Plumbing Nightmare

[lawrence gould]

Hello all,

I am startinig a 65 gallon tall seahorse tank, acrylic, reef ready. I've had the tank for two months now and have bought every pvc fitting known to man, not to mention many valves, including true uniton and ball. I have a 20 gallon tall, 3 chambrer sump, the largest that would fit in the narrow cabinet. As the tank if reef ready, I have a center overflow with two pre-drilled holes, one 1.5 inch and the other 1 inch. Directly beneath the teeth of the overflow there is another bulkhead, a 3/4 that is where the return was.

My dilemma is this: i don't trust the durso as i am afraid of flooding being on the second floor. Also, i've read the herbie is the much bertter option. I have a syncra 3.0 as well as all the necessary pvc as well as aquarium hosing to convert to herbie, leave durso and expand or leave the 3/4 inch return to 1 inch as i've read that should be the minimum in the herbie overeflow.

So, i beg of all of you to please help me here as i cannot take another trip to home depot and am not sure what to do as i'm all set up for a refugium but realize it will not fit in the sump as the protein skimmer will take up that chamber. I am also contemplating plugging the holes and removing overflow to go with bean animal as i know seahorses are very mesy.

In closing, I am overwhelmed and begging for anyone to help. Thank you so much!

 

[vertigo01]

I don't see why you can't use a 3/4 return for a Herbie set up.
What is the logic behind not being able to use a 3/4, I wonder?

If it were me, I would run a gate valve on the 1.5 drain, to throttle it back and not over power your return .
Leave the 1" as a full siphon with no valve.