Durso to herbie with new trigger 26 emerald sump

[Thereefdoc]

Long story short, I bought a 65g marineland reef ready aquarium with the stand, eshopps wet/dry sump, eshopps x120 protein skimmer, t5 lights, rock and a powerhead for 150$. Im slowly upgrading everything. I just bought an trigger emerald 26 and I want to convert the durso overflow to a herbie. How would I do that with my current setup? The tank has been up and running for a bit now so it’s full with water, fish and some coral. Is it even worth the hassle? Below are a couple of pictures of the tank and plumbing.

 

[Silent]

I would use a full siphon on the hole you currently have the return through and an emergency on the other one with the gate valve below the tank. Send the new return line over the edge and through the same area the return is now.

 

[Silent]

 

[Thereefdoc]

Would I have to change the pipes in the tank? The drain fitting in the sump is 1 inch is it ok to reduce the existing drain pipe to a 1 inch pipe?

 

[Silent]

It wont matter, gate valve will control the flow. Isnt the bulkhead already 1 inch?

 

[Thereefdoc]

I think so but they have pipe glued in already. I didn’t want to mess with it. Another question for the emergency would it be as simple as removing the elbow and return nozzles or would I have to modify the height a little?

 

[Silent]

You should just be able to take the 2 90's off and use it as emergency and the old return pipe just needs to be cut down so that it is at least 6 inches below the emergency one.

 

[Hemmdog]

Godspeed

 

[Thereefdoc]

Thanks! Can you walk me through the prts that you have on yours? Which one is the drain and which is emergency in the picture?

 

[Thereefdoc]

I see the inner one has the gate valve are those other connections unions?

 

[Idoc]

I converted mine from a durso to Herbie design as well. Since you only have 2 holes drilled in your overflow, you will need to make an over the rim return... then used your existing holes for the full siphon drain and the emergence drain. Really easy to do!

 

[Silent]

The emergency is where your drain is now. My siphon is where your return is. I have my return behind the tank going up and over the tank edge and goes out through the hole in the overflow the way yours is. I will send a pic later of mine.
Yes a union before and after the gate valve and a union on the emergency. My bulkheads are upside down to maximize space below the tank.

 

[Silent]

Here is a quick pic. See how the return comes over to the same spot you have yours? The water level is at the emergency height and you cant really see the full syphon.

 

[Thereefdoc]

I couldn’t find a pvc gate valve at Home Depot or Lowes. Is It ok to use a ball valve? Or should I order one online and just wait for it to come?

 

[Silent]

Your much better off to get a gate valve. Ball valve is harder to fine tune. Amazon has them much cheaper than elsewhere.

 

[Thereefdoc]

Here is a quick pic. See how the return comes over to the same spot you have yours? The water level is at the emergency height and you cant really see the full syphon.

Nice. So the return will still be coming out of the overflow to keep things clean. The bulkheads that are installed aren’t the same. Should I just change both to 1 inch bulkheads as well? or should I get a threaded adapter to connect to the emergency drain?

 

[Silent]

I would buy new for $3-4 a piece and save the headache of a leak from old gaskets.

 

[Silent]

Better pics

I have biobricks in the overflow.

 

[Thereefdoc]

I was thinking the same. I’ll just have to fully drain the overflow. Biobricks in the overflow is a nice touch. Do you do any type of routine maintenance on them?

 

[Silent]

Nope, treat them like live rock. If I ever end up seeing any detritus in there I will syphon it out. There is a decent amount of flow in there so I dont think it will ever be an issue.