noisy overflow

[TexasRock]

OK, its not really my overflow... but the water leaving my overflow. It makes the occasional loud gurgling... not quite a flushing effect but VERY close. I have tweaked with the air intake at the top to no avail. I have that ribbed tubing that comes with the overflow and I am thinking of ditching that and using PVC to run a pipe to my sump. I would have the pipe submersed in my sump.

I have built a durso pipe that fits in my overflow box and it works really well... what I think it happening is the water is getting churned up too much with that ribbed tubing and causing excess air.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Keith

 

[Wet]

Re: noisy overflow

No kinks or 90deg bends in the line? Try straightening it out a little if its flexpipe to the sump. Exit pipe not too far down? (Durso has said the bubbles trapping may be some sort of pressure thing.) I ended up drilling the top of the endcap and using tape to adjust the air entry. One day I'll put a valve there or something. Also lowering flow with a T after the return pump was an easy fix for me.

FWIW, Durso standpipe is just like this for me. It took a couple weeks of fiddling to dial in, and since it has been quiet for a year with no issues.

 

[vidiots]

Re: noisy overflow

I had a problem where the water entered the sump tank. It would pick up air on the way down which would come out below the surface of the water and bubble upward making noise. What I did to fix this was change the angle the pipe entered the sump tank. Instead of having the pipe go straight down, I angled it at 45°. This reduced the spashing noise, but it was still bubbling which was disturbing the water surface and wasting CO2. To eliminate the bubbling I inserted a 45° "Y" backwards into the angled pipe entering the sump so that the water kept going down at a 45° angle but the other end of the "Y" was on top heading back toward the surface. This allowed the air to escape but could only ripple the water inside the pipe. To further quite the bubbling in the pipe I capped the air escape pipe and drilled a few tiny holes in it above the maximum water level.

The hoses that connect the pipes in my upper tank to the pipes in my sump are just clear smooth Vinyl tubing bought at Home Depot.

Here is a picture of what I was describing. The left side is my new and improved plumbing and the right side shows my origional plumbing you can really see the difference it made.

Sump Tank Plumbing Picture

 

[TexasRock]

Re: noisy overflow

czado... the flex tube has a slight angle but goes almost straight down into my sump.

vidiot - nice set up... I may incorporate that.

Also, I have a single overflow with a Mag 7 as my return. Do you think if I use a second overflow box to lessen the flow going through the one that would help?

 

[vidiots]

Re: noisy overflow

Shallow angles on the hoses will reduce the noise considerably in the hoses. Also so will slowing the flow. I have 2 return pumps in my sump, and if I shut one off the flow is slowed by half and it gets a whole lot quieter.

I went through a lot of PVC pipe trying different configurations for my in sump plumbing (good thing its fairly cheap). The angled one in the picture was the quietest. Believe it or not, some of the other things I tried actually made it louder than the pipe going straight in. One thing I tried was just drilling an air hole in the straigt pipe just above the high water mark. It sounded like someone was constantly peeing standing over a toilet even though it got rid of the bubbling. (Not good, at all).

I have the PVC screwed to the lid of the sump so it cant fall out, but all of the plumbing in the sump is not glued together to make it easy to disassemble to maintain. I figure worst case is if it comes appart it will still be in the sump so no mess, it'll just make a bit of noise until fixed. Haven't had a problem with that yet though.

Another thing I found after quieting the sump, was that one of my return lines was making a little noise because a little water was leaking from the anti-sypon hole. I just moved it closer to the side of the overflow so that it was spraying onto the plastic just above the water level instead of directly into the water in the overflow column which eliminated another noise.

It's still not completely silent but it is much quieter than my other tanks with HOB filters when the water level gets a little low.

 

[TexasRock]

Re: noisy overflow

vidiot,

How many overflows are on your tank?

Keith

 

[vidiots]

Re: noisy overflow

I have 2 of the built in predrilled overflows in my 180gal tank, but I would imagine the concept is quite similar with the hang on tank overflows.

A word of warning if you try the vinyl hoses, and that is it is stored coiled and large diameter tubing doesn't like being forced to bend the opposite way that it was coiled. It tends to kink. I installed it as single piece of hose bent into almost an S shape from my main tank to my sump. It kinked up on me so I cut out the kinks and inserted rigid plastic 90° elbows in their place, which prevented the hose from being obstructed and reducing the flow.

 

[Wet]

Re: noisy overflow

TexasRock, I think maybe another standpipe to that overflow will help (effectively the same as lowering flow through one standpipe), but that you should try a bunch of this other stuff before getting using another overflow, unless you want redundancy or something too.

vidiots - Reverse Y on the downpipe is sweet. A bunch of great ideas: thanks. I sugmerge my siphon break fwiw so its quieter. I have redundant holes of course, to avoid issues with clogging.

 

[TexasRock]

Re: noisy overflow

I am going to post some pics of what I'm working with and you two (czado and vidiot) can chime in and tell me what you think.

czado... I can't add another standpipe to my hang on tank overflow... I am using a stockman pipe (got the plans off Durso's site) in the overflow box and it leaves very little room for more plumbing in there... that is why I was thinking of adding another (which I have laying around anyway) hang on tank overflow to lessen the flow...

Keith