Help needed to quiet down Bean Animal Overflow

[tvu]

Firstly, Merry Christmas everyone.

I have a bean animal overflow set up for a couple months now and things were pretty darn quiet. I shut off my return pump on Fri for some maintenance and since then powering up my bean animal has been noisy as heck. It sounds like a louder version of boiling water coming from the open line I believe in the overflow box.

I've tried adjusting my gate valve on the full siphon line, reducing return flow, etc but nothing will get it back to quiet like it was and supposed to be. If I temporarily plug the open line's hole at the top with my finger most the water drains down and is quiet again until the overflow box fills up again. I'm at odds right now.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Josh

 

[tomtom2245]

For the bean animal, you have a full siphon drain with a ball valve, overflow drain that handles the little bit of extra, and an emergency drain correct? Try opening the ball valve all the way on the full siphon line to the point where it is sucking in air. Then ever so slowly, close it down until just a trickle works its way into the second drain line.

 

[tomtom2245]

Oh, and did you make sure nothing worked its way into any of the drains during your maintenance?

 

[tvu]

I start out with the gate valve fully open and leave it there for 10 mins before I slowly start closing it little by little but is doesn't seem to make a difference. I have 3 1.5" drains going into a 1" drains into my sump.
I have the Synergy overflow with teeth and really nothing big should get thru. Odd that everything was working till the last time I shut off the return pump.

I may have to pull the pipes in the overflow to see if they're seated soon. The noise from it is extremely loud.

Thanks

 

[tomtom2245]

So wait, all three drains from the tank combine into a single 1" pipe before going into the dump? I thought a bean animal was supposed to be 3 completely separate drains. At least when I ran one I had it setup that way.

 

[Breadman03]

Oh, and did you make sure nothing worked its way into any of the drains during your maintenance?

I've had a few snails get into mine. Opening the valve all the way, then tuning it only takes a couple minutes.

 

[tvu]

No I have 3 separate drain lines - full siphon, open and emergency

 

[tvu]

I just shut down the pump and pulled the full siphon pipe in the overflow. Everything drained quickly. I the. Started the pump, shut it down again and pulled the open drain and that drained quickly. Neither line seems clogged

 

[tvu]

Does anyone think it's possible that the open line may be taking in too much water even with the full siphon gate valve completely open? Will cutting the full siphon overflow pipe and making it lower help? I'm out of ideas

 

[tvu]

Or drilling the hole to the open line bend pipe bigger?

 

[mcarroll]

How much flow do you estimate you are sending to this drain?

 

[tomtom2245]

Does anyone think it's possible that the open line may be taking in too much water even with the full siphon gate valve completely open? Will cutting the full siphon overflow pipe and making it lower help? I'm out of ideas

When I ran mine, the full siphone drain line was about 1/4"-1/2" lower in the water than the other drain line to allow water to go down and that drain first.

 

[cbear44]

What is the water level in the overflow box? What is your estimated flow rate?

My issue was that the level has to be pretty high if the flow rate is high to keep it quiet. Are you sure the sound is the open line and not water entering the box? If water is too low it will be noisy.

When the gate valve is open the water level is low right? Siphon is lower than open right? I find it takes longer than 10min to dial it in if starting from scratch.

 

[cbear44]

Just saw last reply. My siphon is much lower than the open.

 

[jaws789832]

How about in the sump? How far below the water line in the sump is the full syphon? I know it was running quiet already but maybe something shifted and dropped the pipe lower in the sump water and now its having a hard time clearing the air from the syphon. When I first set mine up it was real noisy until I cut that line to where it was just below the water level and it has worked quietly ever since.

 

[Trivan]

What the flow of your return pump? is the noise from the tank or the sump? If it's from the tank side and sounds like it's sucking air then your siphon is out pacing your return and you need to close your full siphon down more. 1 1/2" pipe even at 1/2 closed is a lot of water volume at a full siphon, but again that is dependent on your flow of the return pump.

 

[skihard1234Anth]

I had a similar issue and found that my anti siphon tube had salt creep inside. Once I cleaned it out it was like new and silence returned to the reef

 

[tomtom2245]

Would you mind posting a photo or two of your setup?

 

[nitro]

I had the same issue with mine after I installed my Rollermat, I think jaws789832 may be right...

 

[Bluedore]

Does anyone think it's possible that the open line may be taking in too much water even with the full siphon gate valve completely open? Will cutting the full siphon overflow pipe and making it lower help? I'm out of ideas

Yes! I had the same exact issue before, I cut the full siphon to 3" below water level solved the problem. Use a shorter pipe and try it, hope you didn't glue the pipes to the bulk heads. Good luck!