well..

it was a lot of fun! but i think its good now!

since there wasnt much space between bulkheads i decided to just cut out an entire peice around them:
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps22e7bf27.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps0c377bbf.jpg

as you can see i didnt have a great assortment of tools so i just drilled a bunch of holes with the same bit.. not pretty but it works

i then painted the bottom of my aquarium black so the light wont shine through from the sump.. >_>

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps79a70a10.jpg
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps5b4d4b94.jpg
NO LEAKS this time.. my plumber friend came over and helped. I also made the plumbing disconnectable in case i need to clean it in the future!

the only problem i am having now is the noise level! i thought herbie setups were supposed to be quiet! there's a terrible suction sound happening from my emergency return line!

Much better

And as for the noise on emergency drain who cares as its only for emergency. Shouldn't be used other than that

Now that I look at pics why are two drains tied in together. This could be noise problem. Emergency needs to be seperate.

Yeah, it looks like you have the emergency and main siphon drain tied together. You're main siphon is probably sucking air from the emergency drain. Those 2 pipes need to be run completely independent of one another and terminate under the water in your sump.

really glad you redid the plumbing! I've used the drill bit method of making larger holes so many times it's embarrassing... and i use a regular small bit to make the big holes lol. But it works =)

At least fixing the herbie isn't going to be terribly hard. then it's on with the show.

Using gate valve for better control.

What he said. It will always echo up the back up drain when tied together, nothing much you can do about it, the pipes have to be completely separate.

now that i actually think about the way i did the drian it totally doesnt make sense at all.. if the clog happens anywhere under the T the system will still flood! how stupid of me LOL

at least all i have to do is cut and cap off the end and run a new line for the drain seperately.. shouldnt be too bad i guess :p

i also did a little more research last night and found that my main siphon should be about 6" lower than my emergency line. so i've already drained the overflow box to fix that. shouldnt be much longer now till i have the system running i guess! just hate redoing stuff i should have researched more to begin with!

Ya, but it's something you'll never forget now :D

And yes, your main drain needs to always be completely submerged and low enough that it doesn't create a vortices in your overflow. The other pipe you are using for your safety should be about 1/2" or so lower than the maximum you want your tank level to be at. Not 1/2" lower than water overflowing your tank, but where you want you max height at. I found with mine I actually had to play with that one a bit to find the right height so that: 1) water wasn't running down it all the time,
2) low enough that it would act as a safety and not allow the water height to climb above a certain point even if I had a total blockage of my primary siphon.

alright, ive re routed the emergency drain and am happy to finally say the system is fully operational!!!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ps28312b9b.jpg

just started it up last night and i hardly had to do any adjustments with the ball valves http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/im...lies/smile.gif

thanks all of you for your advice i couldnt have done it without you!