New Reef Tank - Pipe Water Noise

[bwyoung]

My first post...

Issue: My tank sounds like a waterpark in my living room/foyer - water rushing from the overflows/durso pipes and the air entrainment in the siphon PVC pipes that are under the tank and ultimately head to the basement sump.

I have a couple seasoned friends who have gotten me interested in salt tanks (I have has freshwater tanks for 20 years). I have worked on the siphon, return and closed loop pump pipes and pumps, drilled the tank, all ready for the water test...

I am similar in features to the basic setup of a friend's successful tank just on a modestly larger scale. I am about ready to throw in the towel though, but I wanted to cast my issues out to the collective knowledge here.

I have a 120 gal tank built in on the rear and one side in my foyer with a 75 gallon sump in the basement (about 11 feet of head). I am running a Panworld 200 pump for the return (may be one size too big, but it flows about 1250 GPH at the current head)

Anyhow I am struggling to get any semblance of quiteness out of the tank. I have twin "mega" overflows with the All-Glass kits durso-type siphons flowing through a 3/4" (or 1"?) bulkhead connector. They each have a ~1/4 hole in the top of them for the siphon break. The siphon lines upsize to an 1 1/2" pipe and then collect into a 2" pipe to head to the basement (I later added a valve at the basement in hopes of allowing more filling of the siphon)

Mods I have tried:

1. I put airline hose on the standpipes and that helped the gurgle and whistle sound somewhat
2. I have the standpipes adjusted to the top of the overflows
3. I removed most of the grates in the overflow
4. I have tried pinching off the siphon air holes to reduce the air entrainment, but then the siphon gets stronger as expected and I easily overcome the overflows and later break siphon
5. I have significantly reduced the pump output
6. I partially reduced the sump siphon downpipe in hopes of reducing its strong capability

I know you cannot run a full siphon out of the tank, but I cannot imagine people living with this sound (like a continuous toilet flush). I can attach a link to video or add pictures of the setup if you like.

I look forward to your help! (otherwise it is back to a freshwater canister filter and guppies! :roll: )

 

[Anonymous]

First off

:welcome:

Do you have a way to adjust the air inlet to the riser pipes? I've never used the megaflow kits so not real sure what they look like. How is the water getting to your sump? I find that if you do not have a way for the air to escape at the bottom you will get some noise. My drain lines are about half submerged in the sump and run horizontal a few inches. No splash and it give the air a chance to get out.

Don't get discourged with this. You will have bigger problems to deal with down the line.

It's all worth it tho. Kind of like kids.

 

[Ef3s]

The most I get out of this is to say if you take a two liter coke bottle and stick it in deep in a tub of water it will bubble loudly and slowly fills up.

If you hold it so it's right on the surface the water flows in faster without bubbles.

There needs to be a space where air can freely move in and out as it is being displaced with water.

This may be what your ~1/4 siphon break is.

And yes you can do a straight siphon from the tank into the sump but if your return pump shuts off or if the siphon is to fast you're going to seriously overflow something...

Make sure that the siphon level in the tank is high enough where if the return pump does stop only enough water will continue to siphon out to fill your sump to the top not overflow it..!
VICE VERSA put the return pump high enough in the sump where if the siphon stops you won't overflow the tank with sump water....

Hope this helps dunno...

 

[cindre2000]

First thing first: Identify the problem.

Stand next to your tank and figure out where the noise is coming from. How much is from the siphon break, how much is from the air escape, how much is from the actual overflows. And then tell us.

But I will say- The siphon breaks on the AGA returns are quite loud if the holes point at the water, They would not be so loud if the hole was pointed at the acrylic overflow so the water did not hit the water. Secondly, the position of the return water can drastically influence the overflows. Thus, overflows are not equally draining, you may overpower one of the overflows. Finally, the hight you set the standpipe at should prevent any noise from the overflow itself, if it is too low, you will get lots of noise.

So, figure out where the noise is coming from exactly, and describe it to us!