Internal overflow box loud (but external silent?)

[NancyFish]

Tanks about a year old, and used to be silent. My external overflow and the pipes are still quiet but lately the internal box has become loud - I tried turning flow down but that just makes the external loud. And I tried cleaning the weirs. Waterline hits about halfway point on the weirs. I just don’t know why it used to be silent and now I hear this water rushing noise all the time and how to fix it? I thought about a sponge but that’s just catching more debris and would need regular maintenance (feels like a bandaid).

Any advice or tips?

 

[mmorrison55]

Im kind of confused on what you mean by internal overflow and external overflow. Do you really have an internal and external overflow in your tank or do you mean the main drain vs emergency drain of the overflow?

Do you have a Durso, Herbie, or bean animal overflow set up?

Overflow Boxes and Drain Styles - Durso, Herbie, and Bean Animal

Decide which of the three most common types of drains and overflow boxes is right for you and your tank.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I personally have the herbie and I know sometimes I have to adjust my gate valve so that the water level is between the main overflow and emergency overflow or I get some noise.

Sometimes the water is too high due to my fleece roller having not cycled and is not letting the water flow as it should.

 

[mmorrison55]

Pics may help

 

[Ziggy17]

Could be time to clean the valve on the downspout. Or there may be a snail caught in the main downspout that could be throwing things off. I had that issue last year, all the tinkering in the world wouldn’t fix it. Took off the downspout and found a snail that had gotten in the overflow, grew, and eventually went down the downspout and got stuck just below the bulk head in the first 90.

 

[NancyFish]

Im kind of confused on what you mean by internal overflow and external overflow. Do you really have an internal and external overflow in your tank or do you mean the main drain vs emergency drain of the overflow?

Do you have a Durso, Herbie, or bean animal overflow set up?

Overflow Boxes and Drain Styles - Durso, Herbie, and Bean Animal

Decide which of the three most common types of drains and overflow boxes is right for you and your tank.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I personally have the herbie and I know sometimes I have to adjust my gate valve so that the water level is between the main overflow and emergency overflow or I get some noise.

Sometimes the water is too high due to my fleece roller having not cycled and is not letting the water flow as it should.

The picture in your link kind of depicts it, I have the internal skimmer box that pulls water in to the bulkheads that connect to the external overflow box.

The external box and my actual pipes (I have 3 - trickle, emergency, & main) are quiet. It’s the internal box making the noise. All the pipes look clear, and I tried cleaning it. It was silent a few months ago so idk what changed.

 

[NancyFish]

Could be time to clean the valve on the downspout. Or there may be a snail caught in the main downspout that could be throwing things off. I had that issue last year, all the tinkering in the world wouldn’t fix it. Took off the downspout and found a snail that had gotten in the overflow, grew, and eventually went down the downspout and got stuck just below the bulk head in the first 90.

But it’s not really my plumbing. The external box that has my drain pipes is quiet. It’s inside the tank, my internal skimmer box and all that is a tiny thin box with weirs on both sides, and that connects to big bulkheads to my external box outside the tank.

It used to be silent, but lately it just makes sucking whooshing noises and I cleaned it so idk what else to do.

 

[mmorrison55]

So the noise is coming from the water flowing through the weir into the overflow?

 

[get-salty]

The picture in your link kind of depicts it, I have the internal skimmer box that pulls water in to the bulkheads that connect to the external overflow box.

The external box and my actual pipes (I have 3 - trickle, emergency, & main) are quiet. It’s the internal box making the noise. All the pipes look clear, and I tried cleaning it. It was silent a few months ago so idk what changed.

Please take few photos and post them. Will def help out

 

[NancyFish]

So the noise is coming from the water flowing through the weir into the overflow?

Yes, and the waterline is like halfway down and it’s clean.. it really doesn’t look any different than when I set it up, so I’m at a loss of how to fix it.

I tried turning my return flow down, but that just caused the external box pipes to be loud

 

[NancyFish]

Please take few photos and post them. Will def help out

Sorry for the crappy photos but it’s this tiny internal box that’s loud.

 

[Freenow54]

But it’s not really my plumbing. The external box that has my drain pipes is quiet. It’s inside the tank, my internal skimmer box and all that is a tiny thin box with weirs on both sides, and that connects to big bulkheads to my external box outside the tank.

It used to be silent, but lately it just makes sucking whooshing noises and I cleaned it so idk what else to do.

I cut a pice of rubber shoe tray and used a clip to hold it higher solved my problem. Also got rid of my filter sock

 

[kroller]

OP, did you ever figure this out? I have the same problem - silent Herbie into the sump, but loud overflow into the internal skimmer box.

 

[NancyFish]

OP, did you ever figure this out? I have the same problem - silent Herbie into the sump, but loud overflow into the internal skimmer box.

I haven’t. Anything I do with my returns only makes pipes louder - and the whole unit was silent months ago. Problem is the internal skimmer box weirs. Made sure they’re clean. I’m sure a sponge would quiet it but I’m not interested in the maintenance of that.

Kind of put it to the back burner, so if you figure it out feel free to share lol.

 

[kroller]

I haven’t. Anything I do with my returns only makes pipes louder - and the whole unit was silent months ago. Problem is the internal skimmer box weirs. Made sure they’re clean. I’m sure a sponge would quiet it but I’m not interested in the maintenance of that.

Kind of put it to the back burner, so if you figure it out feel free to share lol.

On another thread, someone mentioned cutting a sponge to fit into the skimmer box and it completely silenced the water. That's not ideal, and you basically create a mechanical prefilter that you'll have to clean, but if it's silent, then I'm gonna try it.

 

[jdmee]

How high is the water in the overflow box? If it is too low you might need to raise it.

 

[kroller]

How high is the water in the overflow box? If it is too low you might need to raise it.

In the back section, the water is high - just under the emergency drain pipe. In the internal skimmer box, it's low. I have an Eshopps M overflow. That's where the noise is coming from.

 

[NancyFish]

How high is the water in the overflow box? If it is too low you might need to raise it.

Mine is 75% on the internal box that is loud, but the external box it hits just at my second pipe (trickle drain) and not close to the emergency

 

[NancyFish]

On another thread, someone mentioned cutting a sponge to fit into the skimmer box and it completely silenced the water. That's not ideal, and you basically create a mechanical prefilter that you'll have to clean, but if it's silent, then I'm gonna try it.

It’s a quick fix for sure. Not sure how big your internal box is but mines like 1/2” deep. I feel like it would clog pretty quickly and honestly I rather it not risk overflowing — unless maybe you didn’t have it to the top of your weirs?