Split Bean Animal - 1 bean animal across 2 weirs (2 drains on one side 1 on the other)

Projects with Sam · Dec 6, 2021

I have a 120G Oceanic tank with 4 holes drilled in it. An 1" and a 3/4" bulkhead on each side/weir.
I want to setup a Bean Animal if possible and am wondering if I should put the primary and secondary behind the same weir or if I should have the primary drain on its own and the secondary and emergency standpipes in the other weir.
Below I have a few photos of one option that may help:

primary drain and return

Secondary and emergency drains:

My concerns are that the secondary and primary should be in the same weir so I can tune them properly (or it wont matter) but if they are then I'm loosing out on flow over the other weir because then it would only have the emergency drain.

Anyone have similar plumbing and have found a solution? Please let me know what you did and how you like it.

Scottsquatch · Dec 6, 2021

I see think I see what you mean, you would 'like" to have close to equal overflow on both weirs and your afraid one would pull more water over faster than the other side right? I wouldn't think it would be a big deal to have them both set the same because they are split. It's actually a nice redundancy to have two overflows. Since you have two separate overflows it kind of negates the need to do a bean animal overflow. I'd just leave them both set up equal to one another with the return line on one side and the emergency on the other.

Projects with Sam · Dec 6, 2021

I really don't care about equalizing the flow so to speak; I just don't want the water behind one weir to go stagnant. I'm more concerned that I wont be able to tune the overflows the way they are meant to run for the bean animal to be quiet and function properly without having the primary and secondary in the same weir.

Scottsquatch · Dec 6, 2021

I'm pretty sure the whole purpose of the bean animal is to provide a secondary drain and then an emergency drain for that if you only have one overflow in the first place. Having the two overflows is a built in redundancy. The need for three different levels of drain pipes is negated just by the fact that if one gets clogged you still have the other side. Do you see what I'm saying or am I crazy? The only tuning you would need to do is to do what you need in order to make them both quiet. It won't really matter much if they are on different sides. Why not just dry fit them first and put it to the test?

Projects with Sam · Dec 6, 2021

Totally! I'll do a tap-water fill to iron-out all the kinks and do a flow test. need to sand and refinish the stand then it'll be ready to move into position. Thanks for being a sounding board!