked up a used tank and I am following this guide for converting the derso to a herbie. I understood most of it and now I'm trying to figure out some related questions that I had that I wasn't too sure on. The tank has 2 drilled holes, so I am converting 1 to main drain, 1 to emergency, and making a return over the back. It's got 1" schedule 80 with 2 bulkheads. I assume I can just pickup 2 1" bulkheads from BRS and be good?
1. How do I take my 1" drain and step it up to a 1.5"? I picked up the thieling compact rollermat and it has a 1.5" union or 1.5" barbed fitting option. I'd prefer the barbed fitting since it would be easier to move the rollermat to clean things underneath it from time to time, but I couldn't figure out what fittings I need to find to do this.
1.5 Related, how do I take the return pump and step up the size to the 1.5" unions on a UV? The pentair unit has 1.5" unions and I'd like to put a apex flow sensor on one end, so it'd need to be 1" union there as well. So it'd be return pump/manifold/small pump -> 1" union -> flow sensor -> 1" union -> something to step it up to 1.5" union
2. If I am connecting a UV & a carbon reactor, would it be wise to make a manifold for this instead of running 1 pump for each? Is there a benefit of making a manifold? Or is it just a nice to have kind of thing?
3. Should I use hard plumbing for the return if it's hanging off the back of my tank? And then use something like a mounting plate to hold it in? Or is soft tubing safe enough? I've seen a lot of photos with soft tubing but I'm kinda worried about that
4. On my older Red Sea tank, the PVC parts disconnected from the tank via threading, but the suggestion I've been reading is to cement the PVC to the bulkhead. But that means if I need to ever move the tank somewhere that the PVC needs to be cut so it can be removed right?