If you have the room, an option is to build an addition on the the stand and you could place your water top off tank in it. Here is a pic of my setup, maybe it will give you some ideas.
The two 20 gallon tanks on the right are used for auto top off water and a separate refugium.
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or you can go with an electronic sump level sensor switch to activate an remote dosing pump to add water from a barrel in the basement, closset or someplace out of sight via a 1/4 inch tube.
That’s another idea. The only thing close by is a TV stand i could hide something behind it maybe.
Finished plumbing everything today, filled the tank, fired up the return pump and…
The bulkheads were leaking! Moved the gasket from the bulkhead to between the overflow box and the tank, problem solved.
Now, onto the next issue. I am having trouble getting a full siphon on my drain line. I see water flowing down the open pipe and bubbles coming out, but i don’t see much action from the full siphon line.
Am I missing something? The gate valve is 100% open, the drain lines are 1.5" I feel like I should be able to get a ton of flow through the pipes. The return pump is fully able to drain its section of the sump before the drains can fill it.
Will elbows break a siphon? I don’t see why they would.
Can you post a picture of your drains from the top of your overflow box? How far below the water line (in your overflow) do you have the siphon?
Mine is setup about 4 inches below the water line in the main display and i have 2 90 elbows so that the siphon is facing down. Helps prevent a vortex in the overflow. You will notice with the valve open 100%, once it starts it siphon, the water in the overflow will fluctuate because the siphon drain will drain much faster. Thats why you have the valve so once it starts it siphon you can close it slowly to get a nice smooth quiet drain.
Case here are pictures of my system from overflow to sump.
Overflows (from left to right: full siphon, open, emergency)
Drain lines
Elbows into the sump
Front view going into sump
Bottom of drains in the sump
The emergency drain will be even with the other 2, i just ran out of PVC. No water should flow down this pipe anyway.
Have it running now, but I had to bypass a ton of water into the fuge in order for it to run.
I still feel VERY little flow through the full siphon line and lots of noise from the open standpipe.
If I close the valve on the open standpipe the tank just fills and fills until it reaches the emergency drain.
On the plus side, the emergency drain works :). Good design bean-animal
If im correct the full siphon needs to be completely submerged over the top of the elbow to start is full siphon.
That may be the case, but if i close the open drain completely, the water just fills up to the emergency drain level which definitely submerges the drainpipes. (that picture i took was after i had shut the return pump off, Case)
I think what’s happening is that because I have the drain submerged in the sump the air is getting trapped in the pipe not allowing any water through. I read that bean-animal siphon drains need to be just above the water line in the sump to allow for air to escape the pipe before water can flow through it. I will try shortening the pipe going into the sump and see if that solves the problem.
Ok so new issue. I got the siphon running and dialed in. The open drain is making tons of noise. I think it’s because it’s sucking down water just as much as the full siphon.
Do you think this will be mitigated when I put the front on the overflow box or do you think I should cut the 90 on the open drain so it is slightly higher than the full siphon?
Closing the overflow box is going to change things. Is there any reason not to put it on right now? Your going to need to adjust the valves again once you put the overflow box on anyway.
Obviously, the full siphon drain should have no air. Your second drain should have enough air to keep the water flowing on the inside wall of the pipe all the way to the sump. If you don’t have enough air or your pipe is too small the water will occasionally seal the pipe (acting like a full siphon in that section of pipe) causing the gurgling sound. What are you using for your second drain line? With a Durso style drain there’s an open-to-the-air tube inserted into the drain pipe. By adjusting the length of tube in the drain, you can add air in the right place making a silent drain. By playing around with your valves, you can tune it to be completely silent.
bnelson, I didn’t put the front cover on yet, because once it’s on, i won’t be able to get the elbows/bulkheads out of it.
Since I leak tested everything and am satisfied with it, I have sealed it! I read that many people were cutting their open drain holes 1/4" higher than the full siphon so I cut 1/4" off of the open drain elbow. I don’t know if that will actually do anything because the hole is still the same height, but I didn’t know what else to do 
The full siphon does run silent, I’ll just have to mess with the open drain once I get it running.
To answer your other question though, all 3 of my drains are 1.5" pvc all the way to the sump. I have a hole drilled into the top of the open drain with a brian guest fitting and 1/4" airline or whatever coming out of it.
Thanks!
the airline tube needs to be adjusted to the right depth inside of the drain.
Hudzon, do you need to do that for a bean-animal? I thought the airline is only to allow air to enter the tube so water can just run down the sides of the pipe silently and also so in case the full siphon line gets clogged you can make the open standpipe a siphon as a fail-safe.
do you need to do that for a bean-animal? the Durso part is still a Durso and will have a sweet spot for the air to enter
[quote=“Hudzon, post:95, topic:6556”]
do you need to do that for a bean-animal? the Durso part is still a Durso and will have a sweet spot for the air to enter[/quote]
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Will be moving the tank into place on saturday finally.
I have some flatworms still so here’s my plan:
[ul][li]empty some existing tank water into two 5-gallon buckets and 1 30-gallon tank[/li]
[li]Dose tank with flatworm eXit, wait for flatworms to die[/li]
[li]remove corals place into 5 gallon bucket with existing tank water[/li]
[li]remove rock into 30 gallon tank with existing tank water and dose more flatworm eXit.[/li]
[li]catch fish and place into different 5 gallon bucket with existing tank water[/li]
[li]drain tank and move it[/li]
[li]place new stand/tank in old tanks location, level[/li]
[li]fill tank with new water[/li]
[li]put rock back in[/li]
[li]drip acclimate fish and then add them[/li]
[li]dip corals in flatworm eXit before acclimating[/li][/ul]
Does that make sense? Anything I didn’t think of?
Do I need to reacclimate if I get my ph/salinity/temp very close? I guess it’s better safe than sorry, right?
Very good sense. How long do you think it will be from the between time of removing everything till placing everything back in the new set up?
Hm, maybe 2 hours? Longest item will be draining the old tank I think.
Luckily I run bare bottom so I don’t have to contend with sand settling, etc.
Just my :TWOCENTS
Why not just place everything from the old tank into the 30 gal tank temporarily instead of 5 gal buckets. This way you dose everything all at once. Have a heater and some circulating pumps in the temp tank.
If you think it will take 2hrs, plan on it taking longer.
Is the new tank a 90 gal? If it is, how are you making new water to fill it?