Synergy overflow noise

[justingraham]

Yea vectras are now on 30% steady no closed loop and can't be changed by the dials.

Here's the problem with having it above the two holes when I close the valve so the water is that high there is a lot of water going thru my secondary drain causing a lot of bubbles.

Maby if I keep the valve the way it is and turn up the vectras?
I'm at a loss a really am cause I'm pretty handy but I can't seem to dial this in.

I also lowered the emergency drain to 7 3/4 because at eight inches the overflow actually overflowed.

Right now I think I have the secondary drain at approx 5 1/2 inches just to keep all that water from going down it

 

[mixer911]

If you can't change the vectra by the dial then you are having the same issue that I had. I called ecotech support and they had me hard reset the pump 2 xs. You should be able to change the setting with the dial in constant mode. It's a know issue with them. Not talking about closed loop mode. Try it and see what happens. I bet you overflow is dialed in correct.
Once the overflow is quiet the only thing that will change it is either changing the flow or changing the valve setting. If you aren't touching it I bet it's one of the pumps.

 

[justingraham]

Well I have it set up so I can't accidentally adjust it at 30%. Could be tho

So I use reeflink how did u find out urs was doing it?

 

[justingraham]

Also would my powrrheads have anything to do with this eaither I have two wavs blasting in my tank

 

[justingraham]

Ok @mixer911 this is what I have now I raised the water above the bulkheads but now I'm getting noise from the secondary pipe that's even worse then from the weir and rediculous bubbles in the sump

 

[justingraham]

Well I have officially given up

I got it dead quiet but water started leaking over the the top and out

I do not know what I'm doing wrong

I have factory reset both my vectras twice

Still noise so I give up

 

[Dubs83]

Sucks you didn't get a reply

 

[mixer911]

Sucks you didn't get a reply

Didn't get a reply from who? If you are implying that I didn't reply, I would suggest rereading the thread. Unfortunately I don't have the answer to every specific setup. Dual pump setups with variable pumps adds a whole new level of variables to the situation. We have a couple thousand of these overflows out there and people are very happy with them. His issue could be a lot of things and it's hard to say what's going on, especially if it is running perfectly quiet and then it changes. With these overflows, once they are dialed in and quiet you don't need to do anything else to them. It sounds like something else out of my control is going on.

 

[Dubs83]

Didn't get a reply from who? If you are implying that I didn't reply, I would suggest rereading the thread. Unfortunately I don't have the answer to every specific setup. Dual pump setups with variable pumps adds a whole new level of variables to the situation. We have a couple thousand of these overflows out there and people are very happy with them. His issue could be a lot of things and it's hard to say what's going on, especially if it is running perfectly quiet and then it changes. With these overflows, once they are dialed in and quiet you don't need to do anything else to them. It sounds like something else out of my control is going on.

No reason to get testy. I'm experiencing the same problem without his "dual variable speed pumps". I was hoping for a solution here and was disappointed not to find one.

As far as replying, perhaps you should reread the thread. @justingraham posted several questions, including him throwing in the towel, since April 5th. It's May 15th. It seems you've completely abandoned the idea of trying to solve his noise issue inferring that his pumps are the problem. I assure you they're not. A quick google search of "noisy reef synergy shadow overflow" will reveal a number of people having issues, myself included on a single speed AC pump.

Anyway, I'm not trying to stir the pot because I want to like the shadow overflow but it's too noisy and I was hoping to find a solution here.

 

[justingraham]

Ah I have come to the conclusion that the weir is loud after 1100 gph
After talking to several other people who are running the same flow as me that's what we have concluded. The flow is just to much I am going to try filter floss to help the water not to cascade thru the bulkheads but for now I deal with it

Even tho the wife is mad that it's not silent like I promised her worse things have happened.

 

[Dubs83]

Ah I have come to the conclusion that the weir is loud after 1100 gph
After talking to several other people who are running the same flow as me that's what we have concluded. The flow is just to much I am going to try filter floss to help the water not to cascade thru the bulkheads but for now I deal with it

Even tho the wife is mad that it's not silent like I promised her worse things have happened.

