Looking for quiet setup, feeling defeated

[joshbrookkate]

if i read this correctly you have a single drain line and it's loud, aka flushing sound. The reason is because the pipe is filling up with water and the water weight builds up to a point where it is released and it flushes out. It's a cycle, that will keep happening.

I run the return pump that you have wide open with a single drain line also. It's dead quiet...i have a valve on my drain line to restrict the drain flow, that means the pipe is always full of water.

This is not recommended by anyone, but it can be done safely if your return pump chamber is small enough that if your drain were to plug your display tank would hold that water without overflowing and secondly you have sometype of smart ATO with overfill protection.

If you don't have this or cant have that capability, then you should consider drilling the tank and adding an emergency drain.

This was my situation, too - A loud flushing noise.
Fixed it by doing the following:
Drilled a couple extra small air holes into the top of return pipe,
Extended the return pipe so it ended under the water in the sump, instead of splashing water into the sump,
Added a filter sock to the return pipe,
Turned down the flow from the return pump so it matched what my return plumbing could handle quietly.
Now it's absolutely quiet. A good thing because the tank is in my husband's TV room.

 

[Aquaman]

Only took me 20 years and more then 10 tank designs to understand how to make them quiet

 

[Tisbe]

I had a Durso setup converted to a Herbie and it went silent. Greybeard did a nice write-up.

 

[Pmj]

Having a valve on the drain pipe and adjusting it helped me a lot. With it wide open i was getting a lot of big air bubbles. Now it only has a small amount of small air bubbles that make almost no noise. System is durso with emergency (so pretty much herbie).

It's a ball valve and I was just at another reefer's house and he had a full siphon drain (also an emergency) with a gate valve that was dead silent. He said the gate valves are much easier to adjust.

Also, I have a Jebao DC return pump that I got with the setup and it doesn't make much noise at all, it's running a little over half speed.

 

[Janetsplanet]

I use the eheim compact 3000+ on mine and it's pretty quiet. It's larger than what you'd really need for a reefer 250. The compact 2000+ would be fine if that's the route you are looking at.

I know I'm a little late on this thread, but my .02...

I can't confirm, but I've read/heard that the Eheim compact version is nosier than the 'normal' Eheim's? Can anyone who's owned both debunk or confirm this?

I use the Eheim 1260 with my Reefer 250. It BARELY fits in the return chamber with just mm's to spare on each side. It's not silent, there is a hum that comes from the pump. A partial wrap of filter floss (which is what I did) or silicon potholder will help a lot with the noise reduction, as the majority of the noise is vibration against the glass.

Having said that I'm pleasantly surprised by the lack of noise from the drain lines on the reefer (though it does take time to get dialed in, especially when breaking in a new pump).

I do get splashing noise from the overflow teeth into the box, and i'm not quite sure how to solve it yet.

Hope this helps!

I'm actually in the market for a quieter pump for my soon to be acquired Reefer 425 XL. Go big, or go home... right?

 

[ScubaNemo]

I know I'm a little late on this thread, but my .02...

I can't confirm, but I've read/heard that the Eheim compact version is nosier than the 'normal' Eheim's? Can anyone who's owned both debunk or confirm this?

I use the Eheim 1260 with my Reefer 250. It BARELY fits in the return chamber with just mm's to spare on each side. It's not silent, there is a hum that comes from the pump. A partial wrap of filter floss (which is what I did) or silicon potholder will help a lot with the noise reduction, as the majority of the noise is vibration against the glass.

Having said that I'm pleasantly surprised by the lack of noise from the drain lines on the reefer (though it does take time to get dialed in, especially when breaking in a new pump).

I do get splashing noise from the overflow teeth into the box, and i'm not quite sure how to solve it yet.

Hope this helps!

I'm actually in the market for a quieter pump for my soon to be acquired Reefer 425 XL. Go big, or go home... right?

If you are getting splashing noise in the overflow box, probably your water level in the overflow box is low. I usually keep mine about half inch from the top of the grey tube and it is completely silent. Hope this helps.

 

[incloud]

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.

I just got a Red Sea Reefer and am not entirely sure whether it is a full siphon system or not? Can you please confirm, Thanks!

 

[slyseekr]

I'm a bit late to this thread, I'd suggest looking into an XAqua In/Out. It's another sit DIY still option, but beyond simple.

I've been running mine for a year on my Nuvo 30 and it's dead silent with 500 gph turnover, and, pretty confident that it would stay silent handling far more flow. My Gyres (230 model) running at 40% generate more noise.