Is your overflow noisy and how can you "dampen" the sound?

[SuncrestReef]

I have a Red Sea Reefer XL 425. The Red Sea diaphragm valve on the overflow pipe required adjustment several times per day and would never maintain a steady water level in my overflow for more than a few hours. It drove me crazy for nearly 3 years. I just recently replaced the Red Sea sump with a new Trigger Platinum sump with integrated roller mat, and rebuilt all the plumbing including a gate valve to replace the diaphragm valve. This setup is now dead silent! I couldn’t be happier.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

I have a hang on back filter

 

[HJ99]

Modular Marine with a Bean Animal setup. It takes some tuning but silent except for a very slight trickle sound down the secondary. I have a basement sump with a couple of near horizontal runs so I think that is unavoidable.

I was getting some slight gurgle with water falling into the overflow box from the weir box. Adjusting the gate valve couldn't stop it. I recently fixed that by making the secondary pipe higher. The secondary needs to be high enough that the level in the box is the same as what the tank, weir is running . Now it's silent. I can hear the Iwaki cranking away in the basement more than anything.

 

[Murphs_reef]

I have a little bit of noise from my drain as it runs with a trickle. The pipe is about an inch above the water so there is a beer glass under it lol

 

[NanoLuke]

I have a 20 gallon nano tank without a sump so my "overflow" is a hang-on-back filter that you would typically see in freshwater tanks. I run it primarily because I like to have a little carbon in there to filter out toxins. The good news is that most brands, mine included, have done a pretty good job of fine-tuning the product to be quiet since it is a high priority with those things. It only gets noisy when the water gets too low, which is a good motivator for me to fill it up.

 

[strike2867]

I turned a standard two hole overflow into a herbie without drilling another hole. Instead the return is inside of the safety pipe. Dead silent and safe. If anybody is interested I can document.

 

[LuisPerez711]

I have a 120g with a Herbie style overflow and it is silent. My tank sits 4 ft from my bed so my main goal was to have the system be as quiet as possible. The loudest part of my system is my return pump, an RO Varios 8. That DC pump hum is next on my list to try and quiet down.

If anyone is looking for a silent skimmer that works well I would definitely recommend the Nyos brand.

 

[TaylorPilot]

Nope, but I've put a little effort into my design.

 

[SamMule]

I voted yes. My tank is an SPS dominant AIO. The surface is so turbulent, when flowing into the back section, it sounds like there is water running in my living room.
I don't mind it though. Helps drown out the noise from the fans (and skimmer when it was running)

 

[dbowman5]

count me as a yes.
when i drilled my tank, rimmed, i set the holes far enough down so that the inside box was below the rim; so that the holes were far enough from the edge of the glass to keep from cracking out. As a result of this the fall from the weir to the inside box level is far enough to splash. I thought the splashing/gurgling noise would take place in my basement where the sump is. I just realized that perhaps an insert in the inside box: perf, mesh, or egg crate, might break up the waterfall. worth a try. ok, now i will page up to review your comments to see what else will work, lol

 

[laverda]

count me as a yes.
when i drilled my tank, rimmed, i set the holes far enough down so that the inside box was below the rim; so that the holes were far enough from the edge of the glass to keep from cracking out. As a result of this the fall from the weir to the inside box level is far enough to splash. I thought the splashing/gurgling noise would take place in my basement where the sump is. I just realized that perhaps an insert in the inside box: perf, mesh, or egg crate, might break up the waterfall. worth a try. ok, now i will page up to review your comments to see what else will work, lol

You can raise the level in the inside box by raising the drain pipes in the outer box. Or just put a sponge in the inner box.

 

[Zonly1]

Have the Synergy 16" on my 210. Not gonna lie, it was a PITA to get quiet, but once I did, pure nirvana.

 

[dbowman5]

You can raise the level in the inside box by raising the drain pipes in the outer box. Or just put a sponge in the inner box.

victory due to the question of the day!!! change me to NO!!

I cut a piece of egg crate to the dimensions of my inside box and inserted it. Dead quiet!!!
i am using a piece of cross stitch fabric for the top to keep jumpers out of the box since it did not come with a cover. two little pieces of zip tie through the corners to keep it in place. the foam insert worried me too because of detritus plugging but egg crate does not pose that issue and can easily be pulled up for inspection!! an add to my build thread!

