Reducing Overflow Noise

[Austin B]

Hello All!
I just installed a hang on the back pvc overflow that lands inside my weir. It’s working great but it’s SO loud. Does anyone have some good strategies for noice reduction?

 

[DLHDesign]

The gurgling may be caused by a siphon breaking and reestablishing over and over. Hard to say for sure without at least seeing your setup (a picture would really help), but that's a common cause of noise in overflow boxes.
You could also check out this video to see if it's the same problem (and it offers a DIY solution if so).
Note that this solution does involve a higher risk of the drain clogging. I'd only do something like this if you had some redundancy (such as the double drain from the video).

 

[Austin B]

The gurgling may be caused by a siphon breaking and reestablishing over and over. Hard to say for sure without at least seeing your setup (a picture would really help), but that's a common cause of noise in overflow boxes.
You could also check out this video to see if it's the same problem (and it offers a DIY solution if so).
Note that this solution does involve a higher risk of the drain clogging. I'd only do something like this if you had some redundancy (such as the double drain from the video).

Thank you! I have photos and a video. Can they be uploaded on here via mobile phone?

 

[Austin B]

Oh here we go!
I have video but apparently can’t uppoad here

 

[bblumberg]

Hello All!
I just installed a hang on the back pvc overflow that lands inside my weir. It’s working great but it’s SO loud. Does anyone have some good strategies for noice reduction?

Is the sound splashing water falling into the overflow or is it gurgling in the pipes? Or both? It appears from your pictures that the water is falling a long way. The best way to reduce that is to allow the water in the overflow to rise so that it doesn't fall as far. A gate valve on the output to reduce the flow from the overflow could do the trick. As noted by DLHdesign, if you only have one pipe from the overflow to the sump, there is always the risk of overflowing, particularly if you reduce the flow out of the tank...

 

[Reef-junky]

What size tank is that? Can it be drained and drilled? That is one of the worst overflow set ups that you can have. It has no fail safe. Not to get on a soap box but it only takes one flood. Besides that your set up is know for making noise.

 

[Reef-junky]

Is the sound splashing water falling into the overflow or is it gurgling in the pipes? Or both? It appears from your pictures that the water is falling a long way. The best way to reduce that is to allow the water in the overflow to rise so that it doesn't fall as far. A gate valve on the output to reduce the flow from the overflow could do the trick. As noted by DLHdesign, if you only have one pipe from the overflow to the sump, there is always the risk of overflowing, particularly if you reduce the flow out of the tank...

I would not put a gate valve or any restriction on a single drain pipe. That's just asking for a flood. All that is going to do is increase the chance of the pipe becoming blocked or plugged. The best thing to do is do it right the first time with a Bean Animal or Herbie drain.

 

[Austin B]

Unfortunately it is an established tank that is tempered. I was planning to drill originally but found out at the last minute that it is in fact tempered glass. There is an aqualifter on the overflow as a failsafe.

The water is falling a long way and I was thinking maybe if I shorten the pipe in the tank that it would force that water to rise. Would that work?

 

[Reef-junky]

Unfortunately it is an established tank that is tempered. I was planning to drill originally but found out at the last minute that it is in fact tempered glass. There is an aqualifter on the overflow as a failsafe.

The water is falling a long way and I was thinking maybe if I shorten the pipe in the tank that it would force that water to rise. Would that work?

Search how to quiet a durso standpipe a host of problems and ideas on how to fix them will come up. I would not put a valve on that pipe though. At least the pump is something as far as a back up.

 

[Reef-junky]

Thinking about this some more you could do a Herbie drain with a U pipe. Not sure how much better that would really be though. It would add an emergency pipe and allow the drain to be silent. The risk would still be the siphon over the top of the tank though. Not sure if it would be worth it.

 

[Austin B]

Thank you all for the responses! The gurgling has basically gone away after just letting it adjust for the day so now the only noise is the water falling into the weir. I don't see why i couldn't shorten the intake pipe a bit to raise the overall water level. If it causes problems I can aways throw a coupling on it and drop it back down.

