How do you eliminate the vortex inside a overflow box?

[Aqua Splendor]

I believe it's currently well adjusted however there's some noise which I believe it's created by the vortex sucking air in the main drain.
I'm not quite sure which way to handle this to prevent it, curious to know your idea?

 

[shakacuz]

gate valve

 

[KStatefan]

Less flow or raise the water level

 

[Aqua Splendor]

Less flow or raise the water level

Yeah that doesn't work.

 

[Aqua Splendor]

gate valve

Sorry when I said adjusted I imply I have one, I wasn't clear enough sorry.

 

[shakacuz]

Sorry when I said adjusted I imply I have one, I wasn't clear enough sorry.

you have to go back and forth with your gate valve and ball valve (assuming you have one on your return line) until you find the sweet spot. generally you want the water level on your overflow to be just under the emergency drain by a few mm’s. but the return pump/line must match the drain to remove the vortex or loud gurgling

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Take the Pipe out, and take a Hack saw and cut some Thin Slots in it. Four should do the trick. BTW If you also want to be able to adjust the water level, with using the slots. Get a Schedule 80 PVC Nipple, put a Schedule 40 PVC Nipple on the Threaded end, cut the threads off the other end. Cut your slots in the Threaded Coupling. If you get a long enough PVC Nipple you can have two sections to play with.

 

[SchrutesReefs]

I had to adjust my gate valve simultaneously with my return pump (DC) in order to get silence.

 

[DeniseAndy]

It takes a bit of time, but eventually I found the right spot with my gate valve. I had to replce the ball valve as it was not fine tuned enough to make it silent.

 

[MONTANTK]

I’ve always ran it with an elbow at the top and then drilled a hole and inserted a straw and never had any issues

 

[ilikefish69]

I had same problem, have an overflow box that was super loud. Did some googling and found this trick, it's basically a PVC pipe J-shape.

When I say this thing is silent, I mean it does not make any noise at all. SiLeNt.

 

[Aqua Splendor]

Thank you for the suggestion, by simply reducing the return flow was enough to prevent the air sucking in the vortex on the right. I was touching only the overflow initially.
My initial solution was to just put something in L on the right underwater to break the shape of the vortex, which had more flow this way.


The adjustment is extremely sensitive, I'm talking about 1/10 of mm of rotation.

 

[SPS2020]

You'll probably find your "fix" will go out of adjustment at some point due to the build-up of algae, etc. Fabricating a Bean Animal Drain like mentioned above should help; although those may need a little adjustment every now and then as well.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I had same problem, have an overflow box that was super loud. Did some googling and found this trick, it's basically a PVC pipe J-shape.

When I say this thing is silent, I mean it does not make any noise at all. SiLeNt.

Btw, your airline is too long to make that effective. The entire point of having a hole at the top, is to allow air to move in and out when not under full siphon, But as soon as water covers the tube, it creates a full siphon to draw down the water level quickly. In your photo, You're overflow box will be overflowing before it gets into full siphon. Cut that thing down to an inch or less if you want it to work as designed.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I believe it's currently well adjusted however there's some noise which I believe it's created by the vortex sucking air in the main drain.
I'm not quite sure which way to handle this to prevent it, curious to know your idea?

I'm assuming this is a herbie style, so there is a full siphon to the right of the pipe we can see, correct?

If so, your main drain is on the right, That gray tube is your emergency overflow. Water level on the emergency overflow should be equal +/- 1mm. You can already see the swirling above the pipe which yes is going to make noise. There should be nothing more than a trickle running over that pipe during normal operation for the quietest setup.

 

[Aqua Splendor]

Just to clarify: The noise was coming from the main drain on the right which create a strong vortex that suck up air, the emergency drain on the left is fine.

You'll probably find your "fix" will go out of adjustment at some point due to the build-up of algae, etc. Fabricating a Bean Animal Drain like mentioned above should help; although those may need a little adjustment every now and then as well.

Yeah I do worry A LOT about that, it's all clean for now but we all know how it goes

 

[SPS2020]

Ahh...thanks for the clarification. In that case, a bulkhead strainer may help with the vortex on the main drain.

 

[Aqua Splendor]

Oh I like that piece, good idea!

 

[ilikefish69]

Btw, your airline is too long to make that effective. The entire point of having a hole at the top, is to allow air to move in and out when not under full siphon, But as soon as water covers the tube, it creates a full siphon to draw down the water level quickly. In your photo, You're overflow box will be overflowing before it gets into full siphon. Cut that thing down to an inch or less if you want it to work as designed.

Is the airline for muffling sound or acting as a secondary overflow? Lol, I might be misinformed. Will need to cut it below the top of the box if it is for emergency purposes, but I just thought it was to keep the noise level down

 

[SPS2020]

Is the airline for muffling sound or acting as a secondary overflow? Lol, I might be misinformed. Will need to cut it below the top of the box if it is for emergency purposes, but I just thought it was to keep the noise level down

It provides air to the drain which controls the syphon (and sound). An air valve at the end can also manipulate the flow. As recommended above, cut the air line a bit so that it will be submerged before an overflow occurs.