 

[design.maddie]

Red Sea Reefer 200XL overflow is silent. If you are able to hear it at all, it just sounds like you are listening to water, not splashing, sloshing, gurgling, slurping, draining. Rather nice actually. The air that is getting sucked by the protein skimmer is rather loud and my snails, they just love getting massages from my pumps and just sit next to them buzzing. My LEDs sound like a computer sitting on top of my tank because of the fans. If you catch my tank when 1 or 2 dosers are going, yeah, not worried about my overflow. I have no idea how people keep tanks in the bed room.

 

[Bars]

Was going to try this solution but was told its a matter of time before it will clog and overflow. To scary for me!

That's true. However, the sponges are only half the width of my overflow box. If they'd clog, water will just run over it without overflowing.

Could you
Could you not extend the length of thr pvc inside the overflow box using a straight cuppler. I did this when my last tank came woth pvc that was cut to short. Ultimately increasing the hight of the tubes.

Although I probably could, it'd be a real pain to do so. The sponges will do for now, I'm not worried about detritus

 

[chadfish]

I just installed an Eshopps Eclipse M and it is INCREDIBLY noisy!! Not the dry-side box.. the wet side weir box. It's just a constant trickle. It's too deep or something. I've done everything I can think of, but can't stop the noise with out a sponge - which is less than ideal.

Anyone have the same problem? i emailed the company and they directed me to Youtube to some guy making his own standpipe. What a JOKE!

 

[chadfish]

Dealing with this issue right now. I have Eclipse L Overflow Box (1000 GPH) on my 120gal and the drop from weir to the box is to high. Moved water up to almost dangerous level and still noise. At the moment waiting on another pump I can adjust the return down because I think what I have installed is pushing around 1300gph at the tank and to much for this overflow.

YES!! This is my EXACT problem, but with the Medium. The water drop in the wet-side overflow is too tall. Do you think that the water level in the inside box could be increased by putting something in there - like blocks or something. I was thinking of trying it with kids blocks (as a test, not permanent) reduce the space at the bottom corners, then maybe the overall level would increase enough to silence it.

I've already tuned the dry-side box to run 1mm below the standpipe.

 

[laverda]

My tank overflow on my 300 gallon tank is a bit different than most. I bought it used and it had 6 holes in the bottom of the overflow already. Non of them were very large. It was impractical to patch over them and drill new holes due the the length of the bulkheads available, plus I was concerned it would weaken the tank too much.
The water level in my overflow is 10" below the weir. I use this as my ATS and it is silent. Basically I have 3 pieces of mesh that the water flows through and down and is lit from the outside.
I have one 3/4" full siphon drain that feeds my skimmer. Then I have two 1" drains that just have 45 degree fittings on the top of them. The fittings have been cleaned up on the inside to eliminate the typical casting lip inside them for smother flow. These are at close to the same height to each other and both flow constantly except at the lowest flow rate. The advantage of the angled fittings is they are quite at high, medium and low flow without any adjustments. I have a third 1" emergency drain without the 45 fitting, as I want it to be noisy if it is in use for any reason.
To see some photos, see my Under $30 ATS thread.

 

[DiefsReef]

I am incredibly happy that I finally have the space for a bean animal overflow. Absolutely dead silent. Full siphon drains are the way to go.

Did make a small mistake when plumbing and made the standpipes too short, which caused a tremendous amount of noise. Redoing it is nearly impossible now, so I placed a bunch of blue filter sponges underneath the weir. Dead silent again and easily removed to rinse the stuff out if you're worried about detritus.

YES!! This is my EXACT problem, but with the Medium. The water drop in the wet-side overflow is too tall. Do you think that the water level in the inside box could be increased by putting something in there - like blocks or something. I was thinking of trying it with kids blocks (as a test, not permanent) reduce the space at the bottom corners, then maybe the overall level would increase enough to silence it.

I've already tuned the dry-side box to run 1mm below the standpipe.

@chadfish @Bars had the same issue and resolved it by using sponge to stop the noise when it drops. I see no issue here if it can overflow the sponge and not completely block the flow.

 

[GillMeister]

I have two holes drilled in each corner overflow. That leaves me no option for a full siphon. Unless someone has any ideas, I'm stuck with this unpleasant gurgle.