Bean animal issue

[Claus84]

I think @cboylan1606 was asking if you could turn the whole bulkhead, thus turning the pipe in your overflow box.

I know but the problem is its all glued so if I turned the pipe so that the elbow is facing upwards then the whole drain pipe would be pointing towards the ceiling. Its a single piece of pipe that goes through the bulkhead with the elbow glued at one end and the t-piece on the standpipe at the other. Really wish i'd have put a union on there or something now...

 

[Claus84]

How far below the surface does the full siphon terminate?

Problem solved!

I've just shortened the full siphon pipe so it's sitting just at the waters surface in the sump and it is now taking all of the flow except for a trickle down the secondary.

I'm never going to be able to have more than 2" of water in the overflow without firing more water down the secondary than is advisable but that's not an issue at all really.

If I were making one again I would definitely put the secondary a bit higher but it seems to be working okay for now at least.

Thanks everyone for your help

 

[schuby]

What is the position of your ball valve now that it is working? is it fully open or partially closed?

I was just looking at the website you mentioned. It appears that you need to partially close (maybe about half-way) the valve on the full-siphon drain. After a minute or two, this will develop into a full siphon and take most of the water. If you leave it all the way open, then the two pipes (full-siphon and open-channel) are the same so neither is preferred.

A full-siphon moves a lot of water. I have a bean-animal style overflow using 1.5 inch pipes. With my ball valve only open about 1/8 to 1/4 of the way, it pulls 600 gph through the one pipe. What is your throughput?

Also, per the website, the air-line from the open-channel drain should go down into the overflow box, close to the regular water level. The idea is that if the water level rises, then it will get higher than the open end of the air-line and block the air-flow. This blockage will turn the open-channel drain into a full-siphon, rapidly dropping the water level. Do you intend to implement it that way, too?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Problem solved!

I've just shortened the full siphon pipe so it's sitting just at the waters surface in the sump and it is now taking all of the flow except for a trickle down the secondary.

I'm never going to be able to have more than 2" of water in the overflow without firing more water down the secondary than is advisable but that's not an issue at all really.

If I were making one again I would definitely put the secondary a bit higher but it seems to be working okay for now at least.

Thanks everyone for your help

Right on! I learned the hard way as well not to glue the elbows that are inside the overflow, in fact I went a step further and used threaded bulkheads for this very reason.

I made this video last year explaining the bean animal design to someone else. but you can see how I had to move the open up so that I could tune it, as well as how the full siphon is barely under the water...

 

[Claus84]

What is the position of your ball valve now that it is working? is it fully open or partially closed?

I was just looking at the website you mentioned. It appears that you need to partially close (maybe about half-way) the valve on the full-siphon drain. After a minute or two, this will develop into a full siphon and take most of the water. If you leave it all the way open, then the two pipes (full-siphon and open-channel) are the same so neither is preferred.

A full-siphon moves a lot of water. I have a bean-animal style overflow using 1.5 inch pipes. With my ball valve only open about 1/8 to 1/4 of the way, it pulls 600 gph through the one pipe. What is your throughput?

Also, per the website, the air-line from the open-channel drain should go down into the overflow box, close to the regular water level. The idea is that if the water level rises, then it will get higher than the open end of the air-line and block the air-flow. This blockage will turn the open-channel drain into a full-siphon, rapidly dropping the water level. Do you intend to implement it that way, too?

I've tweaked the flows a bit and set it to around 2/3 closed now and it seems to be pretty stable. There is around 1000lph throughput at the moment. The pipes are 32mm so I should have a lot of leeway to play around with the flows if I need to.

I have an RO fitting and piece of tubing as an airline out the top of the secondary and my plan is to attach it just above the waterline as you mention, just need to figure a way of clamping it in place.

 

[Claus84]

Right on! I learned the hard way as well not to glue the elbows that are inside the overflow, in fact I went a step further and used threaded bulkheads for this very reason.

I made this video last year explaining the bean animal design to someone else. but you can see how I had to move the open up so that I could tune it, as well as how the full siphon is barely under the water...

Threaded bulkheads are a great idea, I might upgrade this tank down the line and will definitely be using them if I do. Thanks for the vid, its amazing how little water depth is needed to keep the siphon running, now its all balance out there is probably only 2" max in the overflow but its working a treat so far.

 

[Rainbow]

Maybe you could cut off the elbow of the secondary line inside the overflow, keeping the pipe stub mostly intact. Then sand down the stub, and install a new elbow facing upward, forcing your original line to take the initial flow. Into the emergency overflow elbow, put in a short stub to keep top dry, but below top level of tank.

 

[Rainbow]

New here, hello all.