Bean Animal overflow question.

[Aquatic Reef Creations]

Hey All,

I have done a lot of reading and browsing regarding the BA overflow. Most of the diagrams that I see involve 2 holes drilled in the back of the tank, and 3 drains to the sump.

My current set up has an overflow box inside the tank and a single 1.5" bulkhead drilled through the upper back glass and then piped down to the sump.

My question is this, is it possible to utilize this style of drain with only 1 hole drilled in the glass? The glass is tempered so drilling more holes is not possible. My thought is to add the BA overflow to the back of the tank and still have the 3 drains coming from that. Is this possible and has anyone done this? Or does this type of overflow require there to be more than 1 hole in the back of the tank?

Thanks

[RocketEngineer]

Be careful not to confuse the drain configuration with the box itself.

The overflow box should be as long as possible with no teeth. The commercially available plastic boxes all forget this fact in favor of fancy add-ons that don't contribute to the working of the overflow. What you are probably seeing is the two bulkheads used to mount the internal and external boxes to each other with the glass clamped between them.

A BeanAnimal drain setup requires 3 holes, a siphon, a open drain, and an emergency. Each drain pipe serves a very specific purpose that combined make the system both adaptable to changes and fail safe.

A Herbie drain setup uses two holes but is less able to compensate for changes in flow rates. Usually this setup is used in "Reef Ready" tanks because they come with only 2 drilled holes. Not ideal but better than the stock standpipes.

You may want to consider doing what I did on my setup which is to install internal and external glass boxes and employing the existing hole to allow the water to exit the tank. The external box can then have the BeanAnimal drains (mine go through the bottom of the external box instead of the back) while the internal box can be made as large as possible.

Does that make sense?

[davehead86]

Be careful not to confuse the drain configuration with the box itself.

The overflow box should be as long as possible with no teeth. The commercially available plastic boxes all forget this fact in favor of fancy add-ons that don't contribute to the working of the overflow. What you are probably seeing is the two bulkheads used to mount the internal and external boxes to each other with the glass clamped between them.

A BeanAnimal drain setup requires 3 holes, a siphon, a open drain, and an emergency. Each drain pipe serves a very specific purpose that combined make the system both adaptable to changes and fail safe.

A Herbie drain setup uses two holes but is less able to compensate for changes in flow rates. Usually this setup is used in "Reef Ready" tanks because they come with only 2 drilled holes. Not ideal but better than the stock standpipes.

You may want to consider doing what I did on my setup which is to install internal and external glass boxes and employing the existing hole to allow the water to exit the tank. The external box can then have the BeanAnimal drains (mine go through the bottom of the external box instead of the back) while the internal box can be made as large as possible.

Does that make sense?

Is there some way to take a tank with a corner overflow set-up and incorporate a herbie or BA? Would this external box system your talking about work with that?

[RocketEngineer]

Is there some way to take a tank with a corner overflow set-up and incorporate a herbie or BA? Would this external box system your talking about work with that?

The herbie was developed specifically for corner overflows. It requires the return to go over the back of the tank instead of through the box therefore freeing the second pipe for use as a drain. The smaller hole gets the siphon while the larger one gets the emergency backup. The backup should DRY so nothing can grow in the pipe.

A BeanAnimal requires 3 holes. If you're going to drill the back of the tank, I personally would remove the corner overflows, either plug or cover the holes in the bottom of the tank, and install my own overflow box with the 3 holes there. JMO.

The external box works but I feel it should be reserved for specific situations. In my case, I didn't have enough room for the plumbing if I went the conventional route. In the case of the OP, the back is tempered but already drilled. If you can avoid having water hanging off the back of the tank by silicone, I would do so.

[Aquatic Reef Creations]

Be careful not to confuse the drain configuration with the box itself.

The overflow box should be as long as possible with no teeth. The commercially available plastic boxes all forget this fact in favor of fancy add-ons that don't contribute to the working of the overflow. What you are probably seeing is the two bulkheads used to mount the internal and external boxes to each other with the glass clamped between them.

A BeanAnimal drain setup requires 3 holes, a siphon, a open drain, and an emergency. Each drain pipe serves a very specific purpose that combined make the system both adaptable to changes and fail safe.

A Herbie drain setup uses two holes but is less able to compensate for changes in flow rates. Usually this setup is used in "Reef Ready" tanks because they come with only 2 drilled holes. Not ideal but better than the stock standpipes.

You may want to consider doing what I did on my setup which is to install internal and external glass boxes and employing the existing hole to allow the water to exit the tank. The external box can then have the BeanAnimal drains (mine go through the bottom of the external box instead of the back) while the internal box can be made as large as possible.
Does that make sense?

This was my main question. I know that I will need the external box to house the 3 drains for the BA. The internal overflow box is already set. I wanted to make sure that having only one hole in the back of the tank for the water to exit would not be a problem. The drains for the BA would go through the bottom of the external box. Do you have any pictures of your set up?

Thanks

[RocketEngineer]

That should work.

External Box (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21091130&postcount=448)

Internal Box (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=21159434&postcount=481)

Build Thread (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1866098)
Starting about page 15 is the bigger tank with the BeanAnimal setup.