Show Off Your WaterBox! :)

Crabs McJones · Feb 3, 2018

Still waiting for my complimentary water box to show up so I can show it off

lol

richard_deepwater · Feb 3, 2018

Darth George said:
Just got it going!

Looking great so far!

richard_deepwater · Feb 3, 2018

SonoranReefer said:
Maybe like a 180-200g DISPLAY volume?? That would be awesome, go above and beyond the competition . Your tanks look great!

You will be very happy in that case !

pecan2phat · Feb 7, 2018

Jess,
What are those white plastic corner braces that come with the stand for?

Elizaveta · Feb 7, 2018

Hello All! Just had my Waterbox 135 installed. Completely new to the sump thing. I've always had tanks with backpak skimmers etc.
This sump noise is driving me crazy! It sounds like a shower running constantly but I don't know enough to fix it. Please, any help for a newbie would be VERY much appreciated!!

Caravanshaka · Feb 8, 2018

Elizaveta said:
Hello All! Just had my Waterbox 135 installed. Completely new to the sump thing. I've always had tanks with backpak skimmers etc.
This sump noise is driving me crazy! It sounds like a shower running constantly but I don't know enough to fix it. Please, any help for a newbie would be VERY much appreciated!!

To be honest, the noise at the start drove me nuts too. The issue is the water cascading into the socks. The goal is to somehow get the water to trickle down something into the socks, whether that be by slowing the flow or adding something that wicks the water down that would normally have flowed into the middle of the sock.

There are several things you can do. I will outline 2 options that I would try:

1 - Filter Floss - This is what I do. Cut some filter floss to a bit bigger than the sock opening, and shove it into the sock so that the water going into the sock hits the floss and trickles down it. Makes it MUCH quieter, but adds more maintenance as the floss gets clogged in a couple days. I tend to change my floss every 2 days and socks every 4 days.

2 - Recently I found that GEO sumps manufactures a “sock silencer” out of acrylic. This appears to channel the water into smaller drips into the socks rather than a waterfall. I don’t have experience with them yet, but they intrigued me when I saw them.
http://www.geosreef.com/product/felt-filter-sock-with-geo-silencer/

I hope that helps!

Caravanshaka · Feb 8, 2018

pecan2phat said:
Jess,
What are those white plastic corner braces that come with the stand for?

In my case, they went in the trash. They can go in some of the seams to help pull the panels together in the 90 degree angle, but with the amount of wood glue I used I was comfortable without them.

Elizaveta · Feb 8, 2018

Caravanshaka said:
To be honest, the noise at the start drove me nuts too. The issue is the water cascading into the socks. The goal is to somehow get the water to trickle down something into the socks, whether that be by slowing the flow or adding something that wicks the water down that would normally have flowed into the middle of the sock.

There are several things you can do. I will outline 2 options that I would try:

1 - Filter Floss - This is what I do. Cut some filter floss to a bit bigger than the sock opening, and shove it into the sock so that the water going into the sock hits the floss and trickles down it. Makes it MUCH quieter, but adds more maintenance as the floss gets clogged in a couple days. I tend to change my floss every 2 days and socks every 4 days.

2 - Recently I found that GEO sumps manufactures a “sock silencer” out of acrylic. This appears to channel the water into smaller drips into the socks rather than a waterfall. I don’t have experience with them yet, but they intrigued me when I saw them.
http://www.geosreef.com/product/felt-filter-sock-with-geo-silencer/

I hope that helps!

HI! I will definitely try that-filter floss...immediately. I think the majority of the toilet bowl/shower running noise is coming from the waterfall at the top of the tank, and the drain down the pipes...constant running gurgling noise. I've tried opening the valve more...less, etc. to control the amount of water leaving the tank. I think it's flowing so much that some of that is hitting the emergency down drain and making noise? I'll try to take some pics tomorrow and upload. Thank you so much for your help!!

Caravanshaka · Feb 8, 2018

Elizaveta said:
HI! I will definitely try that-filter floss...immediately. I think the majority of the toilet bowl/shower running noise is coming from the waterfall at the top of the tank, and the drain down the pipes...constant running gurgling noise. I've tried opening the valve more...less, etc. to control the amount of water leaving the tank. I think it's flowing so much that some of that is hitting the emergency down drain and making noise? I'll try to take some pics tomorrow and upload. Thank you so much for your help!!

on the drains...you want to close the ball valve on the main drain until it matches the flow rate of the return pump. What I usually do is slowly close it until the overflow box starts to fill up to the emergency drain, then attempt to open it back up with the tiniest movements of the valve you can manage. The goal is for the water level to stay constant near the top of the emergency drain pipe, but only trickling into it at most. The less water you get into the emergency drain the quieter will be. The perfect spot is when the water level sits 1/4” under the top of that pipe and no water goes into it.

Also, a fresh tank that hasn’t been running long will naturally be louder than an established tank. Once all of the overflows and plumbing get a decent slime coat on them, that will also bring the noise down.

Elizaveta · Feb 8, 2018

Caravanshaka said:
on the drains...you want to close the ball valve on the main drain until it matches the flow rate of the return pump. What I usually do is slowly close it until the overflow box starts to fill up to the emergency drain, then attempt to open it back up with the tiniest movements of the valve you can manage. The goal is for the water level to stay constant near the top of the emergency drain pipe, but only trickling into it at most. The less water you get into the emergency drain the quieter will be. The perfect spot is when the water level sits 1/4” under the top of that pipe and no water goes into it.

Also, a fresh tank that hasn’t been running long will naturally be louder than an established tank. Once all of the overflows and plumbing get a decent slime coat on them, that will also bring the noise down.

THANK YOU! I did the filter media to the sock and that def. cut the noise there. The majority of the noise is coming from water going into the emergency drain, so I need to work on adjusting that per your advice. The vibration of the return pump in the sump....is it safe to add some media under that for padding to keep it from touching anything? Really appreciate the help. Terrified I'll do something to cause a flood.

Perry · Feb 8, 2018

Don't forget about the AIO

50 AIO cube, with original logo

Caravanshaka · Feb 8, 2018

Elizaveta said:
THANK YOU! I did the filter media to the sock and that def. cut the noise there. The majority of the noise is coming from water going into the emergency drain, so I need to work on adjusting that per your advice. The vibration of the return pump in the sump....is it safe to add some media under that for padding to keep it from touching anything? Really appreciate the help. Terrified I'll do something to cause a flood.

Yes, the Emergency drain is pretty loud if it has more then just a trickle running down it. The ball valve is really hard to find-tune....this is usually a situation where a gate valve is used. With the cost difference of the valve types, this would be a very good thing for Waterbox to change in the future.

You can definitely add some rubber mat of some sort underneath. I run a Vectra M1 but only run it around 45%, so there is very little noise on my return pump.

Darth George · Feb 8, 2018

Elizaveta said:
Hello All! Just had my Waterbox 135 installed. Completely new to the sump thing. I've always had tanks with backpak skimmers etc.
This sump noise is driving me crazy! It sounds like a shower running constantly but I don't know enough to fix it. Please, any help for a newbie would be VERY much appreciated!!

I put a glass lid from one of my nano tanks over the sock chamber. Totally silent now.