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Silenting the sump and the drain

boun11

boun11

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I have a 100 gallon tank that has two 1" drains drilled on the back of it. How can I make the drain noises to be less. The sound is like a waterfall. The drain is hooked up to a 1" flex line with stockman pipe to the back already. Is there anything I can do to make the sound less? Also, there is a lot of sound in the sump. How can I silent this? My wife is annoy by these noises since we just had a newborn baby. Any advice is greatly appreciate. If you're handy and close to Berkeley and can give me a hand. I can give you a frag of some paly (pink zipper, AOG, or Tubs alien eyes).
 
Sorry, I didn't read closely enough. I'm not familiar with that setup -- so are the drains at the top of the tank and then they drop down into the sump?
 
[quote author=doliver link=topic=4093.msg48979#msg48979 date=1215962994]
Sorry, I didn't read closely enough. I'm not familiar with that setup -- so are the drains at the top of the tank and then they drop down into the sump?
[/quote]

No Problem. Yes, the drains are at the top of the tank and then drop down into the sump.
 
here is a picture of the back of the tank.
DSCN0223.jpg


Here is the picture of the tank:
DSCN0222.jpg
 
I'm not sure whatelse you can do other than try the filter sock. That will help cut down the noise in the sump a bit. You can also try to put an elbow at the end so the water doesn't hit the water in the sump directly. If it's the "toilet" noise that you are talking about then the air holes on top could be too big or too small.
 
Hey Boun,

What sound are you trying to eliminate? Is it the sound of the splashing water, the sound of the suction or the hum of the water running down the pipes? There are ways to fix each.
 
[quote author=Dyngoe link=topic=4093.msg49004#msg49004 date=1215981194]
Hey Boun,

What sound are you trying to eliminate? Is it the sound of the splashing water, the sound of the suction or the hum of the water running down the pipes? There are ways to fix each.

[/quote]

both sounds. And there are bubbles in the sump as well.
 
A filtersock is a good idea for the drain in the sump, make sure that our overflow pipe isn't submerged too deep as well. AFA the noise from the drains, you might try throttling your return pump back a little so your drains aren't working so hard.
 
Well, I have some "unconventional" ideas that worked on my last tank:

1. For the suction sound coming from the air inlet in your stockman overflow pipe try running a powerhead to push water down the air hole. Sounds odd I know, but I found if you push a good jet straight down the center of your overflow pipe it made the flow better and almost completely silenced that part of the tube.
1a. Another alternate is to make a silencer for the inlet. Take two 1.25" encaps and connect them with ~3" of pipe. Drill an inlet and outlet in both endcaps. Connect one end to flex tube you then connect to the stockman. Stuff the tube with filter floss and then try tuning it

2. For the hum from the pipe, i.e. the sound of water actually running down the pipe, try wrapping the pipe with dynamat. Not easy to do on flexi tube, but can be helpful. Aother idea is to make your tube rigid, straight and larger in diameter. Wherever the water "hits' the walls of the pipe you will get some amount of sound. But, #3 has a solution for this.

3. This is definitely the most avant garde idea of the bunch. Make a U-tube water silencer in the down flow tubing. What you need to do is make a U bend (similar to what is under a kitchen sink only longer) out of ~2.5" PVC pipe before you plumb it into your sump. This should silence the water rush a little and should remove most, if not all of the bubbles.

I hope this helps.
 
Boun,

I think you are getting a lot of splashing in the sump due to the low level needed for draining when the return is off.

It will help to do an overflow box around the tank drains so that you don't need to drop the tank level so much.

Also, you can try adding some tygon to the end of the drain line so that it's submerged in the sump.
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=4093.msg49204#msg49204 date=1216188925]
So are you able to fix it?
[/quote]

Hey Phong,

I have not fiddle with it yet. So far the wife has not complaint about it since the 50 gallon (the one I'm taking down) is making as much noises as the 100 gallon.

[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=4093.msg49029#msg49029 date=1216021188]
Boun,

I think you are getting a lot of splashing in the sump due to the low level needed for draining when the return is off.

It will help to do an overflow box around the tank drains so that you don't need to drop the tank level so much.

Also, you can try adding some tygon to the end of the drain line so that it's submerged in the sump.
[/quote]

Hey Norman,

Do I make an overflow box outside the tank or inside the tank? Is it hard to do? Where can I buy a pre-made one that I can put it around the drains?
 
Hi Boun,

On yours, I'd go for an internal box. How about making a long narrow one from acrylic scraps? 3 sides, plus a bottom, then RTV it to the tank to catch both bulkheads. Sort of like a Calfo style overflow.
 
[quote author=boun11 link=topic=4093.msg49232#msg49232 date=1216225296]
Do I make an overflow box outside the tank or inside the tank? Is it hard to do? Where can I buy a pre-made one that I can put it around the drains?
[/quote]

You could try a glass-holes box: http://www.glass-holes.com/category.sc?categoryId=2

I have the 700gph box on my tank, and it works fairly well. I did have to fiddle with it a fair amount to get it really quiet, though.

Is there anything connected to the bulkheads on the inside of the tank? If there's an elbow and a strainer, you might try adjusting the angle. If you don't have anything, adding an elbow pointing downward might help reduce slurpy noises. (though it would lower the water level a bit)
 
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