do you think my 15g will sound like a toilet?

[njp14333]

i decided to upgrade my 10g to a 15g, and add a 20g sump. i got the 15g drilled by my lfs, but the owner was a little nervous of the glass cracking so he drilled the hole about half way down on the back of the tank. this doesnt really bother me since im going to have to build a standpipe inside the tank in order to get the water level in the display at the top.

anyhow i've got a 1in bulkhead. on the inside of the tank there's a 90, then a peice of pvc, then another 90 with a strainer slipped on it. i plan to drill a 1/8 hole in the top of the 90 that has the strainer slipped on it. do you think this will be sufficient to elimanate the flushing noise?

if it matters, there will be about 250gph going through the bulkhead. also, on the outside of the tank, there is a short peice of pvc slipped on the bulkhead, then a 90 slip x barbed with that plastic "bildge hose" going to the sump.

sorry if the plumbing sounds confusing. just ask me to restate it if your confused.

[Agu]

You could do something like this,

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/102883durso1.jpg

Might take a few tries to get the right height but pvc pipe is cheap.

[reverendmaynard]

To eliminate noise, you shoud use a stand pipe on the outside of the tank. Put a tee after the bulkhead with a pipe going up above the water level. Put a drilled cap on it.

Inside the tank, I use a 4x2 reducer, with the 4" side sticking up to act as a surface skimming overflow. Mines an over-the-top type, but I'll post a pic anyway so you can see what I mean by the reducer. On a 15gal you can probably use a 3x2 instead.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d41/epolacek/125_sw_tank/overflow_1.jpg

In this pic, it's not tuned properly so the water level is too high for proper surface skimming, but as it's running now, the water falls into the reducer. I use gutter guard to keep critters for going over the falls.

[njp14333]

i dont understand why i need a durso on the outside of the tank if i have a hole in the top of the elbow on the inside of the tank. this is a sketch of the tank as viewed from the left side.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/NJP2525/nickstank.jpg

(sorry for the tiny photo. im not very good with this image posting yet. at the top you can see theres a line pointing to the elbow at the top. this is where the hole will be.)

[reverendmaynard]

Hey, try it that way. I don't think it will work, though.

The purpose of a stand pipe is to break the siphon at some point below where the water from the tank is going in the pipe. With the standpipe outside like I described, the siphon is broken at the bulkhead. Your design would work if you threaded a piece of airline through the hole and down into the pipe. Leave enough sticking up so it's always above the waterline. You'll have to experiment with the depth that the airline is inserted so don't cut it 'til you're sure it's working.