Herbie Overflow help, is this possible?

[ohnobrowncow]

Hello guys.

I am looking for a little advice to help me build my first reef aquarium.

I wish to have my plumbing a certain way and I hope I can explain it here without descending into poor attempts at detailed drawings, I would rather save that all for my build thread, which I have not yet begun.

Okay, so here goes.

I have a 24x12x14 simple braceless tank, I would like to maintain as much minimalism as possible.

I originally wanted two bulkheads at one side of the tank, one in, one out.

Then I remembered the gargle situation..

I checked out the Herbie method, and pondered for a while, and had the idea of drilling the tank three times, two at one end of the tank, one at the other.

The first two will be the Herbie siphon and emergency, and the lone bulkhead will be the return from the sump.

90 degree elbows will be fitted to the bulkheads

Here is a picture of how I would like it but I know choices are not always viable. The tank is laid down but you can assume how it will be in the correct orientation.



I really want my overflows to be nothing more than two bulkheads, both drilled and fitted at the same level as one another, both with 90 degree elbows attached, pointing strait up.

The outlet will have an elbow, perhaps a 45 or 90, none of the elbows will be bonded on the inside, instead I am going to put the bulkhead centers onto a lathe and turn in a recess for a tight fitting o-ring, to hold them on yet allow me to change the position of them.

One elbow will have a comb cut into it, drawn on to give you an idea.



I would like to know if this would effectively create one overflow lower than the other, acting as siphon, and a second overflow, being the uncut elbow which would now require a higher water level to enter service, acting as emergency overflow.



I understand this would all be a tight setup, and I don't know if it would work or perform correctly, and may well offer much less room for error when compared to using a weir box, less surface skimming etc, but I just need to know if it will work as a silent herbie this way, and if a siphon could be maintained.

All fittings are 3/4". The elbows are around 1" ID to accept the 3/4" ID pipe, valves etc, I hope due to this a slight weir effect will take place anyway. I do intend on producing a minute wave, but I can live with controlling the surface movement to a level agitation to make this work out.

I would also like to get the water very close to the surface, I would be happy with 1/2" but can settle for having the emergency overflow enter service at 1/2" from the top of the glass, while the siphon at maintains at 1" from the surface..

If possible..

I am a tricky cookie I know

Can you guys share your expert opinion? I am sure many of you have built Herbies in all shapes and forms and can fulfill my question or tell me I am a joker.

Thanks in advance for any of your help, because I already know I will fail without all the help you guys here are able to offer.

Jay