Herbie trickle flow

[Trailermann]

Can the drain be adjusted so that the emergency/trickle pipe brings down enough water to feed a 3 gallon refugium, like maybe 6gph?
I am setting up a 120 gallon tank, with the 16" Shadow Overflow and possibly the Eshopps R-200 Refugium sump

 

[JoshH]

I had thought the shadow was setup for a Bean animal drain?

You can do what I did on my old setup and put a T on the main drain with two gate valves to feed your fuge. Takes a little work getting them tuned the way you want but it worked excellent once it was set up for me

 

[Trailermann]

Thanks Josh, yes the overflow has three drain pipes, but you can choose to use just one, two, or all three.
I have very limited real estate inside my stand and three pipes was too much. If I add a tee in the main drain, I will still be dealing with three pipes going into the sump. 1) main drain 2) emergency/trickle 3) new teed pipe to the fuge.
My question remains, how much flow can I expect out of the trickle pipe.

 

[JoshH]

Thanks Josh, yes the overflow has three drain pipes, but you can choose to use just one, two, or all three.
I have very limited real estate inside my stand and three pipes was too much. If I add a tee in the main drain, I will still be dealing with three pipes going into the sump. 1) main drain 2) emergency/trickle 3) new teed pipe to the fuge.
My question remains, how much flow can I expect out of the trickle pipe.

How much flow will depend on how far you close the main siphon valve, the rest will be diverted to the second drain. This is completely up to you but the more you have flowing down the secondary drain the louder it will be so keep that in mind. When I had my setup the T was a reducing T to drop the Refugium line to 1/2" which would be plenty to run most fuges but you could do 3/4" as well. Also you can put the valve for the main drain right above the inlet to the sump so the Fuge line will literally purely run horizontally to the fuge. I am curious about the lack of room in a stand for a 120 Gallon system, Its not a small setup so the stand should be plenty big no? Just asking for curiosity's sake.

 

[BeejReef]

#JoshH has a good idea. That's how I'd approach it as well if I wanted dependable flow to a certain compartment.

In all likelihood, you could use your emergency overflow as well. I suppose you would have to time it's output over the course of a minute or two to determine the flow you are getting. The issue is adjusting it. You could crank up your return pump (if it's adjustable), or dial back the gate valve on your main overflow.

Both of those methods are subject to change (likely decreasing) over time as your return pump gets a little dirty and your plumbing gets some goo. Also, if your pump gets a little too icky, you could be in a spot where that section gets no flow at all.

The other issue is redundancy. A lot of people will try to not lean on their emergency overflow hardly at all... a true "trickle." The idea being that, if, the main overflow drain does get clogged, the emergency has 99% capacity to take up the slack.

 

[JoshH]

Oh and for a reference, I do know what plumbing in tight spaces is all about, this is the setup I am referring to that I made with a 7 Gallon fuge... this picture was pre-cheato and a good cleaning lol