Bean animal question?
 

So I'm researching the bean animal overflow system and I see that it is definitely the way to go but I have a question.
The main overflow down pipe needs to have a ball valve to adjust the flow rate and ensure that the system runs quietly and I understand this part. But why do the other 2 pipes need to have a valve on them when they seem to operate at 100% all the time. Am I missing something regarding the necessity od the other 2 ball valves?

I read somewhere that Bean put them on his only for maintenance.
I can see how they are also useful if you want to change some plumbing while it's running.

Ok that makes sense now. I am thinking of setting up a bigger system sooner than later and figured I should spend the next several months picking brains on here to eliminate mistakes.

Just thought I'd mention this, but back when beananimal had his blog up, he clarified his name as "be an animal", not "bean animal".

:)

Noted :smile:

I'm doing a coast to coast external overflow on my next tank with a beanimal overflow, you want a gate valve for you're primary, not ball valve. Gate valves are more controllable.

I only used a union ball valve on the full siphon and unions on the others. A ball valve hasn't been difficult to tune for me. This style of drain is sweet!http://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-67b2-b88c.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/464b85f3-67c3-b6b4.jpg

[quote=Madmak;709641]I only used a union ball valve on the full siphon and unions on the others. A ball valve hasn't been difficult to tune for me. This style of drain is sweet

Looks good thanks for the pics/input

Could a 1/4" air line not be made out of ridgid tubing so it doesn't have to stick up in the air so much. I see that all tanks are done with this flex line but I'm curious as to wether or nit this is essential.

Any vent will work, mine is an in-wall so I wasn't worried.

Ok I thought as much. Seems all the ones I see online are using the flex tube.

You could use a 90 degree fitting on top.

Are you asking if the kind of line is essential, or the line itself ?

If you're asking about the kind of line, it doesn't matter what you use.

I'm running a Mag 12 for a return pump without a bypass valve. The drains are 1". I close the full siphon about an 1/8th turn and a very small amount of water heads down the vented drain. Very minimal noise or bubbles at all. If I close the full siphon ball valve completely the vented drain turns to full siphon and takes over. If I manually block the vented drain and keep the full siphon valve closed, the emergency drain will still handle all the flow without flooding. I'm sold on this set up for sure. One thing to be cautious of is the depth of water the drains are in in the sump, too deep and the full siphon won't work, 1" worked for me.

I think he said how his name, Beananimal, came to be... With people misreading his shirt that actually said "Be An Animal".

A gate valve is the better choice but is only essential on the herbie. The extra standpipe on the Beananimal makes fine tuning less of an issue.