Looking for quiet setup, feeling defeated

[Guy W]

Hello, I have to say I'm feeling pretty defeated. I've tried twice now to setup a tank and both times I was extremely unhappy with the results. Keep in mind the only location I have for a reef tank is a roughly 36" space in the living room about 8 feet from where we sit and watch TV.

First I got a glass holes overflow kit and a 40g breeder, drilled the tanks and set that system up. I paired it up with an EShopps RS-100 sump and an Eheim Compact 3000+ pump.

It was ridiculously loud. Between the water rushing down the 1.5" drain and the mixture of air and water gurgling and surging into the sump, it was absolutely a no-go. Fortunately I got the tank from Petco during their $1/gal sale so I wasn't out a tremendous amount of money.

Already having the stand and sump I decided I'd try a 65g reef ready Aqueon with their Megaflow plumbing kit, which is advertised as being quiet. I can say quiet it ain't. It wasn't as loud as the previous setup but it was unacceptable for our living space.

At this point I ended up selling everything just to be done with it and stop the frustration. I'm not exactly well off so the amount of cash I've lost during this project isn't trivial, actually it's downright depressing.

So now I'm debating on even bothering moving forward or just giving up. I've read some promising info about the Red Sea aquarium products and I was thinking about maybe saving up for the Reefer 250, but honestly if I drop $1200 and find myself in the same situation for a 3rd time I don't know what I'd do.

I'm not a super handy DIY'er so I really need something pretty easy to setup. Being quiet is obviously super important, as well as reliable. Maybe this hobby just isn't for me? I don't know. I do love my little 29g tank I just want something a bit bigger and something that is a little more stable and capable of a wider range of livestock choices.

Looking for advice on how to proceed.

 

[twon8]

Low flow through your sump will help quiet the tank


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flananuts]

Go reefer 170 or 250, ecotech quiet drive vortech's, and a Vectra M1 for your return. This is my setup and the only thing I hear trickling which I could probably make quieter is my reef octopus in sump skimmer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[re76]

How did you have the overflow plumbed? It sounds like your main drain was taking in both air and water which is going to cause the loud gurgling sound you mentioned.

In most popular overflow setups like herbie and bean your main drain should be under the water line and not be taking in any air. Typically your emergency drain will be handling a very small amount of water that is trickling in but if you have your set-up dialed in this can be an extremely small amount and shouldn't be making much noise at all.

 

[Guy W]

How did you have the overflow plumbed? It sounds like your main drain was taking in both air and water which is going to cause the loud gurgling sound you mentioned.



In most popular overflow setups like herbie and bean your main drain should be under the water line and not be taking in any air. Typically your emergency drain will be handling a very small amount of water that is trickling in but if you have your set-up dialed in this can be an extremely small amount and shouldn't be making much noise at all.

It was plumbed per the instructions that came with the mega flow plumbing kit. It's just a single drain with a Durso style stand pipe so yeah it was sucking in air and water and that's what was causing some of the noise. Had I known this system wasn't as quiet as advertised i wouldn't have bothered going that route.

 

[GimpyFin]

Sorry to hear about your tank troubles. Like twon8 mentioned, turning down the return pump with the dial on the side will help quiet the flow noise in the sump. Durso style overflows, like the Aqueon, can definitely be made quiet. Taking the siphon break out of the return piping can quiet the splashing in the overflow too (just place return nozzles near the water line instead.) It doesn't sound like there was anything wrong with your last setup, it might've just needed a little tweaking/adjusting. Haven't used the red sea setups, but I have seen them and they are pretty nice for an all in one package.

 

[Greybeard]

Don't give up! Silence in an overflow can be achieved, and you don't have to spend a bunch of money to do it. With the right plumbing setup, either one of the tanks you talk about could be made silent.

I have a 60g cube, about 8 feet behind the couch, where I watch TV. Marineland cube, with standard corner-flo system. When I set it up, the durso overflow was as you suggest, noisy, gurgling... unacceptable.

Some time back, I ran an external return, and re-plumbed the two bulkheads into a Durso style system. Shorter standpipe with a gate valve, full siphon to the sump. Adjust flow so that just a trickle of water enters 2nd standpipe, which flows unrestricted to sump. 2nd standpipe is only about 1/2" below water level of main tank, so flow through from tank to overflow is quiet. Silence. The only thing I hear is the hum of the return pump.

A couple of photos that might help: The overflow. Bad pic, but you can see the low, full siphon standpipe, and the tall 'trickle' pipe. The return line outside the tank is painted black, and kinda hard to make out in this photo.

This is under the tank. The angled pipe with the gate valve is the low, full siphon drain. No air, so it makes no noise. The straight pipe is the trickle overflow, carries very little water, so does't make any noise. I angled the top edge of the standpipe, so that water enters as smoothly as possible, and just runs down the inside of the tube. The flex pipe is the return line.

 

[oseymour]

With the Aqueon tank, you can convert it to a Herbie style overflow which is what the Red Sea tanks use.

I understand your frustration, I went from a 50 breeder with a Glass Holes kit to a Red Sea tank, night and day. I can run my Vectra M1 full blast, adjust the overflow to suck in no air and I get no sound. In the sump I put oxo silicone pads anywhere a pump touches the glass sump to reduce vibration transfer. i also use DC pumps wherever possible.

I sit about 7 feet from the tank to watch TV with no sound. At night when everything is off in the house I hear my skimmer pump slightly but that's it.

 

[Mr.Tan]

my bean animal setup runs totally silent when i turn the other equipment off (skimmer and powerhead). It makes just the slightest hum from the return pump. It is also so far very fail proof with the 2 emergency drains.


