Noisy sumps.

[ryanATW]

Ive never been around a sump system in someones home. Only at the LFS, so I dont notice the noise. My tank will be set up in my living room with the television in the same room. I plan on using a sump from all of the good things I hear. I was just wondering about just how noisy they are or can be. If its just a steady water flow noise I can tolerate that, but will it be loud enough to become an annoyance while watching TV or anything like that?

[Doug1]

There are a couple major factors in sump moise
Water flowing out of the tank via the overflow
Water entering the sump
Velocity of water flowing thru the sustem, faster creates more noise potential
In sump skimmer , pump vibration , intake noise from venturi/beckett injector, etc
return pump vibration, over all system size factors in as well

How each of these points is adressed will determine the noise level, but a well designed sump shouldn't make a lot of noise

[ryanATW]

Another question:

What would the ideal tank size be for me to get if I build my own sump? My display tank would be a 72 gallon.

[Doug1]

Thats going to depend on what you want to house in the sump and how much room you have under the stand. There are so many options ranging from using an existing tank , a rubbermaid tub , or building an acrylic sump with a lot of specific feature built in. It all depends on what you want and need a sump for.
Skimmer choice should be a big factor in your choice, decent skimmers will take up some room and you will need to accomodate the pump that feeds it, as well as a return pump

[smb]

The best noise reducer I have purchased is durso stand pipes in the built in overflow. They work fantastic, take out the waterfall noise and more importantly to my wife, the "flushing" noise in the drain lines. Shawn

[tdwyatt]

Durso in tank overflow:



Durso is a DIY item you can make with schedule 30 PVC for around $15 USD, it is just a means of making the water pull from under the surface yet allow for air to vent into the drain through the top of the drain device




The ones I use are not even glued together, so they can be modified at any time during their use. The first week or so you may need to make adjustments to either enlarge the vent or reduce it to make it work efficiently and quietly. It has been suggested that some folks would be better off by installing an air vlve on the top to adjust the flow of air. These devices simply plug into the bottom of the overflow and pull wter from the elbow. This one is sized to fit in a 180G overflow:



See this home site for construction detail for the Durso drain device.

[three90s&125sump]

They are faily cheap to purchase them also. $50.

If you make the one like Tom has, then you can get a slid collet from menards when you buy the PVC. this will make it so you can tune it while your running your tank.