Bean's 300 Gallon AGE Build

[solitude127]

Like thegrun said, have it feed from a manifold from a return pump. If you want a quiet drain, use 1 gate valve to control the siphon.

[Rakie]

That makes a lot of sense, thanks solitude/pga. Also, having just learned that this is a thing I'm now a certified expert so I side with thegrun as well (to be fair, he's my DIY sherpa in the land of "wait, how do I fix this?")

Either way, I'd have loved to check out your sump at RAP Cody! don't know how I missed it... Maybe it was when you needed help carrying something while I was en route to carry something, but before I was sidetracked by carrying something.. But getting that DT on the stand was fun, lol..

[BeanMachine]

I've been reading mixed opinions regarding tying in the drain lines from each box together. I had planned to run the full siphon and open channel from each box separately to the sock section, and run the two emergency drains to dump over the skimmer section. Would that not work?

Here are some photos of the 16" Synergy Reef Shadow overflow boxes. These are beta versions as the final product hasn't shipped yet.

[BeanMachine]

I have 2 x Vectra M1s for Return Pumps. After getting some ideas this weekend, I think I want to run 2 x Multi Swirls on a Closed Loop powered by one M1, and the other Multi Swirl along with the Manifold on the other.


For Flow Pumps, I currently have 3 x MP40QDs which I will use for a while. I can slowly upgrade or swap them out if they are not sufficient. For now they will do.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by solitude127

what are the you going to use the 6 drains for? how big is each drain?

They are set up for a Bean Animal drain. Something like this-

[SchnitzelReef]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

I have 2 x Vectra M1s for Return Pumps. After getting some ideas this weekend, I think I want to run 2 x Multi Swirls on a Closed Loop powered by one M1, and the other Multi Swirl along with the Manifold on the other.


For Flow Pumps, I currently have 3 x MP40QDs which I will use for a while. I can slowly upgrade or swap them out if they are not sufficient. For now they will do.

How do you plan on running a closed loop with no holes drilled in the back of the tank? Are you gunna drill that 3/4" glass? :0

Definitely have the manifold feed the fuge, otherwise I feel like you will get a gnarly build up of detritus.

I wouldnt want to deal with 2 gate valves to adjust on 2 separate overflows. I imagine it would make the bean animal extremely hard to tune. I would tie the plumbing from both boxes into 1. No need to have 6 separate drains. Just make sure you increase the drain size when you tie them together. If they are both 1", tie them together to 1.5". Or something like that.

I wonder if you could just drill the overflow boxes and run a pipe in between them. Make it so it acted like 1 big overflow box. That way you would only need to run 3 drains. (Just cap off the other 3 drains.). I don't think there's a reason you need 2 separate boxes.

Anyone else chime in on this idea?

[fixmgood]

Cody I suggest you come over and look how my overflow works,it will give you a better idea as to what you are dealing with.

[m0nkie]

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

I wonder if you could just drill the overflow boxes and run a pipe in between them. Make it so it acted like 1 big overflow box. That way you would only need to run 3 drains. (Just cap off the other 3 drains.). I don't think there's a reason you need 2 separate boxes.

Anyone else chime in on this idea?

i also suggest connecting the 2 overflow, but dont make it too long. super long overflow has detritus on the edges that never get pushed away. my last C2C overflow was 4ft long, very dirty on one end

my current build has 2 overflow boxes. It's super hard to adjust the plumbing to make it silent. I'm doing it with maggie mufflers, which is easier than BA..

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by fixmgood

Cody I suggest you come over and look how my overflow works,it will give you a better idea as to what you are dealing with.

I know how to plumb a single overflow, but what I'm not sure on is running them independently, or combining them.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

How do you plan on running a closed loop with no holes drilled in the back of the tank? Are you gunna drill that 3/4" glass? :0

Definitely have the manifold feed the fuge, otherwise I feel like you will get a gnarly build up of detritus.

I wouldnt want to deal with 2 gate valves to adjust on 2 separate overflows. I imagine it would make the bean animal extremely hard to tune. I would tie the plumbing from both boxes into 1. No need to have 6 separate drains. Just make sure you increase the drain size when you tie them together. If they are both 1", tie them together to 1.5". Or something like that.

I wonder if you could just drill the overflow boxes and run a pipe in between them. Make it so it acted like 1 big overflow box. That way you would only need to run 3 drains. (Just cap off the other 3 drains.). I don't think there's a reason you need 2 separate boxes.

Anyone else chime in on this idea?

Good point on the closed loop. No I don't intend on drilling this tank. Steve G just gave me the idea but I hadn't really thought it through.

Definitely don't want to drill the overflow boxes either. If anything, I will combine the drains. The emergencies will just drop down into my skimmer section.

[SchnitzelReef]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Good point on the closed loop. No I don't intend on drilling this tank. Steve G just gave me the idea but I hadn't really thought it through.



Definitely don't want to drill the overflow boxes either. If anything, I will combine the drains. The emergencies will just drop down into my skimmer section.

Why not drill the overflow boxes?

You can use bulkheads and connect them with pvc or flex pvc. That way each box would be connected and act as 1 large box. Plumbing would be much easier.

I don't see any negatives to connecting the boxes. The only reason you are forced to run 2 separate boxes is because that's the largest size they make. Right? If they made a larger size, you would only need 1 box. The reason you have 2 is because 1 box is not enough flow. (The weirs on 1 box are too small, and wouldn't flow enough water)

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Steve G just gave me the idea but I hadn't really thought it through.

what was Steve's idea?

