Plumbing a 4 hole tank

[desull]

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this question or not, figured since my question is about plumbing the sump, it could fit under filtration?

Anyways, I have a Planet Aquariums 215 with a center overflow, 4 holes - two 1" and two .75" (I believe that's the size- same question either way).. Obviously it was intended for the smaller holes for the returns, which means no emergency drain!

Before I set this thing up, I want to ensure I'm doing everything exactly right and part of that is plumbing in an emergency drain.

Now, I'm also using a Tideline 48" sump, which has 3 inlets.. I'm thinking about running the two 1" and one of the .75" to the sump inlets and then use the other .75" for the emergency. Then for the returns, just have them come over the top of the tank. I'm running dual return pumps and would just have one output to each side of the tank.

What are you thoughts? Is there a better way to do this? Should I use a 1" or .75" for the emergency drain? If I'm running a bean animal setup, would I run 2 primaries or 2 secondaries? My thoughts are a 1" being the primary with the ball value, then the second 1" and .75" being the secondaries and lastly the .75" being the emergency..

Would also appreciate any tips on how tall the piping should be, as I cannot see the overflow from any side (since it's a center) and this creates an unexpected challenge in determining the water level that I'm sure many have dealt with. I have only plumbed 3 tanks and all had corner overflows and came with kits, so this is my first time doing it from scratch.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[billwill]

There is nothing wrong with a Herbie overflow (system your tank holes are designed for). I ran old school Glass Boxes overflow with just a single 1.5" elbow out the back for 15 years and never had an issue. I'd recommend plumbing your system up as it was designed, and as ALL of the Red Sea, Waterbox, and all other complete tanks come that have internal overflows down through the bottom. I can't say I'm a fan of running two return pumps together. How many gpm are you planning on running through your sump? Google Herbie for recommendations on height of the internal piping, or ask Planet Aquariums since they provide that complete kit typically. I'm a pretty big believer of the KISS system, as it ends up being the best solution in the end for a reason.

 

[desull]

I had been planning to plumb it the intended way, but everything you read on here says that bean animal is the way to go for noise reduction and safety. It will also be in a very tough spot to maintenance, so I wanted something that I wouldn't have to worry about. If I'm using the holes as-is, then I already have the plumbing.. well, sort of.. The kit came with these very strange strainers that I'm probably going to swap out for something more traditional.

For the returns, they will be plumbed separately for redundancy and not into each other (seems unnecessary to do that).. This way if one pump goes out, I'm still up and running and also have plenty of water flow to spare for UV, ATS, reactors, etc.. I have had pumps go out before and it's always a panic to get a new one asap, I wanted to eliminate that concern.

I also plan on hooking one pump up to a battery backup, in case of emergencies..maybe a generator down the road. I plan on running 2000-ishgph through the system. It will be a fowlr/predator tank with lots of fish waste.

 

[billwill]

Don't believe everything you read on the internet... The Herbie and Bean are IDENTICAL in operation, quite literally. The Bean simply has an additional drain just in case your primary and emergency drain plugged. Ask around to see how many times that's happened in real word applications. 2000 gpm is a serious amount of water to be running through your sump imo. I'd recommend a quality single pump with maybe 1300 gpm MAX at 5' of head based on 1" drains. Otherwise you might have trouble dialing down your sound and/or running at near max of what those drains can handle. That's when I'd be concerned about not having the Bean second overflow

 

[piranhaman00]

Always run two return pumps for redundancy, bean animal and herbie are basically the same, it’s technically safer but there’s 0 chance your drain and emergency would plug