help with drain noise

[christopherjudd]

so I just fired up my life reef hob overflow. and this thing is sweet! I am using a standard vacuum hose for drain and it is loud!! I have the lifereef silencer but the noise is coming from the vacuum hose exit. sounds like toilet flushing.

need to figure this out quick or my fiancé is gonna kill me! lol

[Tigerdragon]

Is your piping on a constant downward slope or does it maybe go upward some? If it slopes a bit upward will cause a flushing sound.

[christopherjudd]

its a combo of vertical and horizontal if that makes sense

[Jhuneke]

Sounds like you need a smaller diameter drain hose? I have a ball valve in my drain, and if it starts 'flushing' I close the valve slightly and it clears up, also like stated above you want it to flow as directly straight down as you can .. Good luck , I know it's annoying for sure!

[Tigerdragon]

I believe there is a thread on here about this overflow

[Tigerdragon]

Might even put a ball valve on pump outlet and dial it back some to see if that helps

[christopherjudd]

but nothing going upward

[ca1ore]

You want the entire length of the drain hose to have a downward slope - so no horizontal or upwards piping. However, this is not what causes the 'flushing' sound. Typically flushing occurs when you are trying to push too much water through the oveflow and it is trying/failing to form a full siphon. Reducing the diameter of the hose is a HORRIBLE idea and will just reduce the capacity of the drain. Your only option, really, is to reduce the flow from the return pump until the flushing stops.

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by Jhuneke

Sounds like you need a smaller diameter drain hose? I have a ball valve in my drain, and if it starts 'flushing' I close the valve slightly and it clears up, also like stated above you want it to flow as directly straight down as you can .. Good luck , I know it's annoying for sure!

Unless you are running a dual drain, restricting the flow on a single is a really bad idea. Maybe you haven't had a flood yet, but you will.

[Jhuneke]

I'm no plumbing expert by any means, that's just been my experience.. Can I ask for my understanding though? By reducing the flow rate on return, isn't that just going to cause the overflow to fill up more slowly, worsening the loss of siphon? My drain is bigger than my return line, so that was the only way I found to alleviate the issue. No flood yet. But def don't want to have one! I assumed that reducing the drain flow would cause the overflow to remain full and not lose siphon on the durso. Always happy to learn, as I've said I am a self taught reef plumber lol, or rather , maybe an apprentice

[SGT_York]

Or you could increase the size of the pipe.

To succeed you need a complete unblocked column of air all the way through the pipes. The vaccum sound is when water blocks off the air vent and traps the air, then the air breaks through and slurps really loud. Increasing the size may help, but if you have any 45 or 90 degrees that column of air can't exist, with the horizontal run likely it won't. So see if you can remove the horizontal run by rotating your sump or using flexible pipe to avoid the sharp turns.

If your life reef is the two pipe system you can run a herbie and add a gate valve to one which will work perfectly.

And yes reducing the diameter of a pipe due to gurgling is a really bad idea. A gate valve would work but a tiny bit of algae or a snail will overflow your tank without the second (backup or emergency) drain.

[SGT_York]

Jhuneke,

You are correct that reducing the line will make the siphon more efficient, but I can guarantee that eventually you will get a snail, algae, sponge, or random junk to block it.
Also a durso is designed to be anti-siphon that is why the holes are drilled into the top. Best to just use a strainer and remove the plumbing above the waterline (for a siphon). Also in lieu of reducing the diameter of your pipe you can use a gate valve which can be precise in how much water to siphon so much that you can raise or lower the water in the overflow to 1/8 of an inch by a simple turn of the valve. Far more accurate and precise than going from 1" to 3/4" pipe. Gate valves are not ball valves and are not sold at HD or major box stores (well plastic gate valves are not).

Google herbie for really good instructions on how to safely do a overflow return system.

[christopherjudd]

Ok ill try to reduce the flow later

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by Jhuneke

I'm no plumbing expert by any means, that's just been my experience.. Can I ask for my understanding though? By reducing the flow rate on return, isn't that just going to cause the overflow to fill up more slowly, worsening the loss of siphon? My drain is bigger than my return line, so that was the only way I found to alleviate the issue. No flood yet. But def don't want to have one! I assumed that reducing the drain flow would cause the overflow to remain full and not lose siphon on the durso. Always happy to learn, as I've said I am a self taught reef plumber lol, or rather , maybe an apprentice

If you only have a single drain, and you operate it as a full siphon it will indeed be quiet. But you have also effectively reduced the capacity of the drain to be exactly equal to the return. So anything that then blocks that single drain, even very slightly will cause the drain to no longer have enough capacity and the tank will overflow. That is why folks who successfully run siphon drains do so only with an open channel backup drain.