A few questions.
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Originally Posted by sefrayser
I have the discharge pipes
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Plural? Do you have one drain or two? Can you describe the drain plumbing all the way from the standpipe(s) to the opening in the sump, or show a photo?
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I have the discharge pipes about 1-2" under the water in the sump. I also have them on gate valves and have them gated back a little.
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If you're referring to putting gate valves on your drain plumbing, you should never do that (unless it's on a system designed to operate with a valve, i.e. a Herbie or beananimal system).
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I tried putting a piece of air line tubing in the hole and the level started to raise and lower. I put a valve on the air tubing and it did the same thing. What can I do to quite it down a little? I have the "L" that comes off the standpipe about 2" under the water or 2" under the overflow fingers. By making the hole bigger water does that do?
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Changing the hole size on a Durso alters how much air gets sucked into the pipe. When a Durso is operating correctly, it acts as a mixed drain - both water and air go down the pipe. This is the "magic" that lets it self-adjust to small changes in the system, vs. a full siphon which (on it's own) is less forgiving. The gurgling noise is essentially the sound of the air and water mixing as they flow down the pipe. Some people will tell you that you can never get rid of this noise with a Durso unless you have insanely low flow rates, but IME after ~15 years of using them there are a few tricks you can try.
First, you need an understanding of how to read the drain's performance. If the water level is rapidly fluctuating up and down every few seconds, you've essentially formed a siphon (when it gets low, it breaks, which lets the level rise back up). Essentially this means you need less water in the pipe, and/or more air. You can get less water by valving back your return pump, or more air by enlarging the hole.
Speaking of the hole, I'd suggest to drill out to a larger hole size than you think you need and put hose (airline or slightly larger vinyl hose) into the hole. Leave it longer than you think you need and put a valve on the free end so you can tweak the air flow rate - this lets you control how much air goes down without having to re-drill the hole every time you want to change the rate.
Once you're at a point where you are happy with the flow rate (i.e. the return pump's rate) and it is not siphoning, you can fiddle to try to get it less noisy. There are a few things to try, but it's not always straightforward, so you pretty much just have to play. Suggestions:
1) Push the airline deeper down into the drain. This moves the point of air entry deeper into the drain, which can muffle the noise.
2) Raise the plumbing in the sump higher or lower - this puts less or more backpressure on the drain, which alters whether or not the air actually mixes with the water, vs. forming a more stable laminar flow into the sump.
3) Close the valve on the airline to reduce the amount of air entering the pipe. If you start getting siphoning again, you've closed it too much.
4) As a last resort, valve your return pump back and try again at a lower flow rate.
5) As a last last last resort, tear down the system and rebuild it with a Herbie or Beananimal drain. These are, in nearly every way, vastly superior to Durso drains.