Maybe try this.
http://www.glass-holes.com/Enkamat-12-x-13-enkamat.htm

 

[mixer911]

Ah I have come to the conclusion that the weir is loud after 1100 gph
After talking to several other people who are running the same flow as me that's what we have concluded. The flow is just to much I am going to try filter floss to help the water not to cascade thru the bulkheads but for now I deal with it

Even tho the wife is mad that it's not silent like I promised her worse things have happened.

So when you say weir is loud I don't understand. We have ran these with up to 4000 GPH going thru them and the weir was never loud. Are you getting a trickling noise? That is possible at some flow rates in the front box and as @Dubs83 mentioned you can put a small piece of enkamat inside the front box and it will eliminate any trickling that may be happening. As far as the rear box is it running quiet and what flow rate is it running at?

Also curious what your pipe lengths are inside the rear box on the U pipes. These need to be dialed in for your particular flow rate. The lengths we suggest are just starting points and modifications will be needed for some installs.

Maybe try this.
http://www.glass-holes.com/Enkamat-12-x-13-enkamat.htm

Enkamat works great.

 

[justingraham]

I raised the rear pipes secondary and emergency so the water was above the bulkheads.
This silenced it alot as I believe the bulkheads were also in a syphon because there was no air bubbles but it left no room for error and more then a couple times when I was cleaning the inside tank the overflow overflowed.

So I knocked down the size yesterday I'm thinking around 6 1-4 inches I don't know off hand but measuring it in the back box is six and it is really loud now but there is no chance of an overflow now.

I'm getting the fmk soon it's in the mail so I will be able to tell u exact around flo but I'm running two m1 at 80% so I'm thinking 1100-1400 gph.

The noise is a cascading sound from the water going thru the bulkheads to the rear box. When I take the weir off the system is silent till it starts gurgling I've tried both weirs same thing.

 

[mixer911]

I raised the rear pipes secondary and emergency so the water was above the bulkheads.
This silenced it alot as I believe the bulkheads were also in a syphon because there was no air bubbles but it left no room for error and more then a couple times when I was cleaning the inside tank the overflow overflowed.

So I knocked down the size yesterday I'm thinking around 6 1-4 inches I don't know off hand but measuring it in the back box is six and it is really loud now but there is no chance of an overflow now.

I'm getting the fmk soon it's in the mail so I will be able to tell u exact around flo but I'm running two m1 at 80% so I'm thinking 1100-1400 gph.

The noise is a cascading sound from the water going thru the bulkheads to the rear box. When I take the weir off the system is silent till it starts gurgling I've tried both weirs same thing.

It sounds like you may have the primary drain choked down too much with the Gate valve. It should never overflow the rear box. I have tried to force it to overflow and with the lid on the rear box it becomes a vacuum and will pull all of the flow down before it overflows. The emergency should also kick in and pull the remainder. Something just isn't correct with this. If you are running 2 vectra M1's at 80%, that's not 1100-1400 GPH. You are more at 3500 GPH. Which is way over the rating for this to run at. It can handle that flow, but it is not recommended to run that much flow. 1500 GPH is the sweet spot.

 

[justingraham]

Wel it overflowed cause the pipe was to high in the rear box which I raised up to make the noise stop and the emergency pipe was as high as the lid a quarter inch above where I had my secondary pipe.

Thanks for trying to help out I apreciate it.

But everything is growing well in my tank and the sps love the flow so I have come to the conclusion that if I hear some sound I'm ok with it cause the corals are happy. But what ur saying is if I bring it down to 2000gph the front weir will stop making noise? Cause when I had both the pumps at 50% the sound was still there so my thought was if I'm going to hear it I'm going to get some flow out of it.

And I honestly don't think it's pumping that much water I could be wrong and will find out when I get the fmk hooked up tho my full syphon line is still 1 1/2 tube all the way and the valve I have is about a quarter closed. But like I said it's not the pipes or rear box that is making any noise it's the front box.

Like I said thanks for the help I appreciate it.

 

[mixer911]

Wel it overflowed cause the pipe was to high in the rear box which I raised up to make the noise stop and the emergency pipe was as high as the lid a quarter inch above where I had my secondary pipe.

Thanks for trying to help out I apreciate it.

But everything is growing well in my tank and the sps love the flow so I have come to the conclusion that if I hear some sound I'm ok with it cause the corals are happy. But what ur saying is if I bring it down to 2000gph the front weir will stop making noise? Cause when I had both the pumps at 50% the sound was still there so my thought was if I'm going to hear it I'm going to get some flow out of it.

