Herbie Standpipes

[mr_alberta]

Does anyone know if you need a standpipe at all with a herbie style overflow? Can you just have a strainer on the bulkhead and throttle the drain back until the water level reaches the desired height in the overflow box?

[muck]

sure.. why not.
As long as you have a backup drain incase of a clog. But i guess that is part of the Herbie design.. :wink:

[digital-audiophile]

I wouldn't risk it myself. In only 1 month with a herbie I had a blockage on my primary drain and the standpipe kicked in to save me a flood.

[Delphinus]

I'm not sure that a blockage on the primary drain is really dependent on there being a standpipe, or just a strainer on the bulkhead. Or do you think that because the valve was "more closed" that it increased the risk of a blockage?

[jasond]

I wouldn't risk it myself. In only 1 month with a herbie I had a blockage on my primary drain and the standpipe kicked in to save me a flood.

Hi Greg, that’s scary about a blockage! What happened, did you have a strainer at the time? What clogged it? Mine “seems” (knock on wood) to be fine so far. The only thing I have noticed is the small hose for the siphon break has got plugged, so I just cleaned it out. Other than that mind has worked well with the strainer and the standpipe for emergency.

[mr_alberta]

How big of a strainer are you talking? Mine will be a 2" strainer/bulkhead with a 1.5" backup drain.

I wouldn't risk it myself. In only 1 month with a herbie I had a blockage on my primary drain and the standpipe kicked in to save me a flood.

[Chin_Lee]

As a general rule, I think the classification of the Herbie method always incorporates an emergency standpipe; without the emergency standpipe, it would be called the "Flooding is Guaranteed Method".

I think what Harvie is asking if a standpipe is required on the primary drain in which case IME the answer is no. I close the gate valve until the water level is just slightly lower than the emergency standpipe - this minimizes the waterfall noise into the overflow.

[digital-audiophile]

My primary drain and standpipe are 1-1/2" diameter. I have a strainer on the main drain and the standpipe is just open PVC.

What happened was that I was having a hair algae bloom and in my infinite wisdom instead of pulling out my powerheads to properly clean them I figured that if I scrubbed them in place in the tank the GHA would simply just get sucked into the overflow and drain into the filter sock on the drain line in my sump, well instead of that happening as planned it gummed up the strainer to where the water was hardly getting through and raised the water level in the overflow box to where it had to drain into the standpipe.

Had I left this for a day without a standpipe I am confident that the water would have continued to rise to the point where it would have overflowed the tank.

I am glad though that I took Albert's advice and raised my drain/strainer a few inches in the overflow instead of just screwing the stariner into the bulkhead. Standing on a stepstool trying to reach down into the overflow with my return antisyphon in place was a PITA as it was, it would have been almost impossible doing it right down the the bulkhead without pulling apart my return plumbing.

Just food for thought, although this was a stupid mistake on my part and not something I would repeat the standpipe saved the potential of a flood.

[mark]

no standpipe, just strainer is how skimmin is running his (photo from this thread (http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=36668&page=2&highlight=herbie))

http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z89/crystalzbucket/IMG_0838.jpg

[bassman]

Has anyone ever considered mounting a float switch just above the water line in the main tank so that if the water rises too much the return pump is shut off?

I have one installed on my tank and I sleep much better at night.

[untamed]

Has anyone ever considered mounting a float switch just above the water line in the main tank so that if the water rises too much the return pump is shut off?

I have one installed on my tank and I sleep much better at night.

It isn't really necessary. The Emergency pipe does a perfectly reliable job. In a worst case scenario, the primary pipe stops completely...water rises to the emergency level which then takes all the flow. This wouldn't even be anything that needed urgent attention.

In my case, putting 100% of the flow down the emergency standpipe creates an unbelievable noise!

I run with no strainer on the primary. It is just a bulkhead at the bottom of the overflow box. My overflow boxes are covered and nothing larger than 1/4" could get into the box, so I don't think there is any need for a strainer on the primary. Anything that did get in would just fall straight through into the sump.

[Skimmin]

Gregg's Distributors in the west end carries the strainers pictured above. If your overflow is at least 5'' wide you should be able to fit these. They have a huge amount of surface area, so to plug them up...? I don't even know what in the tank could plug them up. From my experience these work great and pretty cheap too.