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

Why not drill the overflow boxes?

You can use bulkheads and connect them with pvc or flex pvc. That way each box would be connected and act as 1 large box. Plumbing would be much easier.

I don't see any negatives to connecting the boxes. The only reason you are forced to run 2 separate boxes is because that's the largest size they make. Right? If they made a larger size, you would only need 1 box. The reason you have 2 is because 1 box is not enough flow. (The weirs on 1 box are too small, and wouldn't flow enough water)

Just something else to leak... these overflow boxes don't have any bulkheads. They are molded into the design.

I just don't see why I can't plumb them successfully, whether that be 4 lines to the socks, or 2.

Correct.

[fixmgood]

Plumb them together otherwise you will be constantly battling noise and could become difficult to keep them in balance.

[SchnitzelReef]

Originally Posted by BeanMachine

Just something else to leak... these overflow boxes don't have any bulkheads. They are molded into the design.



I just don't see why I can't plumb them successfully, whether that be 4 lines to the socks, or 2.



Correct.

Beananimal uses 3 drains, so that's 6 drains vs 3. Plumbing 6 drains down to the sump will be the hardest part of this build. Doing 3 on my tank was a PAIN, Very time consuming. Took me a whole week to plumb my tank. Tried to do it clean and not have any leaks. I would be more concerned with 6 different drains leaking vs 2 bulkheads (with very little pressure) leaking.

[Kawasaki213]

How many return pumps do you use?

Originally Posted by SchnitzelReef

Beananimal uses 3 drains, so that's 6 drains vs 3. Plumbing 6 drains down to the sump will be the hardest part of this build. Doing 3 on my tank was a PAIN, Very time consuming. Took me a whole week to plumb my tank. Tried to do it clean and not have any leaks. I would be more concerned with 6 different drains leaking vs 2 bulkheads (with very little pressure) leaking.

[Chris Rollison]

Cody, what size are the holes on the overflow? An 1-1/2 pipe at full siphon moves a lot of water, probably enough to handle the two M1s running at 30% or more. I'm doing a Herbie on my 210 and I'm thinking about using the third hold of the overflow for the return to the tank. You could do something similar and still have an overflow opening to deal with. You have 6 openings, use one at full siphon, 2 for M1 returns, 1 secondary of the Bean Animal, 1 for Bean Animal emergency, and one still to be determined ( closed loop?).

Just a thought.

[laverda]

Take advantage of gravity to feed you refugium. No need for another pump.

[thegrun]

Ideally combining the two primary drains into a single 1-1/4" drain line would be great, but an 1-1/4" gate valve is harder to find than a hen's tooth. I really think you could get enough flow combining the to into a single 1" drain with as much drop as you have, it would be worth trying it even if you had to rework the drain lines and upsize to an 1-1/2" if it wasn't large enough to keep up with the flow. I'm afraid an 1-1/2" gate valve is going to be tough to adjust, the slightest movement of the valve handle makes a big water flow change.

[serenity]

Great looking sump, I really like that! The tank is beautiful, I think they will have to build my big tank down the road, such quality!

[solitude127]

Originally Posted by thegrun

Ideally combining the two primary drains into a single 1-1/4" drain line would be great, but an 1-1/4" gate valve is harder to find than a hen's tooth. I really think you could get enough flow combining the to into a single 1" drain with as much drop as you have, it would be worth trying it even if you had to rework the drain lines and upsize to an 1-1/2" if it wasn't large enough to keep up with the flow. I'm afraid an 1-1/2" gate valve is going to be tough to adjust, the slightest movement of the valve handle makes a big water flow change.

I run an 1 1/2" gate valve on my Herbie overflow and like Mike said, you have to make very slight adjustments to get it quiet but it's doable.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by thegrun

Ideally combining the two primary drains into a single 1-1/4" drain line would be great, but an 1-1/4" gate valve is harder to find than a hen's tooth. I really think you could get enough flow combining the to into a single 1" drain with as much drop as you have, it would be worth trying it even if you had to rework the drain lines and upsize to an 1-1/2" if it wasn't large enough to keep up with the flow. I'm afraid an 1-1/2" gate valve is going to be tough to adjust, the slightest movement of the valve handle makes a big water flow change.

Thanks Mike. I contacted Synergy this morning about it and I'll keep you all posted.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by Chris Rollison

Cody, what size are the holes on the overflow? An 1-1/2 pipe at full siphon moves a lot of water, probably enough to handle the two M1s running at 30% or more. I'm doing a Herbie on my 210 and I'm thinking about using the third hold of the overflow for the return to the tank. You could do something similar and still have an overflow opening to deal with. You have 6 openings, use one at full siphon, 2 for M1 returns, 1 secondary of the Bean Animal, 1 for Bean Animal emergency, and one still to be determined ( closed loop?).

Just a thought.

The holes (molded slip from the bottom of the external box) are 1 1/2". I can't do it that way although that is a good idea and nice use of space on an internal overflow.

[BeanMachine]

Originally Posted by serenity

Great looking sump, I really like that! The tank is beautiful, I think they will have to build my big tank down the road, such quality!

Thanks! The tank is beautiful in person and overall the quality is amazing. The silicone is perfect and all the added extras came out sooo nice. I think I'm still dreaming.

[solitude127]

how much flow can those boxes handle?