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Unread 03/25/2004, 09:44 PM   #1
Herbie
Yep,that one
 
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Central PA
Posts: 694
NEW plumbing method for an ULTRA QUIET REEF TANK!!!! LONG !!!!

Hey all,
Well I came up with this mostly by accident but it works VERY well with no inherent dangers of overflowing or starving the pump of water! Note: I am not, by any means, an expert on plumbing reef tanks or fluid hydraulics/dynamics. I am just an average reefer on a quest to make my tank perfectly quiet or as much as possible! I am a complete layman and you are to use any of this info AT YOUR OWN RISK !!!! This modification will only work with built in overflow boxes with 2 bulkheads drilled in them!!!
If you are Tired of a loud noisy in tank overflow and that annoying bubbling gushing noise in your sump, then read on........
I was tired of that too!!! My Oceanic 58 RR tank is in my living room so I was very concerned that it MUST be VERY quiet! I was on a mission to solve this problem.
I started with the Standard Reef Ready tank with 2 drilled holes inside the built in overflow chamber.One for the return and one for the pump. This is how most if not all Reef Ready tanks are made. The 2 drilled bulkhead is KEY to this whole method!
The tank came with the perferated stand tube, the one with a "million" holes in it! As you all know the water "fell" about 20" to the bottom of the overflow with a LOT of noise and splash!!! NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! So, I set out to make myself one of the "Durso" stand pipes (GREAT idea by the way!). I was able to mostly quiet down the overflow to acceptable levels. It was very hard to even notice the difference in noise because the water "crashing" into the sump was overpowering at that point. I tried everything I could think of to quiet it down. Different lengths of plumbing under the water level, air bleeds offs, slowing or speeding up the main pumps flow.........I tryed everything I could think of!
I eventually started to play around with the ball valves that I had plumbed in line when I plumbed the return system. NOTE: This was a last resort move just to see if it would quiet it down, and I had NO plans to run the tank with the return plumbing restricted.
I was able to get the tank COMPLETELY silent when I matched the return water from the overflow to the pumps output when running at max pressure running in the tank. RISKY right???....................READ ON !!!
I quickly noticed that the "dorso" at that point was not doing anything as I was able to set the height of the water in the overflow box with the ball valves on the return! So out came the "dorso pipe". I also know how touchy this set up was as far as maintaining the "perfect balance" between pump and return. Or so I thought ..............as most people do! So I set it and watched it for hours, marked the water level in the "open" stand piped overflow. Marked it with tape so I could see how the water level moved around.........it didnt once it stabilized.
Then I started to play around with the flow rates into the overflow box without touching the ball valves for adjustment at all. I pumped in more water with another small pump to simulate a return line starting to be restricted. The water level came up in the overflow box and STOPPED at a higher point with more flow and no adjusment on the ball valves!!! That is because at a slightly higher water level there is MORE head pressure pushing the the water down the return at a higher rate. WOW...........That is HUGE !!!!! The water level is somewhat self leveling ....to a point! Now you cant completely close off your return line and expect not to overflow beause it WILL. So I came up with a VERY IMPORTANT SAFETY FEATURE!!!!! I took out the rigid pump output line inside the overflow box and set it up as a higher (just below the intake overflow box "teeth") safety return plumbed directly to the sump, above the water a little bit. It should be empty at all times unless something is out of wack with the main return line! I just plumbed my pump output over the top of the tank like you would on a canister filter on a tank with out the built in overflow box.
So here is my final setup...........
On the main 1" return bulkhead in the overflow box I have a 1" piece of solid pvc that goes up to approx 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up inside the overflow( glued to the bulkhead). It must be sealed at the bottom or glued. (this is to keep the water IN the overflow box when power is out so you dont flood your sump.) I also have a 1" coupler on top of the pipe so I could insert that perferated pipe so that it is WAY above the water line and capped of so snails and large particles can not clog it.( I have about 10 or 12 inches of perferated tube so it will be next to impossible to stop the flow of water. Anything that will clog this would have clogged a "durso pipe" a long time ago!)
On the 3/4 bulkhead I have the solid tube (glued to the bulkhead) about 1 " below the teeth of the overflow box with a strainer cap on it (or I could have used some of the perferated pipe with a reducer bushing). The return for this goes directly to the sump just above the water line. It will only flow water in the event of a restriction in the main return line.........I kept this "emergency return" above the water level in the sump in case it was draining water I would be able to hear it! This tube should never have water flowing through it unless there is something wrong in your main return or someone fooled with the adjustment of the ball valves. It should probably be tested from time to time to be safe.
I ran the pump out put that used to go through the 3/4 plumbing in the overflow box, directly to the tank and over the rim. Like a normal tank running a canister filter. I am planning on adding a sea swirl where I can hook up this line to in the future. Make sure you dill a 1/8 " or slightly larger hole in the output line about 1/2" below the running level of the tank water to prevent a back siphon in the event of a power outage.
I feel that my tank is completly safe running like this and I have run it through all kinds of test scenarios. The only thing that could go wrong is if the main return gets completely shut off for some reason. The smaller emergency return would have a hard time keeping up. But anything under complete blockage of the main return........the emergency return could handle. ( You have just as much chance as completely blocking a normal or "durso" return as a this slightly restricted return.).
If the water level in the overflow gets to high (for whatever reason) , the emergency return will "kick in" start flowing water and you WILL know it because its return is above the water level in the sump and it will be a loud crashing return of water into the sump. It could even run like this for quite some time athough it will be the loud splashing bubbling noise that you will want to fix ASAP.
If the water level drops in the overflow it will just bounce back and forth to above and below the main stand pipe as the pump continues to fill the overflow box, also making lots of noise but continuing to run. You Will know it.
I keep the water level in the overflow box about 6" below the teeth of the overflow, although the main standpipe is about 6-8 inches below that water level. That is the KEY. to keep the AIR out of the return line! So it doesnt create a siphon and pull air it in. Making for LOTS of noise and bubles in the sump.
The "Durso" standpipe works GREAT for quieting down the overflowbox but is very hard to set it up to keep the sump quiet. This is most of the problem I have read from most people complaining about noise!Myself included.
With my tank set up like this my 58 RR flowing about 500 GPH is running COMPLETELY SILENT with just a slight hum of the pump! My 16 G bowfront with an Aquaclear 300 is slightly LOUDER than my 58. This is NO JOKE. I am very honest about this!
O.K. now its time to rip me up about this !!!!!!! Let me know any problems anyone can see with this setup or improvements that could be made. I am sure I have leftout some impotant info as I am getting tired of writing now! But feel free to ask me any questions or concerns you may have about this modification. I will see if I can take some pictures this weekend and get them posted as well because I am sure some of this may sound confusing!!!!
I hope this can help a few other reefers out there who cant sleep ,watch t.v., or even hold a conversation next to there tanks because they are to LOUD !!!
O.K. let the complaints and questions fly !!!!!!!!
HTH...........Herbie


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