Herbie overflow tuning

[George]

Originally Posted by HaZRaTTy

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When I tuned my Herbie in I had no problems what so ever, I also used my emergency drain to drain into my refugium, maybe try to turn your overflow box up to the top of your Emergency drain and let it take the extra water back into your sump. It seems your 1.5 PVC can't handle the amount of GPH your return pump puts out, by routing down your emergency drain just a little it would make up for this downfall.

Don't use emergency drain for anything else other than emergency situation only. The emergency drain should remain dry under normal operation. Doing it otherwise will defeat the purposes of the herbie system, i.e. fail-safe and silence.

[HaZRaTTy]

Originally Posted by George

Don't use emergency drain for anything else other than emergency situation only. The emergency drain should remain dry under normal operation. Doing it otherwise will defeat the purposes of the herbie system, i.e. fail-safe and silence.

I disagree completely, yes the drain is there for an emergency but honestly a trickle through the "emergency" drain isn't going to be the deal breaker... If you really want to do the math go for it.

Just because it has the word "emergency" people get their panties in a bunch. Especially for such a low flow and small tank. I would maybe think differently if I was setting up a 200+G as the flow is way higher. When I was researching the math and water movement in a 1'' bulk head herbie/durso style I believe it was that one single drain would drain approx 600/800gph depending on gravity and how long your herbie drain is in your overflow box. So if your are running a 1.5'' bulk head then that number would increase.

So if you're telling me you would be worried about 20-30GPH when your Single drain in a 1.5inch bulkhead which is common is going to affect your 800-1,200GPH your currently running through your single drain that is mind boggling.

[reeferfulton]

i too found that my water level would very about a 1/2 inch .

This is why i increased the height untill just a trickle was going down the emergency drain . no is stays exactly there for weeks now .

the emergency drain is still perfect .. If you think about it . You are restricting your main drain .. mine is restricted about 1/2. So if the emergency drain is wide open and only taking a trickle down it then it can easily handle the flow of your main drain .

Eaither way you need to do a test by completly blocking your main drain .. shut the valve .. and see how the e drain handles ..
I orginally had the e drain set to high , and water was getting to close the the edge of the tank before properly flowing down the e drain..

good luck