Sump Flow and gurging sound

[will8]

Hello all,

Its a long time since i have been on here,
I have changed a few things on and my tank, upgraded lights and skimmer swapped my power heads for a vortech mp40. (loving it), and added a calcium reactor.

And swapped all my softies and bought lots of sps, some frags and some big ones, i am glad to say they are growing well.

I also had my tank drilled so i could install a sump, and that is where the problem is.
I had it drilled in each corner and the guy who drilled it didnt add any weirs, just a 2x1" holes,

As you can see there is just a elbow on, so the problem is, well 3 really.
I dont have enough flow though the sump only about 1.5 times, and i find it hard to get the return flow back to the tank equal to the flow going in to the sump and it make a lot of noise.

So if i made 2 small weir out of 6mm glass and take the white elbows off would doing this sort all the problem out,

This the only problem i have with the tank, so i would like to get it sorted. and enjoy my tank. at the moment i cant cos of the noise.

Here is my tank.

Thanks Will

 

[dskidmore]

i find it hard to get the return flow back to the tank equal to the flow going in to the sump and it make a lot of noise.

If your return are entirely submersed, you're going to get a siphon effect and dump water from the main tank to the sump. If you are having a problem equalizing the flow, then you definitely need a weir for the water to flow over. The whole idea here is to have the main tank overflow exactly as much as is pumped into it. Otherwise you're risking floods.

You may consider putting your boxes on the outside of the tank, with a standpipe inside the box. This would look pretty nice from the front. This doesn't allow for as wide an overflow area, so there may be more risk of sucking up critters, but mechanically it should work well. Look at the way standpipes inside HOB overflow boxes are constructed.

at the moment i cant cos of the noise.

As for noise, the major issue there is controlling air and water mixture. The most popular methods are the durso and stockman standpipes. Since you have a side outlet instead of a standpipe, you might be able to just put a short pipe into the tank, with a hole. Stick an air hose in the hole and send it above water for your siphon break. Some folks also find luck with snaking an air line down the drain. At some sweet spot, you can relieve the vacuum/turbulence in the pipe that way. It's a bit tricky, but it's certainly less work and more easily changed than the standpipe modifications.

 

[jsoong]

You can solve both your problems by building an overflow, either in tank or at the back. This is a system for a silent overflow, which I find to work quite well:
BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill - Silent and Fail-Safe Overflow System

Note that he is using 3 standpipes, but the original design at reef central has only 2 (combining the emergency with the start-up durso). So if you are going to use an internal overflow, you can build that with just the 2 holes you have. <I use the 2 standpipe design & in use, water only goes down one standpipe, and a few drops on startup through the 2nd .. so I think 2 pipes is perfectly adequate, at least for my flow rate .... 750 gal/hr / 2x 1" standpipes.>

 

[SparKy697]

Another option may be something like this:

Glass-Holes.com dope aquarium stuff : Complete Overflow Kits

Your holes look like they may be in the right spot. I have never used this product but it looks like a descent setup. Watch the installation vid on that site too.

 

[dskidmore]

BeanAnimal's Bar and Grill - Silent and Fail-Safe Overflow System

That is really quite clever. It not only silences the return, it gets you a much better flow for the same size pipes. Thank you for sharing.

 

[mick199]

Fast cheap quite and fail safe I have 4 25mm drain holes in my tank and pumping 5000L with the return pump a 90% elbow on 3 of the 4 drains the last drain put a tap in to control the flow and run this drain as a full syphon turn the 90% elbows so they frail slowly at the Hightower you won't your water you can reduce the flow with the tap in till water starts to flow over the top of the 90% elbows you will only need to spend about 5 mins getting the flow through the full syphon drain so that it will drain just sell then you are pumping in the other 3 drains will skim off the top with no noise at all the only sound I have from tank is the hum of pumps and a slight water movement noise and even if I block up 2 drains the other 2 will drain fast enough to stop the over flow and all that's left is get your syphon drain and return inlet high enough to one over fill your sump if the power goes off