Gurgling DIY overflow

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djlancer88

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2008
476
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Syracuse NY
Hey guys! this is my first post on monster fish keepers and yes i know my 90 gallon isnt a monster tank but im only 19 and im still sum what of a beginner.
I just built my stand, wet/dry, and overflow. I have one problem the LOUD gurgling noises my overflow makes. If i stuff something in the standpipe it muffles it but can i make it completely go away or is that a part of having a diy overflow? I do have a air check valve that i use to suck the air bubbles out of the Ubend.
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make a little muffler. Buy an piece of pvc about an 1.5 inch or more wider in diameter about 6 inches long and get a cap to match. Then on your stand pipe (verticle pipe with no cap) drill some holes up and down the top six inches. wrap some fiberglass insulation, cotton, or other fabric type material that will allow air to pass through around the holes and slide the larger pvc with cap over the top.

This should muffle the sound quite a bit as it will have to bounce off the cap and will cancel out other incoming sound waves as well.
 
hmmmm i get the picture about 90% but theres something im not getting. think you can draw up a ruff sketch with paint if its not to much of a hassle for ya.

Also are you implying that a cap and a .25" hole wont work?
 
no no no n/m dont have to post a pic i get it. how many holes do you thing i should drill.

also should i slap a 90degree angle on the intake part to keep a whirlpool/vortex from forming?
 
That is the problem with glass tanks, with acrylic you can drill a hole in the bottom and run 1 pipe inside the tank. That is pretty cool how you did yours. Did you get ideas from other people or did you come up with that on your own. I would do the muffler idea on the air vent pipe as mentioned earlier. I would then take a solid cap that fits onto the overflow part itself and drill a bunch of 1/4 inch holes in it to make in a sense a drain cap. Place that over the intake which is under water and that should help with the vortex when the water is being sucked down the pipe. I would place the holes about an 1/8 inch a part so you can get more on the end of the cap. If it doesn't work you only wasted 50 cents and 10 minutes of time.
 
Got the idea from another thread, and my toilet's overflow, lol, i barely new what i was doing but it got done, lol. My LFS were out of overflows for awhile and got sick of waiting and i didnt want to pay for shipping. i saved lots of money this way, other then drilling. The cap with the holes would make a real good strainer,have you used one? good idea! thanks for the advo.
 
I have not personally used the cap idea but I did do something similar. I had an old tank with 1 1/2" overflow that had the same problem as yours. The difference was my tank was acrylic and the pipes ran straight through the bottom of the tank. I had the crazy gurgling noise and in order to fix it I took pieces of pvc and glued them inside the pipe like baffles. I took a piece of pipe and made 4 cuts long ways about 1/2" a part and then cut the end of the pipe off to give me 4 pieces 1/2" wide by 3 inches long. I took those and glued them inside my down tube lenth wise to form internal baffles to try and combat the vortex. It work pretty decent. I actually saw the cap used at a LFS.
 
I wouldnt drill holes in the cap like that...to easy to clog and turn you tank into a water fall. Instead cut sections out of the top of the tube...like half inch tall 1/4 inch wide slots in the top of the overflow pipe. This way it will help break up the stream and keep crap out of your overflow. In the case they get clogged the water level will raise half an inch and then go down the 2inch open end of the pipe. Much much much safer. make the muffler and all should be good.
 
hmmm. I was thinking maybe i can just cut notch's in the pvc like a regular HOB overflow. Opinions?op n/m its basically what you said fish eat fish

or a much simpler way would be to just add a 90 degree angle.? or will that not work
 
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