Plumbing is SUPER loud

[Saltwater_Gardener]

This is my first time drilling and plumbing a tank by myself so bare with me. I put water in the tank and the plumbing/overflow is SUPER loud. I’m afraid that I have somehow drilled it too high or did something fatally wrong. Can anyone give any advice or just tell me I need to scrap it and start again if that is the case 🫣

[Saltwater_Gardener]

A few more pictures

 

Edited May 20, 2024 by Saltwater_Gardener

[Kathryn Lawson]

How many drains do you have? Just one?

 

There's some different types of plumbing setups folks use to manage noise - I think BRS had a decent discussion of them. The Herbie overflow style is what my tank uses, with two drains. The first drain has a valve on it that you adjust to keep the water high enough that it's not sucking air into the siphon down the pipe. The second one acts as an emergency overflow in case the first one gets clogged. I've struggled with the adjustments, but now that it's dialed in (and my new pump isn't fluctuating the flow randomly any more!), it's totally silent. Only time I'll hear noise is while putting my hands or other things in and out, since that makes the tank water level fluctuate and thus impacts the overflow box water level

[Saltwater_Gardener]

I have two, using the herbie style. One is all the way to the bottom of the overflow, and one is higher by way of a bit of PVC pipe in case the first one gets blocked. 

Edited May 20, 2024 by Saltwater_Gardener

[Kathryn Lawson]

Whoops, yeah, thanks for catching that detail - the second emergency drain is effectively higher up because of the length of PVC pipe that I completely forgot to mention!

 

I see the other photos now - it looks like your overflow box has two drains and can be set up Herbie style if you want. I see you've got the PVC extending the emergency drain, so all you'd need is a valve on the first drain - I'd recommend putting it at the end of the pipe right before the entry into the sump, so the majority of the pipe is completely filled with water and will minimize any trickling noise from after the flow restriction.

Edited May 20, 2024 by Kathryn Lawson

[Saltwater_Gardener]

Got it! Thank you! I thought it didn’t need the valve because the pump was DC and can be adjusted but my last tank had a valve as well for water restriction. I’ll give it a try

Edited May 20, 2024 by Saltwater_Gardener

[Kathryn Lawson]

The DC pump is convenient because it lets you make more fine adjustments compared to tweaking the valve, but the valve will definitely need to be adding some restriction in the first place to prevent all that noise!

[AlanM]

yeah, what Kathryn said is correct. 

 

You need a gate valve where the main drain pipe enters the sump and the pipe beyond that valve should extend below the surface of the sump water only a little bit to allow all of the air to get out of the line when the pump starts up.  Ball valve is easier to get at Lowes or Home Depot, but you won't like trying to slightly adjust it to get the water level in the external box correct.