Herby vs Durso

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by sphelps

If you do run herbie keep in mind you'll need two separate drain lines all the way to the basement sump. You can't at any point tee the primary into the back up.

The emergency drains should be ok if they are joined in to one before they hit the sump though eh?

[monocus]

the other option you have is a stockman.all my tanks have stockmans and they are all silent

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

The emergency drains should be ok if they are joined in to one before they hit the sump though eh?

Yes if you have two or more emergencies, they can be tied together. Same if you have two or more primary drains, they can also be tied together in fact it's best if the primary drains all connect into one gate valve. You just can't connect the primary & emergency/back up drains together simply because you'll get an echo noise up the emergency drains which can be pretty noisy.

[cwatkins]

My herbie is mostly silent.

I just changed to a DC return pump and Herbie, so now the remaining noise is from the Skimmer and the MP40's. Not much else I can do to quieten it down.

I try not to have a slight trickle. I can usually keep it just below the top of the emergency. Although it does fluctuate as my sock filter gets dirty.

[Madreefer]

Originally Posted by cwatkins

My herbie is mostly silent.

I just changed to a DC return pump and Herbie, so now the remaining noise is from the Skimmer and the MP40's. Not much else I can do to quieten it down.

I try not to have a slight trickle. I can usually keep it just below the top of the emergency. Although it does fluctuate as my sock filter gets dirty.

Yea all my equipment is in my basement so I dont hear anything other than my MP40s. I'll be running 4 of the MP40s on my new build, so i'd imagine it's going to drown out any other sounds. I've decided to go with the herbys and run 4 drains and only teeing together the emergency drains.
Thanks to all for the input and keep it coming

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Yea all my equipment is in my basement so I dont hear anything other than my MP40s. I'll be running 4 of the MP40s on my new build, so i'd imagine it's going to drown out any other sounds. I've decided to go with the herbys and run 4 drains and only teeing together the emergency drains.
Thanks to all for the input and keep it coming

Just to note, if your new tank has two separate overflows you'll need to tee the primary drains into a single gate valve for control. While the overall water flow rate will be constant the flow rate to each overflow will vary, especially with any kind of wave, so if you use two separate gate valves you will be constantly fighting to tune them properly.

[Madreefer]

It'll be a coast to coast internal overflow.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Just to note, if your new tank has two separate overflows you'll need to tee the primary drains into a single gate valve for control. While the overall water flow rate will be constant the flow rate to each overflow will vary, especially with any kind of wave, so if you use two separate gate valves you will be constantly fighting to tune them properly.

gack! Have you done this yourself? This is exactly how I had my tank set up and it was a constant never ending nightmare. I finally converted back to a durso with all the micro bubbles, noise, and salt creep that I hate because I couldn't deal with the herbies anymore. The levels in my overflow boxes would randomly drift over the course of the day, sometimes with one emptying half way creating a splashing water fall, while the other would fill completely. This was true whether I set the levels with a single gate valve downstream of where they connected, or two gate valves upstream of where they connected. It was the most unstable overflow system I've ever seen. Further to that, I'm not sure if this is a Herbie issue or them being plumbed together, but they were INCREDIBLY sensitive to water level changes in the return chamber of the sump. If I had it throttled just the teeny tiniest bit too much, the return chamber level would fall, and my ATO would kick in (it's a powerful pump that moves a ton of water as it comes from the basement). Then the level would reset below the ATO sensor, causing the ATO to fill the return chamber again. This happened very slowly over the course of 3 days once until suddenly water started pouring down my emergency drain and the SG of my tank had fallen to 1.022

I'd never in a million years run a Herbie with dual overflows plumbed in to a single outlet again. Maybe it's just me and I'm a dolt and set it up wrong and you've had a different experience, but that was easily the biggest error I feel I made with this tank.

[Doug]

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

gack! Have you done this yourself? This is exactly how I had my tank set up and it was a constant never ending nightmare. I finally converted back to a durso with all the micro bubbles, noise, and salt creep that I hate because I couldn't deal with the herbies anymore. The levels in my overflow boxes would randomly drift over the course of the day, sometimes with one emptying half way creating a splashing water fall, while the other would fill completely. This was true whether I set the levels with a single gate valve downstream of where they connected, or two gate valves upstream of where they connected. It was the most unstable overflow system I've ever seen. Further to that, I'm not sure if this is a Herbie issue or them being plumbed together, but they were INCREDIBLY sensitive to water level changes in the return chamber of the sump. If I had it throttled just the teeny tiniest bit too much, the return chamber level would fall, and my ATO would kick in (it's a powerful pump that moves a ton of water as it comes from the basement). Then the level would reset below the ATO sensor, causing the ATO to fill the return chamber again. This happened very slowly over the course of 3 days once until suddenly water started pouring down my emergency drain and the SG of my tank had fallen to 1.022

I'd never in a million years run a Herbie with dual overflows plumbed in to a single outlet again. Maybe it's just me and I'm a dolt and set it up wrong and you've had a different experience, but that was easily the biggest error I feel I made with this tank.

Yeap had a customers tank setup this way back in the day. You need riser tubes in the overflow boxes and back ups in each one as well. If there was a slight imbalance the water level could only drop to the top of the riser tube and would correct itself quickly after hitting that. I was only there briefly every month or so and never saw a problem, rarely had to touch the gate valve. They did mention a brief slurp sound from time to time but nothing constant so it all seemed fine to me. I assure you trying to maintain separate gate valves on each would prove much more challenging.
If you do find a constant imbalance it would be due to more pipe friction from one overflow. This can result from smaller pipe sizes with higher flow rates (high velocity) making one side more restrictive quite easily, especially if it has a longer run or more fittings before the gate valve. You could easily fix it with an additional valve on that line but still connecting both lines to a single valve. The extra valve would just allow to add more restriction to the less restrictive side helping the sides self balance easier.
It's not a perfect system by a long shot but a herbie on a dual overflow has challenges you have to be willing to accept. Still better than Dursos IMO.