Help - How To Silent Loud Overflow Box?

[Lou City Reefing]

Hello everyone,

I need a little help with this issue I’m having.

Hey everyone quick question. This isn’t my first tank, but it is my first tank with a sump. I’ve got the gate valve pretty dialed in, just need a little adjustment, but the overflow is so freaking loud. Any advice how to silence it? I thought putting a gate balance on the main drain and adjusting that to where the water level was just below the top of the emergency overflow is how you did that?

It’s a 75 gallon tank w/a 20 gallon long sump and an Eshopps Eclipse (small) Overflow. Any advice to please help me silence this?

Video attached

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Is the noise coming from the sump or the back over flow coming out of the back of the tank?

 

[Lou City Reefing]

Is the noise coming from the sump or the back over flow coming out of the back of the tank?

It’s coming from the overflow inside the tank

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It’s coming from the overflow inside the tank

Are you pumping to much flow? I had this same issue with a fijicube, it handles much less flow than predicted

 

[Lou City Reefing]

Is the noise coming from

Are you pumping to much flow? I had this same issue with a fijicube, it handles much less flow than predicted

I don’t believe so, I’m using a Jebao 3500 at 60(%?) it says 60 “gears”, I could try to slow it down and see. Let me try!

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It’s coming from the overflow inside the tank

I made the teeth bigger on the internal overflow box(inside the tank) then the noise was coming from where it transfers from the internal overflow to the ext overflow at the tank bulk head, for that I had to raise the emergency drain hight to almost the top.

 

[Lou City Reefing]

I made the teeth bigger on the internal overflow box(inside the tank) then the noise was coming from where it transfers from the internal overflow to the ext overflow at the tank bulk head, for that I had to raise the emergency drain hight to almost the top.

I just noticed my video wasn't working here is the video of the noise

 

[Kodski]

Eshopps overflows are junk. I hate mine. Its super loud from the weir too. Many people have the same issue. Its just down to their design. I have a large, and anything over 500-600gph is noisy. Can't wait to get rid of it.

 

[Lou City Reefing]

Eshopps overflows are junk. I hate mine. Its super loud from the weir too. Many people have the same issue. Its just down to their design. I have a large, and anything over 500-600gph is noisy. Can't wait to get rid of it.

what’re you going to go with?

 

[Kodski]

what’re you going to go with?

I'm upgrading tanks soon and my new tank has dual built in overflows on the back walls. If I were to buy one to replace what I've got it would be a modular marine overflow. I kick myself for not getting one in the first place. At the time they weren't taking any orders so I went with the Eshopps. Occasionally Modular Marine closes for a few weeks at a time to catch up on orders. Since its usually no more than 3 weeks, I really wish I would have waited.

 

[Lou City Reefing]

Eshopps overflows are junk. I hate mine. Its super loud from the weir too. Many people have the same issue. Its just down to their design. I have a large, and anything over 500-600gph is noisy. Can't wait to get rid of it.

Hey! I just wanted to follow up on this! I cut a piece of PVC piping and replaced the emergency drain. The new pipe was roughly 1”-1.5” taller and it made it DEAD silent. I’m sure if you tried that but it’s worth a shot!

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I made the teeth bigger on the internal overflow box(inside the tank) then the noise was coming from where it transfers from the internal overflow to the ext overflow at the tank bulk head, for that I had to raise the emergency drain hight to almost the top.

 

[Lou City Reefing]

I’m not sure how to go about making the teeth bigger while the overflow is in the tank now.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I’m not sure how to go about making the teeth bigger while the overflow is in the tank now.

You can drain it down below the weir level and remove it, then use something like a dremmel tool, or just leave it for now that you raised the emergency, just slow the flow for the noise at the weir

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Oops edit

 

[Kodski]

Hey! I just wanted to follow up on this! I cut a piece of PVC piping and replaced the emergency drain. The new pipe was roughly 1”-1.5” taller and it made it DEAD silent. I’m sure if you tried that but it’s worth a shot!

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately I did try that and it helped some, but didn't solve the noise entirely for me. I have my PVC so high that any higher and the water would flood out of the overflow box before going down the emergency drain line.

