Gurgling Noise

[ddaddy2420]

Well my Durso standpipe had been making this ridiculous noise and I had just been ignoring it till i decided it was no longer ignorable, or i should say until my wife decided it was no longer ignorable. Did a little research and it seemed like the noise i was getting was because of too much flow coming from my little giant 3 return pump in relation to the tank size and drain. So i decided to cut back on the return ball valve to about half way and the noise went away and the tank was completely silent with the exception of the pump. Having felt very successful and smart I walked away with a smile and a quiet tank. This morning after i got up, i walked over and checked my tank like i do every morning and noticed it almost seemed like the tank wasn't draining at all, there were no bubbles coming from the drain in the sump. So i turned up the ball valve a little and sure enough the flow came back but so did the gurgling. I can't imagine my drain to return flow ratio is that sensitive. My return flows thru a 3/4 braided hose and then thru a 1" pvc and splits off to the tank. My drain is thru a 1 1/2" bulkhead attached to a durso standpipe. It then travels thru a hose to my eshopps adv 100 sump. The noise i discussed earlier in the post was coming from the durso, if i covered up the holes on the durso the noise went away. It also went away when i back off the return flow with the ball valve but came back when i moved the ball valve back a little bit. For some reason i thought this 90 had a 2" drain and a 1.5" return but it may be a 1" drain and a 3/4" return. My next tank will have a coast to coast overflow and BA drains out the back for sure but for now any ideas on how to make this better? I can hear the noises thru the holes in the durso 2 rooms over, its very loud.

Dale

 

[camellia]

I have the same setup as you 1" drain & 3/4" return only using Quiteone 3000. I've had my return pump turned to the minimum to avoid the noise but I would like more circulation. Problem is if I turn it even one notch higher my standpipe continually slurps(gurgles). Mine sounds like my standpipe is a little to high and when the flow is increased air is being sucked in with the water. My thought is my standpipe needs to be slightly shortened I just haven't had the time to test it (and repair if wrong). Does that sound reasonable?

 

[shanepike]

Lots of great discussion here:

 

[camellia]

Thanks Shane,
After reading that thread I believe I need to raise my standpipe. My noise is more like the splashing of the water that's being sucked quickly into the overflow box hitting the water below. When the flow is weaker, it's quite. I'm going to pick up a fitting today and raise it slightly. I have everything else it cant hurt to try.
Dale, is it more of a splashing? Shane's post covers just about everything.

 

[ddaddy2420]

No it's strictly coming from the durso. When I cover the holes on the durso with my fingers you can't hear a thing.

 

[eagle9252]

here is what i did to my 27g cube for the time being. i am a very big fan of the bean animal as it's super quite drain. but i did not want to do a coast2coast and reconfigure this tank as it was allready drilled in the back for the factory overflow.

so i installed it as it was designed and hated it. it gurgled and was so loud. did the 1" drain and 3/4" return. i dont know the flow but its not alot as its a sea horse tank anyway. i have a 9.5mag going throug a chiller and then to the tank, again flow is low.

it gurgled and flushed and was so loud going in the sump. i first increased the drain to 1-1/4" and added a wye at the sump to allow air to escape and to reduce the splash. this helped some but not so much. it was mainly coming from the top at the water level and the turned down 90 with the hole and a piece of 1/4" ridge tube sticking in the top. when plugged it was quite until the water level dropped due to the full siphon and when the tube was removed the same thing would happen. so i added a wye at the top of the drain in back of the tank and the added a 1/4" tube push connect and ran it over the top into the rear overflow area. this allows it to fully drain from the tank with almost no gurgling and it will allow it to turn into a full siphon if needed. it does do a gurgle ever so often but it's not bad and very tolerable.

i was going to convert it to a ba style drain but with the flat style stock overflow on the cube it would be realy hard to reconnect the flexable return with out removing the entire overflow from the glass and if i was going to do all that i would have just bought another non drill cube and started from scratch.

a ba runs a 3 pipe principle:

1. a full open with a tube going back to the tank so if the water level were to rise in the overflow it would turn into a full siphon.
2. a siphon only which has a ball valve on it. you open and close the bv to raise and lower the water level in the overflow. this stops the gurgle and flushing.
3. a emergency stand pipe. this is only used during start up. its just there as piece of mind. in the year i have been using mine on the 120 it has never been used at any other time. i have had to adjust the bv on the siphon because a snail got in it and block some of the flow and it raised the level in the of box and it caused the 1/4" to close and then the gurgle and flushing sound started but that's was a warning sign that's good.

i said all that to say this. the 3rd pipe is not really needed so if you had to you could get away with out using it. what i was going to do to my tank was remove the return from the 3/4" pipe and plumb it over the top in the rear and then use the return through the glass as a drain and plumb it for a full siphon with a bv on it. this way i could adjust the drain flow and allow the open channel to function as designed but add an extra drain that is closed. with it being a siphon drain it will drain most of the water as the pipe is fully closed with no air in it. and the fully open channel will be allowed to drain slowly as designed and allow air flow in the middle of the pipe as water flows. where you get the noise from is the air and water is fighting to go down the drain at the same time as the water flows slowly down the walls of the pipes at low flow its dead silent but as the flow is increased the center hole is decreased and cause it to start to suck air. this causes the gurgle and flush. with the 2nd pipe installed you are removing a lot of the water from this pipe. also make sure your drain pipes only go in the sump water level by 1" and deeper and it causes back pressure on the drains.

i hope this is clear as mudd for you. you are welcome to come over and see it if you like.

 

[camellia]

ddaddy2420;841751 wrote: No it's strictly coming from the durso. When I cover the holes on the durso with my fingers you can't hear a thing.

You can put on an air valve to reduce/increase the air intake. Ive got one & it take care of that noise, Google it.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Put the air valve on the 2 holes at the top of my durso?

Eagle,
Can you send me pics, i am having trouble picturing all that you talked about. I sort of followed you but a picture would be very helpful. I have been trying to come up with a way to have a BA overflow with my current set up, but all i have is 2 holes in the bottom of my tank so I haven't been able to come up with anything so far.

 

[braselton4]

You can try this and see what works. First one is easy, start with a long airline tube and slowly push it down through the top to the durso until the noise stops. If that does not work you can place a gate valve near your sump to keep the water from flowing so fast. This is what I had to do. It worked perfect. If you look on the pic, mine is located right below the fan and light, grey and red.
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[eagle9252]

never restrict the drain as it could and will get blocked at sometime. if you restrict anything it should be the flow from the pump into the dt. the drain will only drain what id pumped.

 

[eagle9252]

sent from my Atari 2600 using Tapatalk 2
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[braselton4]

It will work perfectly if you have a backup drain or you just need to open the gate periodically just to make sure there is nothing in there.

 

[eagle9252]

Braselton4;841867 wrote: It will work perfectly if you have a backup drain or you just need to open the gate periodically just to make sure there is nothing in there.

agreeded but periodically and murphy's law does not mix well...

 

[camellia]

You would only need one air valve, did you google it?

This option seems quite easy as well, check it out.

 

[eagle9252]

Camellia;841872 wrote: You would only need one air valve, did you google it?

This option seems quite easy as well, check it out.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/42444-really-simple-way-to-quiet-an-overflow/?hl=siphon,and,durso">http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/42444-really-simple-way-to-quiet-an-overflow/?hl=siphon,and,durso</a>[/QUOTE]

yes this will work as it's the same thing as i said. the difference is as they stated if the OF empties it will not restart but the 1st and 2nd pipe in the ba will start automatically.

 

[ddaddy2420]

I did google it, got a few ideas now. Thks for all the replies, will work on this next week and report back.