OVERFLOW NOISE DRIVING ME CRAZY!! HELP!

[mfinn]

Once in a while my Herbie drain ( 2 drains) on my 66 gallon tank gets out of balance and water goes into the taller pipe and makes noise. I just have to very, very slightly open the valve on the shorter main drain. This usually corrects it.
I haven't had to do anything to it in maybe 3-4 months.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

aha! i keep forgetting about this! i bet that is what it is! why do i have 2 return pumps? i honestly dont know! lol. thats what you get when you buy someone elses system!

 

[mcarroll]

aha! i keep forgetting about this! i bet that is what it is! why do i have 2 return pumps? i honestly dont know! lol. thats what you get when you buy someone elses system!

All good....maybe they just wanted "backup". Who knows.

Either way, let us know what you find if anything in the primary pipe.

 

[UncommonSense]

aha! i keep forgetting about this! i bet that is what it is! why do i have 2 return pumps? i honestly dont know! lol. thats what you get when you buy someone elses system!

You’ve switched from two Cor-20s to one and a Jebao, so let’s start there!

Also for those above, this is a triple drain tank… I’m surprised nobody else mentioned the plumbing size reduction on the main drain post-gate valve!

@smitten with ocean life, we’ve been over this before, but the new return pump does change things… what % of flow is the new Jebao return pump set at? — if you recall, I had recommended running those dual Cor-20s that came with the tank very low, around 15-20%, primarily to compensate for the aforementioned drain plumbing size reduction!

Not a problem per se, but why two pumps?

This tank was purchased used, and came plumbed for dual return lines and dual return pumps, which were readopted and put right back into service! — the idea being that life support is not lost in the event of a return pump failure or GFCI/breaker trip on one of the tank’s circuits!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

hi! yes, i did replace a pump. quite awhile ago. and everything has been humming along fine. this problem just popped up in the past week. i dont know why i forgot about what you said on adjusting the valve!!

 

[mcarroll]

ive turned the return pumps all the way down until there is almost no water movement and nothing fixes the problem.

I'm not sure how the new pump being new figures into the statement above.

Was the pump changed after the fact of that post?

 

[UncommonSense]

hi! yes, i did replace a pump. quite awhile ago. and everything has been humming along fine. this problem just popped up in the past week. i dont know why i forgot about what you said on adjusting the valve!!

There’s valve adjustments, and there’s the aforementioned primary drain point that’s a clog risk with that plumbing reducer!

I recommended opening the primary drain gate valve all the way to see if that blows out the clog, and escalating to removing that section of plumbing to blast out in reverse with a hose if this clog gets stuck at the post- gate valve drain pipe reducer!