Overflows Making too Much Noise

[FSOL]

Hey guys, I have a 18g tank w/ dual overflows. There's too much noise from the water draining down through the tubes to my sump.

What can I do to stop this sloshing noise?
Also, I have prefilters inside the overflows that end up becoming nitrate factories until I find time to change them. Will it be ok to completely remove these filters and only place filter socks where the overflows drain into the sump?

Thanks

[raddogz]

Sorry - did you mean the 180g has dual overflows and it's making a racket?

Your return pump may be too powerful for both overflows. I had a Quiet One 4000 with roughly five feet head - dead silent. I upgraded the pump to an Eheim 1262 and freakin noisy as heck now.

I will probably T-ing off the return pump to a bunch of stuff down the road to bleed off some extra flow.

[BrokeColoReefer]

are you running durso standpipes? and how much flow are you running though your system?

[FSOL]

I am not running dursos. It's just straight pipes w/ holes on it wrapped with filter. LFS told me durso pipes can fail and the whole tank will stop draining and will overflow. Not sure how this happens though.

I am running TWO mag drive 2400's (I was told it was overkill) as return pumps. One is pumping to a height of 4' and the other to a height of 5'. So with all the 90's and bends I'll aproximate total return from the pumps about 3000GPH.

[FSOL]

By the way, the 3000 gph is just from the return pumps. I'm not counting any of the closed loop and tunze flows inside the tank. These don't contribute to any flow from sump to tank.

[ralphie16]

well there's your problem. your trying to push through too much. for you i would recommend a return pump that is going to push about 1200 gph (MAXIMUM) after head loss. your bulkheads can't drain much more then 500-600 gph each anyways (assuming you have a 1" drain)

[FSOL]

If they can't drain more than that, then wouldn't that cause water to overflow out of my tank? If I am sending 3000gph to the tank, and my tank water level is not rising, doesn't it mean that the overflows are able to drain 3000gph back into the sump?

[luke33]

FSOL, it your tank hasn't overflowed your fine. Are you using a utube, and how many? And yes tanke off the filter pads, there no help imo, get a filter sock.

[FSOL]

LUKE - yeah the tank water level is constant, so I"m assuming the overflows are able to drain as fast as the tank is being filled up. They are each 1.5" overflows.
I'm not using a u-tube. Isn't the u-tube essentially the dorso pipe?
I might take the filter pads off, because it's hard for me to change them every time they get a bit dirty, so they end up becoming nitrate traps. The only thing I"m worried about is when I remove them, the water sloshing noise may get worse.

[Trickman2]

Its up to U but I use Bio balls, Yes I know it can create excess nitrates but its quiet and effective and I just keep up on water changes. Use some eggrate and some bio balls. In theory you could do this with not filling up the whole chamber with bio balls.

[raddogz]

Originally posted by FSOL
If they can't drain more than that, then wouldn't that cause water to overflow out of my tank? If I am sending 3000gph to the tank, and my tank water level is not rising, doesn't it mean that the overflows are able to drain 3000gph back into the sump?

Yes, it does mean they can drain it back to sump, just noisely

[luke33]

Sorry, didn't know if your tank was drilled or not. I would remove the pads, it didn't make a difference on my tank with or without.

[BrokeColoReefer]

how exactly do durso's fail? i have ran them for years and have enjoyed nice quiet aquariums. BUT even dursos would be loud runing 3000 gph through them...

[raddogz]

It's not the durso that are loud - it's all the water cascading down into the sump from the drain pipes.

[BrokeColoReefer]

^^^
good point.

[FSOL]

my sump (and all other equipment) is outside of the living room, so there's no noise coming from the water draining into the sump.

Since we are on the topic of perhaps having too much return flow into the tank (hence creating more noise), would having too much water flow out of the tank and into the sump affect skimmer performance? Since too much water is gushing down into the skimmer area, would the skimmer have less contact time w/ water and not work as well?

[raddogz]

My 58g does the same thing - too much flow and it drives me nuts, on the other hand it drives a Oceansmotions Squirt (which I am beginning to think should really belong on a closed-loop system).

[LeeMc]

We could spend months on this topic. The goal of a durso is to reduce the distance the water must fall into the overflow before it travels through the drain thereby quieting the waterfall effect. Dual 1.5 inch drains will move a lot of water at the expense of noise from both the overflows w/ or w/o a durso plus the "crash" of the water as it arrives in the sump. Flow inside a closed reef system can be done a number of ways. I suggest the least desirable is to use the circulation pump to reach the desired flow characteristics – it simply is to noisey. The circ system need only provide a method to allow the skimmer, reactors, scrubbers, etc. to do their job. A low flow rate will achieve that provided you have another system in place to create flow within the tank. Many folks use power heads. Those in the design stages should look at Oceansmotions. I suggest you seriously throttle back the main pump, install a durso in each drain and reduce the drain size to 1in. to restrict the drain flow. If your tank is 180g less displaced volume by live rock, etc. you really are in overkill at 3k gph - hence the noise factor

[raddogz]

I agree that a pump that is matched to the overflow will quiet everything down in general.

I do not agree that durso-type stand-pipes will guarantee a silent over-flow. Restricting the drain size or durso to one inch will create more noise not less noise - I believe it creates more velocity going through one inch pipe vs one and half inch pipe (assuming we are only talking about stand-pipes here).

FSOL - are you using those DLS fiter wraps aoound the stand-pipes?

[LeeMc]

EIleen makes a good point - a durso will not guarantee the drains will be silent. Perhaps a better description for a durso is a "muffler".

[FSOL]

Yes I am using DLS filter wraps around the pipes, but today I decided to officially get rid of them. They trap lots of dirt and create a nitrate factory. I'm going to run w/out any filter wraps. My only filter will be filter socks at the end of the drains into the sump. This way I can easily clean any dirt that gets trapped inside the overflow chamber.

I'm going to buy and try the dursos. The only problem is that when I measure the current overflow pipes with those holes on them, the diameter is about 1 and 7/8ths of an inch, but the only dursos I've seen sold are 1.5" in diameter.

[raddogz]

Make your own dursos - I made mine with 1.25" pipe, T-fitting, and 90 degree elbow (better to get the 90 degree street el elbow). Wait and a cap.

The only part that gets sticky is trying to figure out is if the bulkhead at the bottom is threaded or slip fitting. Purchases a 1" (I'm assuming the bottom is utilizing one inch pipe) to 1.25" pvc fitting. I believe the overflow pipes with the holes in them are nothing but pvc pipe with holes in them or something close to it.

Btw, it should cost under twenty dollars for both Dursos

[JohnnyM2]

Dursos are supposed to be larger in diameter than your drain. Durso says that on his website. Doesn't know why, but has found it to be so. Just use a reducer.

[tentacles]

have you guys seen these?http://www.nautilusreef.com/html/cjstandpipes.html I've seen them on a few tanks on rc. I'll be using them on my new tank. I have used dursos for years and they can be noisy if they aren't "tuned in" , but I never had problems with them not working/failing. Short of being plugged I don't think that they can fail, assuming that they are matched to the appropriate amount of return flow,which is true for any type of drain.

[Icefire]

I would use MAX 600gph in a sump/refugium for a 180G.

Try a durso, you need a Tee, a 90*, endcap, pvc tube.