Need tank plumbing help please!

[SamKennedy]

Hello! First saltwater tank and we picked it up used. It was already drilled by the previous owner. My husband did some updates to the tubing. We finally filled up the tank but are running into a big problem: we can’t keep the water level steady. It either slowly goes up or slowly goes down. All of the holes are at the same height. How can we fix this? Picture included. Thank you so much in advance for your help!!

 

[JC1977]

It appears to be a bean animal style overflow with 3 drains? The pipes shouldn’t all be the same height due to the fact one is strictly an emergency drain and will run dry. What kind of valve do you have on the primary drain? To fine tune the drain to where the water level doesn’t fluctuate you’ll need a spears gate valve.

 

[SamKennedy]

Yes bean animal with three pipes. We have a ball valve on two of the pipes. Is there a way we can change the height? Like should the emergency drain pipe be at a higher level than the primary drain? Not the most clear picture but both those drains go down the same amount

 

[JC1977]

The way overflow box is set up it’s going to be awkward to set it up but it can probably be done. Switching the ball valve for a spears gate valve is the main thing to do because you can’t make the fine adjustments to stop the water level fluctuating. Please google bean animal overflow there are a few good links to explain everything for you!

 

[JC1977]

When you see the picture of how it’s set up and then look at your drain set up you will see what I’m talking about.

 

[JC1977]

 

[mrpontiac80]

Here is good video that might help you see how the bean animal drain works

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I had trouble with mine too. In addition to making your overflow plumbing look like the above, make sure your PVC pipe is the same size all over (I had to redrill / replumb to get this fixed). Suggest you have a controllable return pump that way you can increase/decrease the flow if need be. I also put a gate valve on my secondary drain. Hope this helps!

 

[RocketEngineer]

1) If possible, remove the two ball valves. Run two drains straight to the sump without valves and one with a gate valve. These are much better at tuning because it takes many turns to fully open/close one so you have a lot finer adjustment. Ball valves are just not easy to get working properly.

2) In the overflow box, the piping with the gate valve should have the elbow in the box pointed down. Given that the holes are at the same height, the other two, those without valves, should have the elbows pointed up. One of these should also have a short piece of pipe that extends up about 1/2 to 1 inch out of the fitting. If properly tuned, the one pointed down takes 90%+ of the flow, the up turned fitting takes just a trickle, and the one with the extra pipe is dry. If the one with the valve clogs, the upturned one should fill, draining lots of water and making lots of noise, while the dry one takes any extra.

Hope that helps.

 

[KStatefan]

This is a good article on the beananimal system from the source.