Overflowing gurgling!!

[geo11]

So, I've got a 210 gallon AGA aquarium with dual overflows. I've just set up a basement sump, and its gurgling really bad. Prior to this I had a sump under the tank, and it didnt gurgle at all.

This is the AGA with dual durso standpipes that have a little nipple on top for air. I'm running a Panworld 200ps pump. I've tried dialing back the pump to no avail and I've tried running it with the ball valves completely open. Its exactly the same result. It seems like its burping and gurgling. Ive been doing tons of research and cant figure it out. I've seen people restrict the drains, but don't want to do that due to clogging.

why would it gurgle now and not before? it already has a hole at the top for air flow. In the basement I've got the returns coming above the water line of the sump and its all hard piping.

I need help!

[mightymizz]

Well, to me, the water is now falling a much farther distance and might be creating more gravitational pull with it, bringing more air into the line than before.

Also, the new drain and return lines might need a bit to slime up.

I might try to get into the herbie style overflow if you can arrange it. Mine is DEAD silent.

[myfrostymember]

i believe it gurgles when you entire pipe fills with water and has no air- the gurgle is your pipe releasing air from the outlet downstairs--you probably need a bigger hole now that its traveling a farther distance- try adjusting the hole- hold you finger over it and see how bad it is- also the larger your drain pipe the smaller the hole i think- so if your running a 1" drain 30 feet your hole will have to be much bigger then when the drain was 3'-- im pretty sure this is how this all works but someone else should chime in to make sure

[70ss]

Mine did the same. I just drilled a second hole beside the one with the tube and kept enlarging until the gergling stopped.

[geo11]

does that mean I should drill out that little nipple for air on the top and make the hole bigger?

[geo11]

i just drilled out the nipple to 1/2 inch....it didn't help....drilled out another half inch hole beside it and it helped a little...but its still incredibly loud....I'm bashing my head against the wall!

[ROBSTOY]

Thanks for the link Geo...I'm gonna tag along!!!

[geo11]

Well I took the advice and drilled out the little nipple at the top of the overflow. That solved the gurgling problem

But another problem still exists. The tank is in my living room, and the drains are pretty loud. I'm assuming that its the water that's being pumped up and the water rushing to the basement.

Is there anything I can do about this?!?!

[myfrostymember]

My sump is in the basement also - you need to isolate the noise and then try to fix it - since you have hard piping the entire way make sure it's not vibrating on your joist or wherever it's ran- try putting you pump on some rubber or something to dampen it also- if the water is loud try choking your pump back a little to slow down the flow- "noise" could be cause by many many things-- make sure that the durso drain isn't to low and the water isn't acting like a waterfall in your overflow- that can be loud-- it's caused by a durso that's not the correct height-- when I first started my return pump up it was loud wife complained and everything after fillin the sump up and putting some dampening pads under the pump it got much quieter

[Maivortex]

Build a gurgle silencer out of pvc. You can also try putting a valve that is restricted slightly on One of the return lines with a down turned elbow on the drain.

[mightymizz]

I still think you should check into the Herbie method of overflow. If at all possible that is.

[geo11]

Well the gurgling is definitely gone now. And it's not the pump. It sounds like like water rushing down the pipes to the basement. But the water rushing down the pipes is pretty loud....sounds like a fast flowing river....if that makes any sense?

[Neogenocide]

Makes perfect sense, I had the same problem. The outlet in the sump was incredibly loud. What I found was a lot of the problem was the velocity the water was hitting before it hit the sump along with the amount of air in the lines. It was causing it to burb and gurgle at the sump. I added a series of turns just above the sump while adding in a T to vent the air out of the line. It seems to have solved a lot of my issues.

BTW....180g DT.....125g sump......Reeflo Barracuda on return.

[MarkGP]

I would think that the pan world pump you are using is pumping too much water and probably maxing out your overflows. How much have you tried turning it down? I believe those AGA overflows are rated at 600 gph each. Your pump is 1750 gph so after head loss probably around 1200 gph. If you have a ball valve on it I would try closing it more to see if that helps. I run a gen-x pcx40 from my basement sump up to my 125 which is 1190 gph, after head loss around 700 gph and I still have it turned down some to get around 500 gph. If I open it up all the way my overflows get pretty noisy.

[geo11]

I've tried dialing it down, and it definetly quiets it down a bit, but then I'm not getting a lot of water from the returns...is that ok?

Is there a way to figure out how much water is come out the pump after the ball valves or is it a gestimate?

[Chris27]

Get some pipe insulation and wrap it around the drain lines to the sump, may muffle it enough for you to live with it. You could also try running flexible lines down, they tend to be quieter then hard PVC.

BTW, your overflows will handle the pump wide open, the stock durso's on an AGA or Marineland tank will flow more then 600 Gal/Hr. I used to run a wide open Mag 9.5 with 4' of head through one of those without trouble.

[geo11]

The funny part is I wrapped it with pipe insulation yesterday. When I had the pump under the tank, I had it running on full blast, and it wasnt loud at all.

I wanted everything moved to the basement to make it quieter, but now it seems like a bigger issue. I'm going to try playing with the flow rates once I get home as well.

Does it matter if I move the durso all the way down? Since the noise is coming from the water falling down the drain

[gchaney]

COuple of ideas for you try installing a trap either in the sump just before it goes through the floor or right under the floor and then put another trap toward the bottom before it goes into the sump this will slow the free fall creating less noise as the water hits the sides of the pvc you could also try a series of horizontal runs to xut down on the diatance of vertical free fall.

[mauger1]

If you create a hole above where the water falls out into the sump this can help. It relieves pressure down the tube. I put a hole about a foot above mine on both of mine before it hit the water and it pretty much stopped.