Drilled Drain Gurgle

fijiblue · #1 04/22/2007, 11:40 AM

I drilled a hole in the back of my tank to make a drain - a 1" elbow with a strainer on it. A Mag 5 returns the water, but the gurgle noice it makes is driving me nuts! I've tried putting an airvalve on it like this:

...but it doesn't work. My sump level has a 1" flux from when the gurgle starts and stops. Would it help to put a ball valve on my return line to slow it down? PLEASE HELP!!!

MrZ · #2 04/22/2007, 12:35 PM

Just a thought - I wonder if your problem is not enough air. The noise may be a siphon stopping and starting. I finally made it all work on my smaller tank using similar plumbing. Are you getting the "gurgle" up by the overflow or in the sump?

fijiblue · #3 04/22/2007, 04:31 PM

It is gurgling up at the surface. Once the siphon starts going it gurgles, then stops and then gurgles again. I tried the air tubing, but the water level gets too high in the tank and then my sump goes dry. There has to be a way...it is driving me nuts

fijiblue · #4 04/22/2007, 06:54 PM

^^^^^^^^

MrZ · #5 04/22/2007, 09:20 PM

Maybe some bad news - I think you will have to make some changes in order eliminate the siphon....

A) You could either enlarge the plumbing so that the flow rate in relation to the pipe size will cause the water to flow out rather than build up and siphon. This will cause the water level to drop below its current level though.
or
B) You could increase the air available on the back side and possibly increase the plumbing size and build an overflow inside the tank. The water level would be determined by the level of the overflow box.

Either way you would probably have to throttle back your return pump a bit as well if you don't want to significantly increase your plumbing size.

See these:

Make any sense?

MrZ · #6 04/22/2007, 09:35 PM

This is what I built a while back to solve the same problem:

Would something like that work for you?

-Z

fijiblue · #7 04/23/2007, 06:17 AM

Looks like it might! Thanks for the help and the great pics! Im gonna try that and see how it works

kmmcgra · #8 04/23/2007, 06:30 AM

is that a 90 degree bend inside the strainer? How far does it go down? Does that restrict the flow at all? I basically have the same problem.

MrZ · #9 04/23/2007, 07:04 AM

Yep, standard SCH40 1" elbow inside the strainer. Strainer is 3" PVC pipe. Rest of the plumbing is 1". On that particular tank I would have drilled the hole in the tank about a half inch lower and inserted the elbow around a half inch down on the strainer if I were to do it over again. That would increase the head just an extra little bit in the "overflow" and increase the throughput just a little bit more.

The idea was not to restrict flow but increase it, keep the water level in the tank constant, and peform surface skimming. Worked on those three counts and with a 1/8 hole for air input it was relatively silent as well so I chalked it off as a win and went on to other projects. Still working today.

MrZ · #10 04/23/2007, 07:05 AM

Oh yeah - forgot to mention - If you try something along those lines remember that there is no need to glue the apparatus into the bulkhead. That way it can be removed for easy cleaning.

kmmcgra · #11 04/23/2007, 07:10 AM

did you drill the hole in the 3" pipe yourself? Can you give me an idea on the tools you used? Also did you cut the slots in the strainer and if so what tool did you use for that?
Thanks for your responses.

MrZ · #12 04/23/2007, 08:03 AM

Thread from way back when. Picture links have since expired but the step by steps are here:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=380017

Just one of many solutions to a pretty common problem.