Plumbing Issue

[AstroworldFish]

Hello fellow reefers, so I recently just got a 120 and broke down my old 75 gallon. I just do see the plumbing(exactly how previous owner had it)

So the problem is I just filled up the tank fully with RODI to do a rinse as well as check all plumbing work I did. I don’t have any leaks but for some reason the left side is making a terrible gurgling noise as well as randomly filling up each over flow all the way up and then siphoning it down at different times(there are 2 over flows). I have done some reading but I’m completely stumped of what is doing on. Tank is completely level and I have even lowered My sicee 5.0 with no results. Please could someone explain to me what’s going on so I can either fix this or buy something to get rid of the noise and it filling up the over flow all the way to the top and then draining it super fast. Thanks!!!

 

[Hallowhead]

It's a durso that's what it's designed to do...

However they should be equal. Check the air hole at the top make sure it's not clogged.

If not clogged you may just have to much water

 

[AstroworldFish]

The previous owner drilled their own holes and they are pretty small. Should I make the holes larger? They are about the size of lead in a pencil. I have tried taking water out and same issue. They just keep both going up and down.... also will increasing the hole size also cute down on the gargling noice?
Thanks

 

[AstroworldFish]

So I took off the Durso on both sides and it has stopped the fluctuation of raising in lowering in the overflow and evenly bringing water to the sump. Now my question is. Should I buy new durso or get something different?

 

[AstroworldFish]

Because the right side is quiet but the left side (2nd picture) is very loud.... maybe due to the different height of pipe of with. Thanks

 

[JoshH]

I would switch out the dual dursos and make a Herbie drain setup. Pretty standard modification for the dual overflow design. Essentially only one of the drain pipes becomes the main siphon that uses a gate valve to adjust the flow. The other drain becomes a secondary drain with just a trickle of water flowing down it.

 

[Hallowhead]

I would switch out the dual dursos and make a Herbie drain setup. Pretty standard modification for the dual overflow design. Essentially only one of the drain pipes becomes the main siphon that uses a gate valve to adjust the flow. The other drain becomes a secondary drain with just a trickle of water flowing down it.

You'd have to plumb return over back of tank but highly worth it

 

[JoshH]

You'd have to plumb return over back of tank but highly worth it

Plumbing over the back isn't required here, the tank has Dual overflows with two pipes in each. Currently he has two Durso drains setup so converting it to a Herbie setup would be really easy and he can keep his dual returns the way they are

 

[Hallowhead]

Plumbing over the back isn't required here, the tank has Dual overflows with two pipes in each. Currently he has two Durso drains setup so converting it to a Herbie setup would be really easy and he can keep his dual returns the way they are

You're saying instead of having two herbies one overflow for one Herbie and the other is just returns? If I had the ability to have the redundancy of two Herbie's I'd go that method 100 times over not

 

[JoshH]

You're saying instead of having two herbies one overflow for one Herbie and the other is just returns? If I had the ability to have the redundancy of two Herbie's I'd go that method 100 times over not

The standard modification is actually one return out of each overflow one overflow has the main siphon and the other return has the secondary/emergency drain in it but the other would work as well. The Herbie method is a pretty solid system in and of itself I would think dual Herbies is wildly overkill, plus attempting to tune two herbies would not be something I'd like to be doing myself lol

 

[Greg P]

Clean out or replace all the plumbing. Keep the main drains from each box tied to 1 gate valve.
Install 2 emerg drains tied together as pictured. Upsize the pipes after the Ts to handle both the main and emerg piping.
Run returns over the top.

Herbie is easy to run

 

[Hallowhead]

The standard modification is actually one return out of each overflow one overflow has the main siphon and the other return has the secondary/emergency drain in it but the other would work as well. The Herbie method is a pretty solid system in and of itself I would think dual Herbies is wildly overkill, plus attempting to tune two herbies would not be something I'd like to be doing myself lol

You have a good point tuning one is enough

 

[Greg P]

Tuning a dual overflow with a Herbie is a piece of cake.
Tie each main drain to a Tee with a gate valve after.
Tie each emerg to another Tee.
Both runs of plumbing should be upsized after the Tees to accomodate full flow of both boxes, unless you are already running 1-1/2" from the bulkheads.
Run your returns over the top

Keep the plumbing lengths between the drain bulkheads and the Tees the same length.
This will keep it balanced.

 

[Greg P]

It probably doesn't need to be stated but, keep the plumbing inside the overflow boxes matching