Making chamber to reduce noise in sump

[WhiskeyCoffee]

I don’t want to come off as neurotic but lately I’ve been on a quest to make my sump as quiet as possible. I made a reverse durso which reduced the bubbling and splashing significantly but it’s still there. The problem is, my house is extremely quiet so the only noise is the sump.

My question is, could I create a “chamber” out of PVC that the drain enters which effectively traps all of the noise inside it? I’m thinking a simple PVC pipe with a cap on the bottom with a cone shaped piece on top.

I might be crazy...

[edit]

Aha! I found this picture on the internet... how much would this help?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I don’t want to come off as neurotic but lately I’ve been on a quest to make my sump as quiet as possible. I made a reverse durso which reduced the bubbling and splashing significantly but it’s still there. The problem is, my house is extremely quiet so the only noise is the sump.

My question is, could I create a “chamber” out of PVC that the drain enters which effectively traps all of the noise inside it? I’m thinking a simple PVC pipe with a cap on the bottom with a cone shaped piece on top.

I might be crazy...

[edit]

Aha! I found this picture on the internet... how much would this help?

You'll have to try reloading your picture. It isn't showing.

 

[WhiskeyCoffee]

You'll have to try reloading your picture. It isn't showing.

Try now!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Try now!

There it is lol. It looks like it would work.

 

[mcarroll]

Basic concept, but you should be able to do better...spend some time in the PVC aisle experimenting.

Also make sure you're not creating the problem for yourself in the first place. Quite often excessive sump noise is a result of too much flow.

How big is your tank, and have you every measured or done a close estimation of your actual flow rate including plumbing?

(We can estimate if you post the details....total length of pluming, size of plumbing, fittings involved, target flow rate. Also what pump do you have?)

 

[WhiskeyCoffee]

Basic concept, but you should be able to do better...spend some time in the PVC aisle experimenting.

Also make sure you're not creating the problem for yourself in the first place. Quite often excessive sump noise is a result of too much flow.

How big is your tank, and have you every measured or done a close estimation of your actual flow rate including plumbing?

(We can estimate if you post the details....total length of pluming, size of plumbing, fittings involved, target flow rate. Also what pump do you have?)

75g Aqueon reef ready tank (the kind with built in weir overflow with durso standpipe). I’m using a Kedsum 660gph pump which is pumping the water up about 4.5 feet. 1” drain.

 

[mcarroll]

You probably do not have too much flow with a 600+ GPH pump. But at least for posterity...

Chances are if you have a simple install with a straight shot from the sump under the tank more or less straight up to the display, then you can just read the flow curve of your pump and get a good flow estimate.

Do you have a flow curve from that manufacturer?

If not, then you might have to measure by hand.....time how long it takes to fill a container. Measure the amount of water the container collected. Compute that data to know your gallons per hour.

Is your plumbing for the return 1" or 3/4"?

 

[WhiskeyCoffee]

You probably do not have too much flow with a 600+ GPH pump. But at least for posterity...

Chances are if you have a simple install with a straight shot from the sump under the tank more or less straight up to the display, then you can just read the flow curve of your pump and get a good flow estimate.

Do you have a flow curve from that manufacturer?

If not, then you might have to measure by hand.....time how long it takes to fill a container. Measure the amount of water the container collected. Compute that data to know your gallons per hour.

Is your plumbing for the return 1" or 3/4"?

I can’t remember off the top of my head what size it is. I’ll check tomorrow. I don’t think my issue is too much flow, though. The issue really is that the water is falling 4.5 feet directly in to the sump haha. I need to slow it down somehow.

 

[mcarroll]

Additional things to consider:

Run your plumbing at an angle instead of a straight drop.

Run larger plumbing under the tank for the drain.

This is sorta what the kludge in the opening photo is doing.

I sorta do the angled drop and a version of the kludge myself. (otherwise known as a mUBS in my setup! "mcarroll's Ultimate Bubble Stopper"). )

 

[ca1ore]

The best way to eliminate noise is to run one of the siphon drain variants - ether herbie or BA.

 

[mcarroll]

Just thinking out loud a little....

If "quiet" is a specific goal for your drain but your drain is "noisy", then your drain could either be:

A) set up wrong, or
B) it's just not finished. ​

Drain Noise
The problem(s) behind drain noise don't have much to do with number of drain pipes.

If it did there wouldn't be any threads about noise from the other drain methods (there are) and nobody would have a quiet single-pipe gravity drain (they do).

(And thankfully so! I'm obsessive about quiet and my tank is right behind me where I work and has a totally open stand – so I hear everything. I've never used anything but single-pipe drains. Overflow-boxes, at that....not even drilled. Silent.)

History
These high-flow drain styles were invented before folks use powerheads.

Folks had no better choice than to flow their tanks from their return pump until closed loops came onto the scene (to be replaced by powerheads a little later).

The main goal wasn't silence or even redundancy so much as it was GPH.

Getting 20X-40X "plus" for tank turnover through a standard reef-ready tank's built-in 1"+3/4" plumbing system required every trick in the book.

That made it a little risky too – ultra high never before seen flow rates , combined with a hacked design – so the extra measures in a Herbie or beananimal were arguably "worth it". Sure seemed like it, anyway.

Not so much these days...the pressure for ultra high GPH is off of the sump drain thanks to power heads. Plain gravity drains are already silent and very reliable – and things can be done to make these drains even more fail-safe as well if you have specific concerns.