I never had any experience drilling a tank or building an overflow box from glass, but i did it on the first try with patience.

 

[phenom5]

As others have said, a full siphon setup (BeanAnimal or Herbie) will help a ton. I run a Bean, and it is extremely quiet. Also, I would cut the flow through the sump to 50% of what you've had in your previous setups.

Those two things alone will significantly reduce your setup's noise.

 

[wildman926]

Don't give up! Silence in an overflow can be achieved, and you don't have to spend a bunch of money to do it. With the right plumbing setup, either one of the tanks you talk about could be made silent.

I have a 60g cube, about 8 feet behind the couch, where I watch TV. Marineland cube, with standard corner-flo system. When I set it up, the durso overflow was as you suggest, noisy, gurgling... unacceptable.

Some time back, I ran an external return, and re-plumbed the two bulkheads into a Durso style system. Shorter standpipe with a gate valve, full siphon to the sump. Adjust flow so that just a trickle of water enters 2nd standpipe, which flows unrestricted to sump. 2nd standpipe is only about 1/2" below water level of main tank, so flow through from tank to overflow is quiet. Silence. The only thing I hear is the hum of the return pump.

A couple of photos that might help: The overflow. Bad pic, but you can see the low, full siphon standpipe, and the tall 'trickle' pipe. The return line outside the tank is painted black, and kinda hard to make out in this photo.

This is under the tank. The angled pipe with the gate valve is the low, full siphon drain. No air, so it makes no noise. The straight pipe is the trickle overflow, carries very little water, so does't make any noise. I angled the top edge of the standpipe, so that water enters as smoothly as possible, and just runs down the inside of the tube. The flex pipe is the return line.

What he said....except his setup is a Herbie, not a durso. A Herbie uses a valve to create a siphon, where there is water above the main drain with the siphon, and an open extra drain for emergency purposes. It is dead quiet. Here is my Herbie setup in an old video, and I run this on 2 tanks in my den, and one tank, my 150g, is directly behind the couch I sit at. I used two valves, and I did not need to. I also don't run the screen anymore. You can hear it is silent, then I open the valve to hear the sucking noise, and then I close it back up. I use a bioball as a filter to keep things from going in the sump. Just click on the pic to see the video -

 

[Jscwerve]

I have to give another +1 to having a full siphon line.

I run a bean animal and it is absolutely silent. It is about 6' from our couch that we do most of our TV watching on (when we aren't sitting in front of the tank!).

I also made my stand sealed all around except for the holes the plumbing goes through and power cords. (pic below)

Make sure your drain/overflow pipes terminate just below the running level of your sump. No splashing that way.

Here is a pic of when I first set mine up. I've since replaced the plumbing on the line to the right with flex PVC because I got a little noise from the 90s. The full siphon line is the one on the left with the gate valve. The middle open standpipe in the overflow is for if some god awful reason the full siphon AND the Durso get clogged.

I can't imagine anything being quieter except a remote/basement sump.

 

[Treasure Coast]

Red Sea Max, almost silent.

 

[Bent]

Three things will give you a dead silent setup.

1: Your main drain has to be a self restarting siphon drain and not an open drain. The open drains are what's causing all the noise. A full siphon can handle more flow, and runs completely silent.

2: the drain to the sump has to be underwater so no splashing occurs.

3: the more flex tube and the less rigid tubing you use on both the siphon drain and the main return, the more vibration damping you are going to get.


You have to do a herbie or bean. Anything else is going to be loud unles the flow through the display is minimal.


My setup, though the sump is in the basement, is dead silent. You can't hear squat.

 

[Greybeard]

What he said....except his setup is a Herbie, not a durso.

Oops :eek1:

Yup, I messed that one up. It was a durso, I converted to Herbie.

Silence is golden It can be achieved. Just about any factory drilled tank can be converted to Herbie with a little thought and few dollars worth of PVC parts.

 

[mpderksen]

A couple of thoughts: I also use a Herbie-style and only had the slightest trickling noise. So I added a 45° fitting of the taller pipe and angled some flexible hose at the bottom. Dead quiet. I keep the drain only a 1/2" below the teeth of the overflow so there's no big fall but still surface skims just great. And a gate valve like the one above works SO much better for dialing it in than a ball valve!
Next I replaced my MP10 (that had to run near full speed) with an MP40 quiet drive. I can't hear it. Amazing. The most noise I get is from the skimmer. If I really needed to, I guess I could run it at intervals, so it's not on when I'm near it. Some people do that. But in my situation it's acceptable, so I skim 24/7.
Last, there are some return pumps that are quieter than others, and you can put a silicone mat under it to reduce vibration. As mentioned above, a low turn-over rate helps too. I am running 4-5 times tank volume, which is twice my skimmer pump, plenty in my experience.

 

[reefwiser]

Just get and AIO system they are dead quiet by design. Many people are really sensitive to sound. An what may be silent for one person would not be for another.Overflow designs take quiet a bit of work to get them quite for a sensitive person. I know my wife is very sensitive to sound.

 

[TimFountain]

This was my wifes' #1 requirement for a new tank. I had a JBJ nano 29G in the family room and it was pretty loud. Got a Read Sea 350 with the Sicce pump and Gyre 150 and it is darn near silent.

 

[spliffstar]

I was told the glass holes quiets down over time.. not sure if that's true..

 

[ca1ore]

Run a herbie-style drain with a pump like the Vectra, and light fans will be the noisiest thing on your tank (they are on mine). My tank runs about 20-25 db at night; about 40 during the days. That's quiet!