joshh81
03/11/2009, 03:53 PM
So.. I am at wits end. I recently came off active duty military and finnally have time to settle down and get my reef up and running again. I got an AWESOME! deal (or so I thought) for a 55 gallon acryclic with stand, hood... pumps...skimmer... everything. This was all great news before the countless hours I have spent fixing it up. I will fill you on the back story to get a full picture, then PLEASE... any help would be greatly appreciated. ( I am sorry for it being a long post)
So as I first set up the tank up it is a 55 gallon acrylic with a 3/4 bulkhead drilled through the top center about 2 1/2 inches from the top. It had a 90 degree elbow which dropped to a 3/4 inch hose that went to the sump.
When I set everything up with the included pump the pump was able to pump more than the return could give back. The result was a horrific slurping created by the siphon. I temporarly fixed this by drilling a hole at the 90 and inserting a small airline tubbing. However they are building a brand new home next to us and they knocked out the power one day... and yes breaking that syphon. So when power came back on about 5 minutes later I am soo lucky I was standing in the living room as I watched water poor over the rim of the tank.
This was not something I was expecting so I bought a 1 1/2 inch bulkhead and drilled a larger hole in the back of the tank. I have a T comming out of the back of the tank with one line dropping down hitting a 90 then another 90 inside the stand and into the sump. The top of the T has a cap with a small hole drilled. This worked great until I kept thinking bigger is better.
It was 2 weeks later that I decided the return lines were nasty looking and the pump was being hindered by such small return lines. My mistake was upgrading them to 1 inch returns. It leaves the pump via 1 inch inner diatmeter tubing, hits a T then goes to the corners where I had to drill larger return holes and upgrade the line loc inside the tank. Because who thinks more flow would ever be a bad thing.
In the process of doing this I aparently have unleased the unknown power from hell of this pump and there is so much water pumping in that I had to get a ball valve to slow some of it down. Issue now is its LOUD!! Nothing I do will get it to be quite. I can hear what sounds like a toilet flushing non stop. Its basicly the water flowing down the PVC and hitting the 90's and the sump is pretty quite. I have a small hole drilled and if i put airline tubbing in it does nothing for the sound. If I take the tubbing out... it twice as loud because it kind of whistles and it sucks in air. SO I drilled a hole a bit larger... now its a deep base whislte.
Other issue i have now is microbubbles. The water is moving so quickly through the sump the bubbles dont have enough time i believe to disapate. I put in a baffle system but doesnt help much at all. I thought it might be a small hole somewhere in the return line but cant find one.
So, basicly by trying to upgrade things I have created a bubbly loud monster. By closing the ball valve almost all the way i can get the bubbles to disapate and the sound to quite a bit, but you still hear it hitting the 90 after a 3 foot fall.
I am former special forces operator who can fix just about anything. But this tank is seriously kicking my butt.
PLEASE HELP!!
So as I first set up the tank up it is a 55 gallon acrylic with a 3/4 bulkhead drilled through the top center about 2 1/2 inches from the top. It had a 90 degree elbow which dropped to a 3/4 inch hose that went to the sump.
When I set everything up with the included pump the pump was able to pump more than the return could give back. The result was a horrific slurping created by the siphon. I temporarly fixed this by drilling a hole at the 90 and inserting a small airline tubbing. However they are building a brand new home next to us and they knocked out the power one day... and yes breaking that syphon. So when power came back on about 5 minutes later I am soo lucky I was standing in the living room as I watched water poor over the rim of the tank.
This was not something I was expecting so I bought a 1 1/2 inch bulkhead and drilled a larger hole in the back of the tank. I have a T comming out of the back of the tank with one line dropping down hitting a 90 then another 90 inside the stand and into the sump. The top of the T has a cap with a small hole drilled. This worked great until I kept thinking bigger is better.
It was 2 weeks later that I decided the return lines were nasty looking and the pump was being hindered by such small return lines. My mistake was upgrading them to 1 inch returns. It leaves the pump via 1 inch inner diatmeter tubing, hits a T then goes to the corners where I had to drill larger return holes and upgrade the line loc inside the tank. Because who thinks more flow would ever be a bad thing.
In the process of doing this I aparently have unleased the unknown power from hell of this pump and there is so much water pumping in that I had to get a ball valve to slow some of it down. Issue now is its LOUD!! Nothing I do will get it to be quite. I can hear what sounds like a toilet flushing non stop. Its basicly the water flowing down the PVC and hitting the 90's and the sump is pretty quite. I have a small hole drilled and if i put airline tubbing in it does nothing for the sound. If I take the tubbing out... it twice as loud because it kind of whistles and it sucks in air. SO I drilled a hole a bit larger... now its a deep base whislte.
Other issue i have now is microbubbles. The water is moving so quickly through the sump the bubbles dont have enough time i believe to disapate. I put in a baffle system but doesnt help much at all. I thought it might be a small hole somewhere in the return line but cant find one.
So, basicly by trying to upgrade things I have created a bubbly loud monster. By closing the ball valve almost all the way i can get the bubbles to disapate and the sound to quite a bit, but you still hear it hitting the 90 after a 3 foot fall.
I am former special forces operator who can fix just about anything. But this tank is seriously kicking my butt.
PLEASE HELP!!