Sump Redesign: Help Silencing Output

[mrbee2828]

I have been reading about how to silence the output of an overflow to sump (NOT about silencing the actual overflow portion) by placing the drain under the water line. My current design gurgles and splashes a ton on top of the mechanical filter and drip tray portion.

The way I set mine up was to have a portion of the bio media above the water for different types of bacteria to grow as well as some below the water. (I may be totally wrong about this). I'm wondering how I could do both to silence the output and one thought was to section off a chamber in the back of the first section a few inches and have the drain go into that and have that section overflow onto the drip plate I made. I don't understand how mechanical filtration would work though and if stuff would start piling up at the bottom of the submerged section. Thoughts or ideas?

 

[mrbee2828]

Hopefully this comes across...

 

[mrbee2828]

Any thoughts on this? I pulled out the stand some and looked at the overflow box in the back of my tank to see what's collected in there. There isn't anything inside the overflow (not even sand or anything) and I have had this setup for several months. I think the design will be good and even if something were to start collecting in this portion, it's in the sump and I can clean it out.

 

[mrbee2828]

I forgot I had 1 more idea last night about this (yes I'm obsessed). What if instead of sectioning off a piece in the back, I just got a very large (2"-2.5"?) piece of PVC and ran that down the center of the media trays and then ran the overflow into that? It would then be submerged in the water and come up the large PVC and the flow out onto the drip tray. I could basically silicone the whole thing together and be able to remove the entire left side once the tank was pulled out of the stand.

 

[mrbee2828]

So I have 1 last 20" by 4" or so piece of plexi glass. I can use in on the back corner of the filter section or I can use the other 1/2 of the large PVC I used to build my overflow box in the main tank. Otherwise, to go straight across the back side of the filter section I need to buy another piece of $30+ plexiglass. I'm thinking about going to corner route with the scrap piece. Any thoughts? I want to start this asap. I'm also hoping to finish the canopy today or tomorrow (for real this time lol).

EDIT

I could cut a 6" piece out of the 16" tall piece on the current filter setup but that means I'll have down time on the tank. Not sure how to do this. I'm thinking about ripping the entire 10gallon apart tomorrow and then just running the 10g without media and return for a few days while I get the new one setup.

 

[manbeast]

Hopefully this comes across...

so I don't know if this will work for you but on my sump I have 2 1" PVC lines coming down into the sump from the overflows, side by side on each one there are horizontal cuts in the sides of the pipes allowing air bubbles to escape higher up and diffuse more easily rather than be forced to the button only to bubble up with equal force,it's not silent but reduced to pleasant light bubbling

 

[mrbee2828]

I sorta' have something like that you can see in my build thread. It's just a horizontal pipe with a ton of hole drilled. I'm trying to silence it as much as possible. Thanks for replying though! I really appreciate the input.