Herbie overflow loud

PSCoral · Nov 4, 2024

I just finished my Herbie overflow on my 75 gallon breeder with the Fiji cube lopro 800gph. There was a whirlpool in my overflow box and a lot of air bubbles in my main drain. I had it completely silent for about an hour then it started back up and I couldn’t get it to be silent after almost half a day of adjusting the flow and valve. I have the tank drained as I plan to redesign my plumbing. Any suggestions would be appreciated as this is my first time ever plumbing a sump.

Cichlid Dad · Nov 4, 2024

You need a U cap with a hole drilled on the drain

PSCoral · Nov 4, 2024

Cichlid Dad said:
You need a U cap with a hole drilled on the drain

On the top in the over flow box ?

PSCoral · Nov 4, 2024

Would it also be more beneficial to try and get rid of as many 90 degree elbows as possible?

waqas_01 · Nov 4, 2024

If you're redoing the plumbing, move your gate valve as close to the exit end of the pipe as you can. The exit of this pipe needs to be 1/2" in below the water. Your main drain pipe needs to be full of water to prevent noise.

All other pipes should go to your sump without any valves (unless you put them there just for occassional service).

I couldn't tell if you are using a gate valve or ball valve from the pictures, but you definitely need a gate valve to make very small adjustments.

Do you have any water going down the emergency drain line(s)? If so keep opening your gate valve until you have just a trickle going down the emergency. if you have the gate valve open all the way and you still have water going down the emergency, you're pumping too much water with your return pump - dial your pump down.

waqas_01 · Nov 4, 2024

PSCoral said:
Would it also be more beneficial to try and get rid of as many 90 degree elbows as possible?

They're ok as long as your gate valve is past those elbows (towards the exit side). This way everything is full of water until it gets to your valve.

Even then with the exit 1/2" below the water line you'll never hear a thing.

PSCoral · Nov 4, 2024

waqas_01 said:
If you're redoing the plumbing, move your gate valve as close to the exit end of the pipe as you can. The exit of this pipe needs to be 1/2" in below the water. Your main drain pipe needs to be full of water to prevent noise.

All other pipes should go to your sump without any valves (unless you put them there just for occassional service).

I couldn't tell if you are using a gate valve or ball valve from the pictures, but you definitely need a gate valve to make very small adjustments.

Do you have any water going down the emergency drain line(s)? If so keep opening your gate valve until you have just a trickle going down the emergency. if you have the gate valve open all the way and you still have water going down the emergency, you're pumping too much water with your return pump - dial your pump down.

I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it

waqas_01 said:
If you're redoing the plumbing, move your gate valve as close to the exit end of the pipe as you can. The exit of this pipe needs to be 1/2" in below the water. Your main drain pipe needs to be full of water to prevent noise.

All other pipes should go to your sump without any valves (unless you put them there just for occassional service).

I couldn't tell if you are using a gate valve or ball valve from the pictures, but you definitely need a gate valve to make very small adjustments.

Do you have any water going down the emergency drain line(s)? If so keep opening your gate valve until you have just a trickle going down the emergency. if you have the gate valve open all the way and you still have water going down the emergency, you're pumping too much water with your return pump - dial your pump down.

I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it But I’d always end up with lots of noise and a whirlpool. I got it silent one time but I couldn’t recreate it

waqas_01 · Nov 4, 2024

PSCoral said:
I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it

I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it But I’d always end up with lots of noise and a whirlpool. I got it silent one time but I couldn’t recreate it

Set your pump to something the overflow can handle like 4-600gph. Then adjust your gate valve, once you get one, until you can get it silent. Gate valve is a must so you can make the tiny adjustments.

There's a point after which the overflow box just can't keep silent. It might be beyond the 800gph that they mention but it's easier to start off lower and get it dialed in.

waqas_01 · Nov 4, 2024

PSCoral said:
I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it

I was using a regular ball valve , I was thinking of going with a true union ball valve but I’ll see if I can order a gate valve instead. Also when I had it flowing I had my valve all the way open and turned up the pump until there was a significant amount of water above the main drain pipe then slowly started to close it But I’d always end up with lots of noise and a whirlpool. I got it silent one time but I couldn’t recreate it

Also if you were able to make it silent once, that tells me your adjustments on the valve are too large when you're chasing that sweet point.

PSCoral · Nov 4, 2024

Yea it was silent for around an hour then it started sucking air, also yea the ball valve knob was not smoothly turning to it was hard to make tiny adjustments

Dburr1014 · Nov 4, 2024

PSCoral said:
I just finished my Herbie overflow on my 75 gallon breeder with the Fiji cube lopro 800gph. There was a whirlpool in my overflow box and a lot of air bubbles in my main drain. I had it completely silent for about an hour then it started back up and I couldn’t get it to be silent after almost half a day of adjusting the flow and valve. I have the tank drained as I plan to redesign my plumbing. Any suggestions would be appreciated as this is my first time ever plumbing a sump.

waqas_01 said:
If you're redoing the plumbing, move your gate valve as close to the exit end of the pipe as you can. The exit of this pipe needs to be 1/2" in below the water. Your main drain pipe needs to be full of water to prevent noise.

All other pipes should go to your sump without any valves (unless you put them there just for occassional service).

I couldn't tell if you are using a gate valve or ball valve from the pictures, but you definitely need a gate valve to make very small adjustments.

Do you have any water going down the emergency drain line(s)? If so keep opening your gate valve until you have just a trickle going down the emergency. if you have the gate valve open all the way and you still have water going down the emergency, you're pumping too much water with your return pump - dial your pump down.

+1 to this^ Definitely use a gate valve. Ball valves don't have enough fine tuning.

Also, you don't HAVE to have a "u" in the overflow....as long as the main in separated in height enough not to start a funnel on the main. It would be wise to have a screen to keep snails or debris from going in also.