The Reef Tank banner

drilled overflow/pump noise

21K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  KNUTE 
#1 ·
Another Question:
I'm having trouble with my drilled overflow plumbing, I can't seem to make it match my pump return and it is extremely loud. I have two holes drilled that are plumbed with 2" bulkheads and pipe and then I have a 90 degree joint with a screen on both holes. The return from pump is 1" and tees into the aquarium. I can't seem to get it right. My pump is a Iwasaki external 40RLXT and it is quiet loud also, I've placed it on a pad but any other suggestions to quieten it will help.

thanks
 
G
#2 ·
Do you have just the elbow with a strainer on it for return? no slotted overflow structure in tank. What is the rate of return at the ht from the pump? Do you use a piece of vinyl hose to connect return pump and bulkhead or are the 2 hard plumbed together


------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com
 
#3 ·
I have an elbow with pvc that goes in each return bulkhead and I capped the elbow with a strainer. Pump is connected to sump with vinyl tubing and to return with vinyl tubing and then pvc at top where it goes over aquarium top and tees. I have pad on pump and I guess I will go ahead and secure it to the plywood bottom and to the pad. Any other suggestions to help either situation would be appreciated.
 
#4 ·
I had the same problem and it took a while but thanks to geedoug and others it worked out fine. I have a Mag 12 which is very quiet so I don't have that problem but it was tricky to modulate the drilled overflow with the return. If I fiddled with it long enough I could get it close but then it would still slurp on occasion and gurgle. Finally used a length of airline tubing fed thru the elbow and then set with a air valve for the right flow. Very quiet and easy to adjust. Still makes me a little nervous to leave it alone for long but has been working great.
 
#5 ·
Originally posted by KNUTE:
I had the same problem and it took a while but thanks to geedoug and others it worked out fine. I have a Mag 12 which is very quiet so I don't have that problem but it was tricky to modulate the drilled overflow with the return. If I fiddled with it long enough I could get it close but then it would still slurp on occasion and gurgle. Finally used a length of airline tubing fed thru the elbow and then set with a air valve for the right flow. Very quiet and easy to adjust. Still makes me a little nervous to leave it alone for long but has been working great.
Knute:
I still can't get mine to adjust, either I don't have enough water in sump and the overflow is loud or it gurgles at the overflows when I get the other right. Can you be more specific about what you did, and if you had pics that would be great. I have 4" tall screens on my overflow elbows, maybe that's a problem also? I have the pvc elbows turned upward maybe about 3/4 of the way because if they are turned down the pump can't keep up with the overflow output and I would like to keep my tank level as high as possible.
Thanks for your help.
 
#6 ·
Hi Swfish,

I can't offer any suggestions for the pump noise, but your gurgling sounds like the same trouble I and many others at The Reef Tank have had, which have been solved in many variations of a few basic solutions. The trouble is, from your descriptions, I'm still not clear on how your overflows are configured. I can imagine two different schemes, each of which would have a slightly different solution, so let me describe them to you and a proposed solution and see if one of them works.

As Doug suggested, I am assuming you do not have an overflow box(es) in your tank. It actually probably doesn't matter, but being clear on that may help.

The most likely description of your overflow plumbing is that your 2" bulkheads are drilled through the top of your tank at the back (or side.) Then you have attached a 90-degree elbow to the fitting on the inside of your tank, and put a screen on the open end. If you turn the elbow so that the opening and screen point straight down into your tank, the water fills up past the opening until it overflows up into the bulkhead fitting into your tank. (The lip of the bulkhead is probably about 1" higher up than the opening of the elbow in this case.) At this point, the water drains very rapidly - and probably with much splashing - into your sump until the water level in the tank falls below the opening of the elbow, at which point it makes a great sucking sound and starts over again.

So to avoid this problem, it sounds like you have rotated the elbows so the opening in the elbow is essentially sideways, and the water level stays pretty constant but there is a constant loud gurgling noise.

