Synergy Shadow Overflow Flow Adjustment

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Reef synergy i have 1 of these. Never used it. It uses bean animal overflow style. 1 full siphon. 1 partial or trickle and 1 emergency or dry.
All u need is a gate on the main drain. Full siphon.
Small stand pipes for inside the external box.
D

 

[NabberNate]

For all the previous posts I finally got it perfect. If you make your primary too low in the overflow box you get splashing. If you go too high you get air in the u fitting. So, plugging the hole on the primary was necessary for me (against the recommendation of the vendor) as some have commented. Honestly I don't know how anyone could make an external overflow work correctly without gate valves on the primary drain as well as returns and without a controllable pump. It takes a lot of tinkering or luck.

 

[Shirak]

For all the previous posts I finally got it perfect. If you make your primary too low in the overflow box you get splashing. If you go too high you get air in the u fitting. So, plugging the hole on the primary was necessary for me (against the recommendation of the vendor) as some have commented. Honestly I don't know how anyone could make an external overflow work correctly without gate valves on the primary drain as well as returns and without a controllable pump. It takes a lot of tinkering or luck.

Glad you got it worked out!

 

[minus9]

Also, calibrating DC pumps is a must. I found after calibrating my pump, it was super easy to dial everything in. The only splashing I get is from my refugium flowing into my skimmer section. I modded my sump so the first chamber goes over the baffle, instead of through it. So when the chaeto grows too much, it starts to splash over, which tells me it's time to trim.

 

[nbagnardi]

You shouldn't get bubbles when it's tuned properly. I have the same overflow and 1 1/2" drains and a single gate valve on the main drain. Are you using the "U" fittings on the main and secondary drains? The only thing I had to do was find the right length of pipe inside the external box for the main and secondary drains. Also, are you extending the drains in the sump so they are completely submerged?

out of curiosity do you happen to recall the lengths you used? could you sent me a pic of the back box with its water level as well? im having a heck of a time trying to dial mine in as well. from 100% power to 20% power on my return pump and its just kicking my butt

 

[NabberNate]

Not the best picture and maybe I could get it a little quieter but not with 1.5" drains. My primary would be better with 1.25"

 

[NabberNate]

Reason I say 1.25" would be better is because I can't do full siphon on primary at 1.5" it flows too fast and then gurgles. I am drawing just a little air in the primary but it doesn't make any noise and it doesn't create micro bubbles. I would probably put in a reducer to even things out but I want a larger return pump and then I will tinker some more.

 

[Jbell370]

out of curiosity do you happen to recall the lengths you used? could you sent me a pic of the back box with its water level as well? im having a heck of a time trying to dial mine in as well. from 100% power to 20% power on my return pump and its just kicking my butt

 

[minus9]

out of curiosity do you happen to recall the lengths you used? could you sent me a pic of the back box with its water level as well? im having a heck of a time trying to dial mine in as well. from 100% power to 20% power on my return pump and its just kicking my butt

I forget the actual lengths, but there’s more than an inch or so difference between the two. Almost 2” difference if I recall. I honestly cut a bunch of pieces starting around 2” or 2 1/2” all the way up to 5”, I could have ended on 2 1/2” and 4”?
Here’sa pic of how it looks now.

I have two 1” returns that reduce down to 3/4” at the bulkhead in the tank. My COR20 is currently set to 55%. The one thing that helped me, was calibrating the flow of my return pump (both my old M1 and now the COR20). Then it was super fine adjustments of the gate valve. It can take 30 seconds to a minute for the flow to readjust after each turn/adjustment of the gate valve, so go slow and wait.

 

[minus9]

When there’s no obstruction, it is dead silent and I only hear a slight trickle tank side from my extreme flow. When it’s adjusted correctly, there’s no sound in the sump, just the water going over my fuge section. When I hear something, I know that my return needs to be cleaned or there’s a snail somewhere it shouldn’t be.

 

[nbagnardi]

I forget the actual lengths, but there’s more than an inch or so difference between the two. Almost 2” difference if I recall. I honestly cut a bunch of pieces starting around 2” or 2 1/2” all the way up to 5”, I could have ended on 2 1/2” and 4”?
Here’sa pic of how it looks now.

I have two 1” returns that reduce down to 3/4” at the bulkhead in the tank. My COR20 is currently set to 55%. The one thing that helped me, was calibrating the flow of my return pump (both my old M1 and now the COR20). Then it was super fine adjustments of the gate valve. It can take 30 seconds to a minute for the flow to readjust after each turn/adjustment of the gate valve, so go slow and wait.

I have my cor20 at 40% and it’s still loud Af. I’m gonna go step by step and see if airs gettinf trapped or something but I really wanted a higher turn around rate than running my pump at less than half speed.

 

[NabberNate]

I have my cor20 at 40% and it’s still loud Af. I’m gonna go step by step and see if airs gettinf trapped or something but I really wanted a higher turn around rate than running my pump at less than half speed.

Try this out. Take off the standpipe on the primary drain and see how high in % you can get your cor20 to go before you start to get some flow into the secondary. You should be able to do 10% more on the pump unless you're like me and have 1.5" drains that max out my pump. Once you have that number I would start with a 1" primary pipe and the size of the secondary pipe would be such that the water level only goes .25" above the bottom of the durso.

Also I have drains facing away from each other to not compete for water as much. If you're water is quiet but you get whistling make the hole a little larger at the top of the secondary.

 

[minus9]

Is the noise coming from the overflow or sump drains?

 

[nbagnardi]

Is the noise coming from the overflow or sump drains?

The overflow.

 

[minus9]

Does water make it down the secondary drain? I would slowly close the gate valve until the water level rises a bit in the overflow box. It could be that the gate valve is open too much? I could use a plastic ruler and measure the height of my drains at the top of each pipe? I vaguely remember closing the gate valve quite a ways before it settled.

 

[Jbell370]

It took me a while to sort that out. I started with gate fully closed on the main and gradually opened until silent. Take caution as it was several minutes between adjusts before the effects were realized. Mine is now dead silent, 1.5" from box to sump, I use a COR20 Apex says running at 2300 RPM.