Noisy overflow is driving me CRAZY!!
 

We have a 90 gallon with a corner overflow that used to be filled with bio balls. Our nitrates were a little high so we removed the bioballs, with the desired result of lowering the nitrates. However, now we are left with a really noisy system. Anyone have any ideas how to muffle the water sound without having to replace the bioballs?

make some sort of drip tray out of acrylic is all I can think of

Do you mean like a piece of plastic with holes drilled in it? I've seen that before. I think i know what you mean.

Try using a higher stand pipe, a durso, or a stockman style stand pipe. Depends where your noise is coming from. The sound of the water falling could be fixed with a higher standpipe, noise coming from the draining action would need to be fixed by a stockman, or durso style stand pipe.

Thats a great suggestion. I think I'm with you. Do you mean instead of having the drain at the bottom of the overflow, put a pipe in to raise the water level to the top of the overflow in hopes of eliminating the trickle sound? Do you think that the water left in the overflow could become stagnant?

No the water in the overflow won't become stagnant because it is all eventually being drained...the water in the overflow will move around from bottom to the top because of the waterfall action of the overflow...Once you set it up you will actually see the way the water moves around in the overflow!

Here is the Durso Standpipes Portal with instructions on how to build your own durso standpipe:

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

My overflow probably has 10 gal capacity and it is clean. I have never heard of water becoming stagnant in an overflow using a standpipe. You need to drill a small hole in the top of the standpipe so you don't get a girgling noise, but usually they are fairly silent.

Yes.

I REALLY appreciate all your help. I'm off to home depot. Cheers

A Durso will quiet down the overflow.

However if you want a completely silent overflow, you need to do a Herbie's overflow.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=344892

If have been using this method for a couple of years or more and it works great as long as you use a gate valve and not a ball valve.