Having some trouble with my overflow system

[xdestry]

Hi guys I am having some trouble tuning my overflow system, here's what it looks like now.

Heres the overflow box and the two drains, main siphon drain on the left is 1 inch pvc, and around half an inch underneath the overflow teeth level. Right one is 1.5 inches and half an inch over the overflow teeth level. Right now there is a coupling over both the main and emergency to make them a bit higher than they were before, the water was dropping too far and making too much sound.

http://i.imgur.com/hwXsCun.jpg?1


Better picture to see where the water level in the tank is at right now

http://i.imgur.com/lAxiWuQ.jpg?1


Here is where the pipes enter the sump
http://i.imgur.com/dVokPtb.jpg?1

Heres the return

http://i.imgur.com/P4kJ4F7.jpg?1



So the problem I am having now is that I can't seem to get the herbie silent without lowering the water level in the return area too much. I am supposed to try and get the water level in the overflow box right to the top of the siphon drain right? When I close the valve a bit more the siphon will eventually quiet down, but then the water level is around half an inch to an inch above the main siphon. You can see in the picture of the water level in the main tank that it's not really draining down into the overflow but kind of level there maybe 2 centimeters above the bottom of the overflow teeth.

It seems the water level in the tank is a bit too high but when I remove any water from the main display the water level in the return area for the pump will drop too low. In this case I tried opening up the siphon to allow more water to flow into the sump which raises the level of the return back up, but then the siphon starts being really loud again.

I am not sure if there is too much water in the system, or if my siphon drain pipe level is a bit too high in the overflow box. This post might be kind of confusing and that's probably because I have no idea what is going on at the moment. Been toying with the total water level, the standpipe height, and the gate valve and I cannot get it to where everything seems to be silent. Please help! Thank you

[xdestry]

Okay I just cut off about an inch off of the main standpipe, heres what it looks like now.

http://i.imgur.com/tF1vMT7.jpg?1


http://i.imgur.com/UNzUrW8.jpg?1

The main standpipe is now around 1 inch underneath the bottom of the overflow teeth. However the water level is still above an inch and a half above the pipe, and the water level in the tank as you can see in the second picture is still way higher than the bottom of the teeth. The drain however is most silent, except there seems to be a whirlpool effect that happens every once in a while sucking air into the drain and making noise. Now I am thinking there might be too much water in the system, but when I remove any water from the main tank to try and lower the water level to the bottom of the overflow teeth the water level in the return drops too low for the pump. :headwalls:

edit : removing any water now drops the water level in the tank very slightly, causes the main drain to make a lot of gurgling noise, and drops the water level in the return area way too low for the pump again. i am lost now as to what to do next

[xdestry]

Finally got it to a stable level, man its slow here at night! The water level in the tank is still about halfway up the overflow teeth, is this normal? Seems to be only 3/4 or an inch or so under the rim now

[cidbozek]

The water should be around half an inch up the teeth on the overflow box, that's how it skims the surface of the tank.

When I ran my herbie, I had my main drain about 3 inches under the water surface, as to avoid the whirlpool and get it completely silent. Then adjust the emergency pipe to just a hair above the water level in the box.

What size tank and how much flow is your return putting out? You also want to adjust that before you try to mess with the overflow, it just looks to me from the pics your pushing a lot of water through your sump

[cidbozek]

Also inside the box make sure the water level is below the bottom of the teeth

[xdestry]

The water should be around half an inch up the teeth on the overflow box, that's how it skims the surface of the tank.

When I ran my herbie, I had my main drain about 3 inches under the water surface, as to avoid the whirlpool and get it completely silent. Then adjust the emergency pipe to just a hair above the water level in the box.

What size tank and how much flow is your return putting out? You also want to adjust that before you try to mess with the overflow, it just looks to me from the pics your pushing a lot of water through your sump

Hi thanks for the reply, the water seems to be about where you suggested so I will stop worrying about that!

My tank is 100 gallons and the pump is an eheim 1260 which I think is around 640 gph. The water was really turbulent in the pictures but has calmed down now after I got the siphon going steady, the water level in the return pump area still seems to be dangerously low but I guess once I have my ato in there it shouldn't move around too much. I was surprised at how much a small twist in the gate valve will affect the water level once you get close to the siphon point, think I was turning it too much before and not waiting a couple minutes in between to let it even out.

[alf1096]

Once the siphon is set how you want it you should be able to add more water to the return section without effecting anything.