Anyone using herbie overflow ?
 

So I set up my overflow last night and decided to change from the durso to the Herbie style overflow because I found the durso to be just a tad loud and wanted to see what the Herbie woudl be like since I've only ever had either a stockman or a durso. I'm having a hard time matching th ereturn to the drain... Either the drain pulls too quickly so that falls into the drain hole and when I turn the drain ball vale to slow the drain or increase the return its way to much even when I just barely open or close the ball valve.

Any recommendations ?

Main drain is 1" and about 5 inches from the overflow box top. Emergency is 3/4" and about 1 inch from the top.

It's tough to get a herbie working perfectly with a ball valve, If you can try to get a gate valve and you should have no problems

That's what I was going to say...needs a gate valve. I did one on my nano....didn't do it totally right, but will next time now that I know my mistakes.

Excuse my lack of knowledge but what is the difference between a ball valve and a gate valve and how would a gate valve be much easier to adjust properly ?

gate valve allows for fine tuning to a more open or closed position where a ball valve is pretty hard to adjust as when you slightly open it, it kinda jerks open and sticks.

www.savko.com/Images/gate.gif

mine works fine with a ball valve... it just takes a bit of fiddling to get it right

Geez !! Gate valves are pricey. Holy smokes batman . I might try again tonight fiddling with the ball valve to get it right before I go out and spend 40 bux with taxes on a gate valve. I do like how quiet it is with the Herbie though so if thats what it come down to the so be it.

Yes, unfortunately a gate valve is your answer. There are some pretty inexpensive ones to be found if you look. My system has 4 different Herbie overflows.

Untamed - Where did you get your gate valves ?

I wouldnt plumb in a herbie without a gate valve....with a ball valve even if you get it set perfectly, the first time a piece of algae gets caught on it, it will need tweaking. With a gate you can minutely turn it to fine tune your water level. Save yourself the frustration and buy a gate.

Speaking of stuff getting caught up in your gate vavle how often do you have to clean it.

Stuff doesnt get caught in the gate valve....stuff will get caught in the strainer fitting on your primary drain...I just have my emergency drain open at the top. I usually clean my strainer fitting, if not every week, then every other week. Some people just screw a strainer directly into the primary drain bulkhead, I have mine in a fitting half way up the overflow so I can reach it better.

never had a herbie set up but being in a piping trade i can tell you gate valves were designed for fine adjustments ball valves were designed for wide open or closed and do not work well for adjustments

X2

do it right
 

do it right the first time and just get a gate valve. the inconvenience of having to cut out your ball valve and buying couplings to install the gate valve later is just not worth it IMO

if your looking for something accurate but the price of gate valves make you sh*t a brick, take a look at knife valves.

they are not as expensive, and people have used them on herbies before (like GreenSpottedPuffer)

I've used knife valves before too - their shaft rusted and wasn't able to adjust anymore. worse off than the ball valves. IME

a picture of my hurbie set up with ball valve .. i made sure to use true union for everything for easy cleaning, moving if needed, and it also makes changing your plubing easy.

ive never had a problem with it... so it can be done and does work fine

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/c...DSC_0006-2.jpg

Ya but, thats the ferrari of ball valves....only slightly cheaper than a gate valve....but if you were gonna do a herbie with a ball valve, that would be the one to buy.

:mrgreen: haha ya i used to work for canplas... it was free along with my sch 80 bulk heads now that i look at my parts book its priced at $30 so never mind get a check valve.

www.bulkreefsupply.com has really good prices on gate valves (and lots of other stuff too).

anyone know where to find plans on building a herbie? Ive looked, cant find anything. OK I didnt look that hard, but help would be nice. Sorry to jack your thread!

Its really a simple set-up. Basically two straight pipes. I have fairly detailed pics in my build thread. http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40669 Shoot me a pm if you need/want more pics or to pick my brain....just dont pick too hard....I need what is left up there:mrgreen:

In the same vein I prefer the Beananimal overflow design over the standard Herbie for redundancy. Since setting up the Beananimal overflow it has saved me twice when I had 2 snails make their way into 2 different overflow pipes.