 

[Engloid]

With an overflow box this style (inside and outside box), it's essentially a siphon. As water drains from the outside box, the level in it lowers, sucking water from the inside box, in an attempt to make both the same level. Therefore, if you want to make water in the inside box higher, you must make it higher in the outside box. You may be able to do that with a standpipe or something in the outside box.

Sometimes, people tend to run so much flow through a small overflow, that the water becomes pretty noisy. Think about how a bubble trap in a sump works. If you run the right water flow, there are no bubbles created as water runs down the wall. If you run too much flow, it bubbles as it hits the water surface. You don't want your weir to have so much flow that you get noise or bubbles, for the same reason. Not only that, but any microbubbles will wind up collecting inside your siphon tube.

Something else I have done is gotten foam and put it in the inside box, so that the water would run down the inside of the box and hits it...stopping any bubbling and silencing noise. Just make sure it's in there tight or in a location that it can't stop up the siphon tube.

 

[mcarroll]

Too much flow is a common cause of noise. Do you know the actual flow rate you're getting?

 

[Austin B]

With an overflow box this style (inside and outside box), it's essentially a siphon. As water drains from the outside box, the level in it lowers, sucking water from the inside box, in an attempt to make both the same level. Therefore, if you want to make water in the inside box higher, you must make it higher in the outside box. You may be able to do that with a standpipe or something in the outside box.

Sometimes, people tend to run so much flow through a small overflow, that the water becomes pretty noisy. Think about how a bubble trap in a sump works. If you run the right water flow, there are no bubbles created as water runs down the wall. If you run too much flow, it bubbles as it hits the water surface. You don't want your weir to have so much flow that you get noise or bubbles, for the same reason. Not only that, but any microbubbles will wind up collecting inside your siphon tube.

Something else I have done is gotten foam and put it in the inside box, so that the water would run down the inside of the box and hits it...stopping any bubbling and silencing noise. Just make sure it's in there tight or in a location that it can't stop up the siphon tube.

Awesome thats some great information! Thank you ill mess with the standpipe idea.

Too much flow is a common cause of noise. Do you know the actual flow rate you're getting?

Roughly 500gph

 

[mcarroll]

The drain will be more or less quiet ≤300 GPH.

500 is enough flow for ~120 gallons. How big is the tank?

 

[Austin B]

The drain will be more or less quiet ≤300 GPH.

500 is enough flow for ~120 gallons. How big is the tank?

30 gal

 

[Engloid]

Many people try to get way too much flow through a sump.

 

[mcarroll]

You can freely dial back the flow to around 120 GPH and still be fine for a tank that size. 100-200 GPH should be pretty dead-silent.

(500 GPH is close to the absolute max for 1" pipe, BTW.)

 

[Austin B]

You can freely dial back the flow to around 120 GPH and still be fine for a tank that size. 100-200 GPH should be pretty dead-silent.

(500 GPH is close to the absolute max for 1" pipe, BTW.)

Oh great! Is that bad for the pump to be dialed back like that?
What about some good small wave makers to supplement flow?

 

[mcarroll]

Not generally, but what pump is it?

The Tunze 6045 has excellent bang/buck and should be a great fit for the tank.


Turbelle® nanostream® 6045
For aquariums from 40 to 500 liters (10 to 135 USgal.). Flow rate: 1,500 to about 4,500 l/h (400 to... mehr

6045.000

78.02 USD

There are smaller models if budget is tight, but this one's flow is adjustable down if "too much" flow is a concern. Generally I use these unrestricted on a tank this size though. I'd suggest one on each side, running alternately – the first pump for a few hours on one side of the tank and then the other pump for a few hours on the other side. Repeat – like the tides. Both on together occasionally can be your storm mode. :)

Other models to check out would be the 6020, 6040, 6055 and 6095. Depending on your tank, you might want one or more of those in addition or instead of what I suggested. Check em out! :)