Herbie Drain Issue

[GGuy]

Hi guys,

I finally got my lee mar 120 all plumed up, so i began testing it. The drain is a herbie style with two 1.5" drains and an eheim 1262 with two 3/4 inch returns for the return.

I cannot get it to obtain a full siphon. I would like to get some opinions on the plumbing and if any changes need to be made. Here is a picture of the setup:


I have the standpipes setup the way they call for on the GMAC reef tutorial. The main standpipe is 6" lower than my emergency drain, and the main drain sits 1.5" under the water in the sump.
I get it dialed in till there is a light trickle in the emergency pipe, but it seems to never reach full siphon as I still get bubbles and noise, granted it is not as much as when the gate is wide open. When the gate is dialed in, i can hear air and water rushing through right near the outlet of the gate.

Im thinking I need to move the gate valve closer the outlet of the pipe, or reduce the size of the plumbing after the gate valve.

Any opinions and advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[TrPPnN]

Drill an air escape tube (Air line tubing) with an inline air screw valve (like the plastic ones used for air pumps) where you are catching air...
and run it back up above the height of the drains... place your hand under the drains to build up the water column... you'll see the water rise in the airline tubing along with the bubbles... once the water level in the airline is full of water, drop the airline tube in the sump area so utilizing Bernouli's, the airline is siphoning water back to where you were catching air... once you run it for a while, screw tight the airline screw valve to prevent any air leaks from being sucked in on the main line...

 

[tigerdragon]

I run the herbie on my 90 its absolutely quiet. Drain line is 1" along with my rtn. Running mag 18 on rtn i know its 3/4 out but i stepped it to 1" to keep flow up and i have it manifolded running cabon reactor, biopellet reactor and chiller. What size pwr heads are you running? In my 180 i have same overflow setup but i have 2 koralia magnum 2700 gph pwr heads that when they kick in drops water level in overflow been hard to balance. Prob with running 3/4" rtn you get more press not flow to get more flow need bigger line. How deep does your main drain line go into your sump? May be too deep and having truoble clearing air? Only want it to go maybe 1-2" deep in water level of sump

 

[GGuy]

I went and dropped the size of the drain to 1" and it solved the problem. Im using 2 mp40s for flow in the tank. Im not looking for major flow into the sump, I calculated around 600 gph after head loss

 

[tigerdragon]

Sounds like you were overflowing your rtn too much drain not enough rtn. On my 90 i use a filter sock only have drain low enough to be able to get sock out to change doesnt even go into water wtih cabinet door closed cant even hear it