 

[minus9]

I find most people are running way too high of turnover, which causes a lot of problems, noise being one of them. Also, if it's just a single primary drain, then sump water level regarding the return chamber will fluctuate if not kept even with top off. I find that just a little difference in pump pressure and less head pressure on the pump will change the amount the noise in the overflow when the water level in the return chamber drops. I have an IM25 ext with a single drain (and one emergency drain) and if the sump level changes, so does the amount of noise in the overflow. We don't need a crazy amount of turnover from the sump to the display. 1-3x is more than enough to get the job done.

 

[Kodski]

I find most people are running way too high of turnover, which causes a lot of problems, noise being one of them. Also, if it's just a single primary drain, then sump water level regarding the return chamber will fluctuate if not kept even with top off. I find that just a little difference in pump pressure and less head pressure on the pump will change the amount the noise in the overflow when the water level in the return chamber drops. I have an IM25 ext with a single drain (and one emergency drain) and if the sump level changes, so does the amount of noise in the overflow. We don't need a crazy amount of turnover from the sump to the display. 1-3x is more than enough to get the job done.

I'm gonna disagree with you on several points.

1) I run the Eclipse Large overflow with three drains. Fluctuations are not my issue as this setup makes the irrelevant. OP may run into this issue but, we are not talking about the noise traveling through the pipes. Rather the noise the water makes pouring over the overflow weir into the overflow box.

2) The flowrate that I'm running is MUCH less than the advertised amount the overflow is "rated" for by Eshopps. Many people have the same experience. Hence why I would never recommend an Eshopps overflow to anyone. If I were to try and run 1000 GPH through my large overflow like its rated, it would sound like a white water rapids.

3) For most applications, a high turnover through the sump isn't needed, correct. Not all though, my particular setup I need to run at least 5x volume through my sump, otherwise my display temp falls below my targeted temp. Plus, for those who have biological filtration in their sump, a higher turnover rate will always help to make it more efficient. Or also in my case, I use my return to help with random flow in my peninsula tank. So to me, I'd love to be able to crank up my return pump.

 

[subman719]

I too had a noisy overflow so I throttled down the pump output about halfway on the valve. Noise was minimal. Once that AC, non-adjustable pump failed, I replaced it with a variable speed DC pump. I’m only running level 2 out of 4 speeds, and it’s nice and quiet! Slower turnover in your sump will give your skimmer time to do its job extracting waste. Make up your tank flow with power heads.

 

[minus9]

I'm gonna disagree with you on several points.

1) I run the Eclipse Large overflow with three drains. Fluctuations are not my issue as this setup makes the irrelevant. OP may run into this issue but, we are not talking about the noise traveling through the pipes. Rather the noise the water makes pouring over the overflow weir into the overflow box.

2) The flowrate that I'm running is MUCH less than the advertised amount the overflow is "rated" for by Eshopps. Many people have the same experience. Hence why I would never recommend an Eshopps overflow to anyone. If I were to try and run 1000 GPH through my large overflow like its rated, it would sound like a white water rapids.

3) For most applications, a high turnover through the sump isn't needed, correct. Not all though, my particular setup I need to run at least 5x volume through my sump, otherwise my display temp falls below my targeted temp. Plus, for those who have biological filtration in their sump, a higher turnover rate will always help to make it more efficient. Or also in my case, I use my return to help with random flow in my peninsula tank. So to me, I'd love to be able to crank up my return pump.

Bean animal style overflows are a different thing altogether. Once dialed in, they’re super quiet or they should be. Running anything at its max capacity is never efficient and will cause more issues. 1000gph on any overflow is going to be noisy regardless of how many drains there are. I don’t know anyone who’s running these large overflows near max. Running a single primary drain is going to be tougher and you’ll need to make adjustments to the flow rate to get it as quiet as you can. Bean animal style drains are designed for safety and higher turnover, but can be noisy if not properly tuned. For the OP’s tank 1-2x turnover is plenty and should help quiet down the overflow and still exchange/distribute the water effectively. Also, if your turnover Is too high, then detritus won’t settle in the sump where it should. I also don’t buy higher turnover is better for effective biological filtration. Most biological filtration takes place in lower flow, so that argument doesn’t work. Maybe in a large trickle filter, but those are super inefficient biological filters.
The OP should adjust the gate valve until the water level is just below the teeth of the weir and that will minimize the noise. It’s not going to be dead quiet, but should reduce the noise considerably.