The other possible arrangement is that the bulkheads come through the bottom of your tank, and you have put a piece of pipe into the bulkheads that extends up near the top of your tank, where you want the water level to be. At the top of the pipe, you have attached a 90-degree elbow with a screen, and the water drains through that. I don't think this is what you are describing though; I can't figure out any way that rotating the elbow would make any difference at all - unless you use two elbows on the top of the pipe, which would make this configuration problem very similar to the first configuration I described above.

If either of these descriptions is accurate, it sounds like you have a siphon issue if the pipe is pointed straight down and just a noise issue if the opening is sideways. This is the same problem described and solved by Richard Durso. (See his description/solution at http://www.rl180reef.com/frames.htm.)

In your case, if one of these descriptions are accurate, you can solve your problem by rotating the input opening so that it is fully submerged, and then drill a hole in the plumbing in the top of the elbow - either one that is inside your tank, or in the plumbing outside your tank where I presume that you have another 90-degree elbow and pipe extending down to you sump. As Durso suggested, a small air valve allows control of airflow through this hole, which in turn offers some control of water level.

I actually have the second case above. I do not have an overflow box by design. I designed my overflow pipe to enter through the bottom of the tank, the fittings at the top of it to work as a screen (like the fingers on an overflow box, and to have an underwater overflow intake to reduce noise as Durso described. I also made it easy to service. It's a bit more complicated than Durso's design, but I don't lose tank volume to an overflow box and I have no fittings/equipment on the back of the tank so I can put my tank flush against a wall.

Durso's design, by the fact that the drain pipe now extends close to the top of the tank instead of draining at the bottom of the overflow box, effectively eliminates the functionality of an overflow box, except for screening out material from falling into the overflows. One function an overflow box performs is removal of surface scum. Without Durso's device, the scum would normally drain into the sump and out the holes in the bottom, where it is presumably filtered from the water in a sump or similar device. With Durso's device, the surface scum will now accumulate in the overflow box because the water intake is underwater, and the scum floats on top. Without an overflow box, and a submerged overflow intack, the scum just accumulates on the surface of the tank water. In either case, I feel it is necessary to remove this scum by some way. I did this by directing one nozzle of my tank returns in such a way that the scum was sucked under water by the natural vacuum created by the moving water, and that flow was partly directed to flow near the underwater intake. The underwater intake then sucks up the scum and takes it to the sump, where it is filtered normally.

Hope this helps. If I am totally off-base in understanding your design or you want more details on mine, please feel free to respond or e-mail me.

Glenn
 
#7 ·
Glenn, thanks for your reply, you are right about the siphon issue, my bulkheads are at the top of my tank. I've helped the problem some by turn both of the elbows sideways and putting a airhose through the screens and into the elbows. I don't know if I will leave it this way or turn the elbows pointing down completely. The only problem with that is I get a lower water level in my tank and I like it with the higher amount. I gain about a inch+ this way but I don't really know if it is worth it. Thanks for your help and your thorough reply!
-Scott
 
#9 ·
I have the elbows about 4'' from the top of the tank. No overflow box, was going to make one but they skim very well as is. I used plastic screening rolled up and stuck in the elbows. I then angled the return to the sump and have it exit in a T fitting. I was going to make baffles and everything for the sump and then read about the wonderfully simple idea of just using another, smaller tupperware container inside the larger sump. Works like a charm and no bubbles. Then I stuck airline tubing in the elbows just to where they start to make the turn down to the sump. Put an air valve on the end and was able to fine tune it just right. Also helped to replace the ball valve with a gate valve. None of this was my idea, never would have thought of it by myself. A variation I might try is to T the return line at the top and stick an airvalve on top of the T. All of these are variations of the Durso mod. I like just the elbows as I was able to hide them behind the rock and the tank now looks very clean. Thanks to Geedoug I played with the return lines from the sump and now have all the current I can use. I had made a manifold with 3 outlets going to double sprayheads which made the current very weak. Went to just a single 1/2'' sprayhead on each end with a double in the middle to get behind the rock and the tank has never looked better. Had to rearrange some corals due to too much current in some spots. Have a 65gal with a 30 gal sump and Mag 12. I had tried using the air valves that a lot of pumps come with and couldn't get them precise enough. Picked up a bag of air valves for a couple of bucks at the LFS and they work great. Good luck
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top