Noisy Pipes

[ClearBlue]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of setting up my first marine tank...I've done freshwater before, but this is my first go at a tank with a sump. It's very noisy, so I'm hoping the experts on here can give me some advice!

To make it quiet, I've got a bean animal overflow. 1.5m coast-to-coast box, which I think is silent. But overall the tank is very noisy, with a running-water/stream sort of noise.

The main pipe has a siphon, the water level is over the top of the inlet, and there are only a few tiny air bubbles coming out in the sump. The other two lines are dry. So I think the noise must be coming from the main pipe.

I read somewhere that you should chamfer the internal corners of the pipework to stop water rolling in the pipes. Unfortunately I read this after I'd assembled the pipework, so I haven't done it! Could water rolling be the cause of the noise, and if so, any suggestions for what to do?

The pipework is all 50mm/2", return pump is 1000gph.

Any advice gratefully received, thanks!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R @ClearBlue
Can you post some pictures of your setup and plumbing and we'll try our hardest to help you get it sorted out

 

[PYRU]

You probably just need to tune a little. Let's see a few pics

 

[vetteguy53081]

Start with overflow box. You can place plastic grass/webbing to break up water spill within box making it quieter.
2" pipe may be large that a lot of flow is running and gurgling especially if there are multiple elbows. As Requested from Crabs, a picture will best allow others to access any possibilities.

 

[mfinn]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of setting up my first marine tank...I've done freshwater before, but this is my first go at a tank with a sump. It's very noisy, so I'm hoping the experts on here can give me some advice!

To make it quiet, I've got a bean animal overflow. 1.5m coast-to-coast box, which I think is silent. But overall the tank is very noisy, with a running-water/stream sort of noise.

The main pipe has a siphon, the water level is over the top of the inlet, and there are only a few tiny air bubbles coming out in the sump. The other two lines are dry. So I think the noise must be coming from the main pipe.

With my bean animal overflow, there is the main drain and then the secondary drain and the emergency drain.
2 of the drains have water flowing in them.

 

[ludnix]

Your secondary line should not be dry. It should be a wet durso that is carrying just what is left over from the siphon. You may need to valve off your siphon line until the water level in the overflow raises to the level of the durso tube.

 

[ClearBlue]

Thanks all!

Here are the pictures:

The far end is the trickle, which is very noisy if significant amounts of water go down. I can get it so none at all goes down the trickle, then I can only hear the main siphon line (middle).

The nearest pipe is the emergency, this is dry.

The noise seems to be coming from around the ball valve in the siphon line. I suspect that there is air trapped / entering there. I was playing with it today, and found that removing the cap on the top of the main siphon line doesn't make a difference. It still runs at the same rate, and isn't noticeably noisier with the cap off. This suggests to me that the problem is not air getting in at the top / from the overflow.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[ClearBlue]

Your secondary line should not be dry. It should be a wet durso that is carrying just what is left over from the siphon. You may need to valve off your siphon line until the water level in the overflow raises to the level of the durso tube.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been valving off the siphon line until there is no water in the secondary. I've also tried letting a bit of water go down it, but it's hard to reduce to a level where the secondary is quiet without cutting it off entirely.

What's the reason for having the secondary run wet? Thanks!

 

[Idoc]

Previously you mentioned the noise seemed to be coming from around the ball valve. The angle in the pipe is enough to usually keep air from accumulating. Is the noise more of a hissing? Any bubbles entering the sump directly from the full siphon line?

If yes to these two questions, you may have a hair line crack or small leak around the ball valve joints. This happened to me when I assembled my pipes.

 

[ClearBlue]

Thanks. The noise isn't really a hissing sound, it's more of a rushing water sound! BUT, there are tiny bubbles entering the sump from the full siphon line. So maybe it is a leak.

I wonder if I could test this with some plumbers putty...not a permanent fix, but if it fixes the noise, at least I'll know that was the problem?

Thanks

 

[Be102]

Bump... kinda having the same problem.

I orginally was splitting my overflow line into 2 (one to fuge one to socks) but now I am just going all the way into the socks.The pipe is underneath the water and I have a gate valve and ball valve I can adjust with.. still can’t get it quiet! I have a stockman standpipe as well..
I can get it quiet-ish if I send more water from my manifold to my fuge rather than my display but that’s just cause there’s less flow overall..
The flow isn’t too fast as my return pump is 2/5 varios 6

I got two videos one here and another just showing how noisy it is in the overflow section