I have had Herbie overflows for years and I am happy with them.

When I first read the Beananimal overflow thread on RC, I would not see any advantage to it over the Herbie overflow. Maybe I am missing something, but to me a Herbie works fine and the Beananimal overflow seems like unnecessary complexity for no reason.

You only need as many valves in the BA as you do in the Herbie. I am also a huge fan of the Herbie, but generally employ them on tanks that have the corner overflow pre-built only. Redundancy is an immensely important and often overlooked paradigm in this hobby.

But... The Herbie has redundancy built into it...

I agree, the BA is really not needed. I have both my tanks set up on herbie (including one with a HOB) and have never had issues. My 210 is 1.5 but I don't see an advantage to 1.5 on a 70.

I use acrylic baffles in a glass aquarium. They work fine, I just have them stuffed in between a big bead of silicone. I even built a flat top piece for a sock out of acrylic and it works fine as well

Also where did you hear mags were quiet....

I didn't hear anywhere that mags were quiet. I just found a used return pump and was thinking about picking it up.

Thanks for all the other replies guys

oh ok, good, cause they are not lol. Good pump though

I use a Tunze Silence 1073.04, and it is T'd off to run a GFO and carbon reactor. The flow between those and the DT is perfect! It is a very quiet pump, and has served me very well for two years with biweekly cleanings. IME, Magdrives are fairly loud in comparison, but are bullet-proof!

+1 on the Herbie System have had it on my 500Gal Reef with no issues...if your really worried about redundancy you can always put an emergancy drain at the top off your overflow.

I felt like the Herbie was pretty safe when looking at it. I have a hard time to think the drain and the emergency would ever get clogged to the point of an Emergency flood.

I am sure over time without any maintenance it could happen but I would think it could take several months to accumulate and it should get discovered well before it's an issue.

I'd rather do a Herbie for the sake of less plumbing, however if BA is better with more safe guards and all it takes is a few feet of plumbing and another hole/bulkhead I ask "why not?"

you would be suprised at how fast a tank will flood when i fish gets stuck to your overflow plumbing!!