Yeah u need lines in water to make it air tight. Won't siphon right if airs traveling up
I run this style and it's a little tricky getting all air out

It took 1.5 mintues for the pump to drain 3.625" from my sump up to the DT. The sumps internal dimensions are 71*23.25 inches. So that is about 26 gallons in 1.5 minutes, or about 1040 GPH.

The problem is that on start up it almost overflowed before the drains properly kicked in. I had to turn the pump off briefly, 20 seconds, then plugged it in again. It is now running again.

I dialed in the main drain. It took many trips up and down the stairs. It is now dead quiet. Silent. No noise: wife is happier now:)

So it's running at about 1000GPH, dead quiet, and stays at the same level.

Now I need to re try a power on/off.

I would like to see the flow a little more, but I suppose it is enough as is.

Tom

I have read that on startup, the reason you have 3 drains is because the system needs all three to the max and then settles in before overflowing. I plan on putting a bean-animal system into my tank..but I'm going all 1.5" (even the bulkheads into the overflow)

good info here, I am planning to do a beananimal overflow when I move and re-setup.

Your drain lines need to be just below the level of the water in your sump. 1" below is optimal. The ensures a fast take up if the siphon needs to be restarted (if the power goes out and back on, or you shut the return pump off and restart it).

Once you have the set, then leave all 3 gate valves wide open. Turn your gate valve 1/4 closed on the return pump line. Don't be scared of it overflowing, this system is designed with that possibility in mind. The first time I turned mine on, I thought for sure it was coming over the edge of the DT, but you will get used to how it works and never have another worry again :)

Now you will start to fine tune the siphon/return together. I tune mine using the siphon channel gate valve. once you have that set, then see how much flow you have going into the tank from your return lines. If it's too much, then you will turn the valve to restrict the pump a little, and close the siphon line valve a little. If it's not enough, then open them both a little.

The Return and Siphon valves are directly related. You adjust one, and you must adjust the other the same way. it's a bit of a PITA at first, but you will get the hang of it.

You will also notice that the water level in the overflow will even out too. I run mine right at the bottom corner of the elbow, this way 99% of the flow is going through the siphon channel.

Also make sure that your open channel air line is just above that level, this way it doesn't fight to be the siphon.

It takes some time and patience, but once you have it set, your going to be a happy camper.

It definitely takes time and patience.

After a lot of adjusting main siphon drain gate valve by 1/8 turns, and return pump gate valve by 1/8 turns, I had them balanced and silenced.

At about 1000+ GPH, all was silent and working great. But, I could not shut down and restart without being 1/4" from overflow onto the floor. If I unplugged for 15 seconds, then continued the re start, it worked.

After throttling down the flow to about 900 GPH, I could power down, restart, with no risk of overflow. But, my drains in the sump are under water by about 3". Next weekend, when I'm back, I'll try with them just 1" under water.

The thing is, the depth of the drains in the sump must be adjusted when the pump is running, and all is in equilibrium. Other wise, if they are too shallow at start up, they may be out of the water level when it’s all up and running.

So, hopefully it all works out. I thought I was going to have to move the basement sump 20 ft closer to the DT, to eliminate much of the horizontal run. That was a depressing thought.

Tom

The drains in the sump should be in a chamber where the water level is normally stable. I know what your saying about the level going up and down on restart.

Do you have them in the skimmer section? Thats the best place for them. Even when restarting, the skimmer section should never drop below a given level. Mine is 10". This is due to the baffles being at 10", and even when the water level drops elsewhere in the sump, the minimum in the skimmer/drain section will always be the same.

Something else about the pipe being under the water is that you can have the siphon a little bit deeper than the other pipes. It helps promote the siphon on restart.

There was also something else in his thread that mentioned drilling a small hole in one of the ends of the pipes, but I don't remember for sure where that is.

It seem like your right about there though and your just minor adjustments away from being done :)

Bean Animal Overflow
 

I'm tagging along.

I too am seting up a BeanAnimal. My spa-flex coming from my three bulkheads is only 1" as opposed to 1.5" so I'm hoping this will not be a problem for me. I'm also running all ball valves. No gate valves. I may have to really play with the ball valves to get everything in balance but will try it first with the ball valves. If it proves to difficult I may have to switch to a gate valve.

I used the true union ball valve on my last tank, and it was a pita. I went with gate valves this time on both the Siphon and Drain lines as they are much easier to fine tune.

On another note somewhat related to ball valves, I would recommend putting gutter guard around the elbows in the overflow if your distance between the bottom of the elbow and the glass is more than a 1/2". Snails and fish will go into the overflow on occasion. If the fish goes over and gets sucked in, they usually make it past the ball/gate valve. But most snails cannot pass it due to their shell. When this happens, you have to open the ball valve to let it past and then adjust it again. Having a gate valve makes it much easier to make the fast adjustment, whereas the gate valve can be time consuming and troublesome.


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All of my Bean Animal drains are 6" below the water line. They work fine right now but every time the power goes out the water level bounces around for a while before it re-adjusts. I should probably shorten the pipes.

I have a Hammerhead as well working at 80% wide open in the basement. My issue was with the main siphon. It wouldn't start up and my open channel would become my main siphon making loud gurgling noises. The problem was with air being trapped inside the elbow in the overflow box of the main siphon. Drilled a tiny hole at the highest point of the elbow. No more issues.