And I honestly don't think it's pumping that much water I could be wrong and will find out when I get the fmk hooked up tho my full syphon line is still 1 1/2 tube all the way and the valve I have is about a quarter closed. But like I said it's not the pipes or rear box that is making any noise it's the front box.

Like I said thanks for the help I appreciate it.

Your welcome. I like to make sure all of our customers are happy. Being a small business owner my products are a representation of me, so I make sure anything we sell will perform as advertised. I am happy to help or give input anytime and try my best to get everyone's expectations met. We under rate these boxes on paper, but in reality they can handle a ton of flow.

Once you use that Enkamat it will kill any noise in the front box. The rear box being silent is the main thing as we wanted to eliminate the gurgling tank syndrome with standard overflow boxes that tank builders use. With the FMK you want to hook those up to the Return lines from the pumps, not the drain lines from the overflow. That will be how you would get an accurate flow rate.

Thanks for the support and being a customer!

 

[justingraham]

Yea my plan is to put two flo meters on each of the returns at the same place to make sure I'm pumping around the same flow for each pump.

With those mats I'm guessing I will have to clean them every so often also I'm guessin I should put them in the front box?

And no worries I know u were trying to help

 

[mixer911]

Yea my plan is to put two flo meters on each of the returns at the same place to make sure I'm pumping around the same flow for each pump.

With those mats I'm guessing I will have to clean them every so often also I'm guessin I should put them in the front box?

And no worries I know u were trying to help

Yep just put a 16" strip in the front box on top of the internal braces. It's pretty heavy duty mat so it won't have to be cleaned that much, but definitely will need to be rinsed.

 

[justingraham]

Yep just put a 16" strip in the front box on top of the internal braces. It's pretty heavy duty mat so it won't have to be cleaned that much, but definitely will need to be rinsed.

Thanks I'll get that ordered up

 

[Engloid]

When I set mine, I did this:

Note...NOTHING INSIDE the overflow boxes gets glued. Only glue the pipes that come OUT the bottom.
1) Set the suction line where the top of the elbow is about half the height of the box. Only put it in enough to hold it in place. Don't force it, because you may need to adjust it later. This sets the level of water in the inside weir. If you're getting noise as water goes through the bulkheads, the siphon elbow may be low.
2) Put your emergency pipe in, and make it about 3/4" below the top of the box. Again, don't force it hard, just enough to hold it in place.
3) Put the secondary line in place, without an elbow on it, making sure it's higher than the TOP of the siphon elbow. You can trim it lower later. Keep in mind that if anything goes wrong in testing, you want to be able to yank out one of the pipes and open it up to prevent a flood...so again...don't push them in tightly.

Test and adjust the valve in the siphon line.
1) Open the valve all the way and turn on the return pump.
2) You should see water rise to the bottom of the siphon elbow, but not actually go to the top of it.
3) Wait a minute or two to make sure it's keeping a stable water level.
4) Slowly close the valve until you see the water level rising VERY SLOWLY. You may get some gurgling and noise as the siphon line expels any air.
5) Wait until it rises above the siphon elbow, then begins to run into the secondary line. N0w you see the basics of how this overflow works.
6) The siphon line should carry almost all of the water flow, with just a small trickle making it to the secondary line. Too much in the secondary and it will make noise as it falls. Adjust the valve accordingly. If you open it too much, water level may go up and down, repeating the gurgling over and over. This means that the siphon is carrying more water than is entering the box, so close the valve slightly. If too much is flowing into the secondary line, open the valve some.
7) Once you have the valve adjusted, you need to determine and set the height of the secondary line. Pull it out and leave the pump going while you do this step. It doesn't matter that it will take all the flow. It's just noise while you work. The purpose in the secondary elbow is to make it quieter, so you want the opening under water. You also MUST have the lowest point of the elbow (flow area) ABOVE the top of the siphon line. This height is what sets the water level in the outside box, so keep the top below where the emergency line is.
8) Put the secondary pipe and elbow back in. You should get (but won't see) the same amount of flow out the secondary drain as before when you didn't have the elbow on. Remember, you set the valve already.

Most importantly....TEST, TEST, TEST!!! Turn off the return pump and watch what happens. It's much better to test enough times you know what happens when you aren't home and the power goes out, than to come home and find out.