Durso Standpipe Flushing

[pishposh]

I just finished drilling my tank, and i attached my durso standpipe that i made on and ran the system with water. I haven't put on an overflow yet as that will be my next project.

However the water level keeps going up and down. The Durso standpipe guy's website said that this usually happens because the drain line is submerged too deeply into the sump and that it has nothing to do with the air hole size.

but my drain line is only like an inch underwater. I even pulled it completely out of the water and it still goes up and down.

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep the water level stable? Thanks

 

[Lostmind]

Well, I dunno if this is right, but I had a similar problem. I solved it by restricting the flow thru the drain...

I think the reason the water level fluctuates is because air gets stuck in the drain line.

Or, your return pump is on the fritz

 

[Lofus]

What size of pipe did you use? You usually get the flushing sounds because too much water is trying to go through the downcommer and it starts to back up. When the backed up water reaches a certain level in the downcommer, there is sufficient gravity force to empty.

 

[tenshi]

I've heard of people drilling a bigger hole to control this action in the
water your talking about. I don't use one, but other people say this is
the fix to this problem. I'd try that and if it doesn't work, I'm sure you
still have PVC left over to go back to the original way Durso explains it.
Good Luck!

Tenshi

 

[madmike]

tenshi is right, i had this very same problem and solved it by drilling a slightly larger and larger hole until it stopped.
Mike

 

[liquid]

Good call. I was just going to mention that.

Shane

 

[pishposh]

ok so i drilled a slightly bigger hole and the water level is now very stable, but rests a bit higher than I expected. Also its a little noisy... Not like a drive me crazy noisy, but it sounds like there is a stream trickling in my living room.

Would it become quieter later on when i add some filter floss at the intake of the sump? Or is the noise happening because the water level is a bit high? Exactly how quiet is the durso standpipe supposed to be? (the water level rests near the top of the ell piece. The intake piece that's pointing down. I believe its supposed to rest at the middle right?)

Im sorry for all the questions.. i'm new to a lot of the techniques being applied to my new tank, and i've never seen a lot of these things running in person. Basically i am building my setup through pictures of other people's tanks, and written instructions.

I don't even know how my new protein skimmer is supposed to work! (strange looking design..) I guess i'll find out when everything is done and its time to plug it in.

 

[pishposh]

Oh and i used 1 1/4" for the top half of the setup which converts to 1" right before the bulkhead.

The drain is a 1" clear flexible tube

LOFUS

i think i understand what you're saying. I look at the clear tube and water is sort of backed up and i think that's where the noise is coming from. How would i fix this?

Thanks for all the help guys you guys rock!

 

[mkirda]

tenshi is right, i had this very same problem and solved it by drilling a slightly larger and larger hole until it stopped.
Mike

Another suggestion- Drill some more holes, but smaller ones, like 1/16th or
3/32" diameter...

Regards.
Mike Kirda