help w/ noisy drain

[zahner]

can anyone offer some ideas to make my drain less noisy? Basically, there is a lot of air in the drain line and I get loud rushing water noise. The tank is in my living room and I'd like to get it as quiet as possible. I have linked two short movie clips so you can get an idea of what is going on.

I already covered the drain tubing with 3/8" foam insulation to reduce the noise, this helped a little but is just treating the symptom, not the cause.

the return pump is an Eheim 1260 running at around 5' of head which I estimate to be around 400 gph based on the performance curve I've seen. the drain is a 1.25" durso style standpipe into a 1" bulkhead.

any ideas?

movies (the clips take a little while to load, be patient):

overflow view

sump view

 

[ECFENCING]

Hey Terrence can you put a john guest valve on the T. I know this helped me out when I got the toilet bowl flushing sound. If not I think if you drill a few holes on the cap connected to the "T" and just experiment with placing your fingers over a few holes until you find the right air mixture


Clinked on your link but it wouldn't play. Could be my browser.

 

[kimoyo]

Is the outlet in the sump submerged?

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

First thing I would check is if the hole at the top of your durso is clogged. Second, the return outlet should be below the water level of the sump for two reasons: 1. It minimizes the "splashing" sound, 2. It puts a little bit of back pressure on the return so that the water level in your overflow will be a little higher.

-Alfred

 

[cali_reef]

Look like you have too much air going down the durso, put a piece of masking tape over the air hole and experiment by poking a small hole thru the tape. You need to find the sweet spot, I would guess a 1/16th hole would do. Using a JG valve will be easier, if you can tap the PVC cap for one.

Put a filter sock over the drain pipe or submerge the pipe will help eliminate some of that gargling sound.

Ernie, you have to wait a little for the file to download, unless you have a MAC and it does not play the AVI extensions.

 

[zahner]

Hey Terrence can you put a john guest valve on the T. I know this helped me out when I got the toilet bowl flushing sound. If not I think if you drill a few holes on the cap connected to the "T" and just experiment with placing your fingers over a few holes until you find the right air mixture


Clinked on your link but it wouldn't play. Could be my browser.

Ernie - i should be able to attach a valve to the cap. i'm not really getting the flushing effect (water level rising/falling) anymore. I reduced the depth that the drain line is submerged to about 2" and enlarged the hole in the cap to get rid of the flushing effect. so far restricting the airhole with my finger has not had any noticable effect on the amount of air in the drain

Is the outlet in the sump submerged?

Paul - yes, by about 2"

First thing I would check is if the hole at the top of your durso is clogged. Second, the return outlet should be below the water level of the sump for two reasons: 1. It minimizes the "splashing" sound, 2. It puts a little bit of back pressure on the return so that the water level in your overflow will be a little higher.

Alfred - the hole is wide open; this is a brand new setup, just running it to see how the plumbing functions

Look like you have too much air going down the durso, put a piece of masking tape over the air hole and experiment by poking a small hole thru the tape. You need to find the sweet spot, I would guess a 1/16th hole would do. Using a JG valve will be easier, if you can tap the PVC cap for one.

Pierce - the tape idea sounds good, i will try that in a bit. how precise of an adjustment is needed to dial a durso in?



-Terence

 

[Tim]

Also the top of the durso should be even with the top of your tank or below.....

 

[jhale]

T, is this salt water yet or just RO/DI water?

 

[NYPDFrogman]

a filter sock will definitly help, with water quality too. the pipe should be sumbmerged in the sump with all that splashing beside sound your going to get more evaporation.

the durso looks alittle high water level in the corner box too. is the cap glued on??
if it isnt get another start with a small hole 1/16" and enlarge till you get the right level and flow

 

[zahner]

just ro/di at the moment.

playing with tape over the hole seemed like it made a small difference, but the adjustment seems require incredible precision. i actually had a shorter standpipe earlier but the water was falling too far over the overflow and that made a lot of noise too. when i lengthened the pipe, this portion of the noise went away

 

[zahner]

a filter sock will definitly help, with water quality too. the pipe should be sumbmerged in the sump with all that splashing beside sound your going to get more evaporation.

the durso looks alittle high water level in the corner box too. is the cap glued on??
if it isnt get another start with a small hole 1/16" and enlarge till you get the right level and flow

the pipe is submerged in the sump about two inches. nothing is glued yet so i think a new cap with an air valve is what i will have to try next. i don't have a drill press here, so it is hard to enlarge the hole by only a small increment each time with a dremel.
how much lower do you think the water level in the box should be so I have a better idea when making adjustments?

 

[cali_reef]

Pierce - the tape idea sounds good, i will try that in a bit. how precise of an adjustment is needed to dial a durso in?

-Terence

Tape will be a temporary fix, it will fall off eventually if you don?t replace it frequently. It does not have to be very precise when making the cut on the tape, it is kinda like a hit and miss, tape is cheap. JG valve makes it a little easier but you will need to clean the salt creep off it every few month.



You want the water level to be just an inch or so above the durso inlet, too high means too much air, water level fluctuation in the overflow box or gargling is caused by not enough venting.



I don?t think you can silence the water flow sound even if the durso is optimally tuned.

 

[Rborgia]

I had the rushing sound of water as well. I tried modifying the return pipe cap, that resolved the toilet bowl effect (enlarged the hole). but what I did to get rid of the rushing sound of water was to slightly close the ball valve from the tank to the sump.... just a little. Its great now and I have no complaints.

You can see it in this picture to the top left...

Rich

 

[nycmat]

my friend puts bio balls in his over flow box if you dont care about nitrates and you can also use the filter soc method or put a glass canopy on it

 

[zahner]

Tape will be a temporary fix, it will fall off eventually if you don?t replace it frequently. It does not have to be very precise when making the cut on the tape, it is kinda like a hit and miss, tape is cheap. JG valve makes it a little easier but you will need to clean the salt creep off it every few month.



You want the water level to be just an inch or so above the durso inlet, too high means too much air, water level fluctuation in the overflow box or gargling is caused by not enough venting.



I don?t think you can silence the water flow sound even if the durso is optimally tuned.

i think i am gonna try and tap the hole in the cap and use a JG valve or something similar.

I had the rushing sound of water as well. I tried modifying the return pipe cap, that resolved the toilet bowl effect (enlarged the hole). but what I did to get rid of the rushing sound of water was to slightly close the ball valve from the tank to the sump.... just a little. Its great now and I have no complaints.

so you have restricted the drain, is that right? i read some other people doing that but i was worried about causing the tank to overflow if a snail takes a ride down the drain or something. but that's one way to keep the drain line filled with water i suppose, which is what i really want. have you had it running a long time like that?

 

[cali_reef]

so you have restricted the drain, is that right? i read some other people doing that but i was worried about causing the tank to overflow if a snail takes a ride down the drain or something. but that's one way to keep the drain line filled with water i suppose, which is what i really want. have you had it running a long time like that?

You concern is 100% on the money, a snail clogging it is like lottery but with very good odds of winning(clogging). Just matter of time.

 

[ECFENCING]

Terrence: This is off topic but how is the eheim working for you? Just got one used from a manhattan reefs member and will plug it in tomorrow if I can find an adapter.

 

[zahner]

hey Ernie
it works great so far, pretty quiet as far as i can tell with all the other noise.

 

[ECFENCING]

Terrence

Glad the eheim pump is working out for you. Can't wait to replace my noisy mag 7.

 

[neptune]

Stick A Platino In It...