6speedchevelle's 75G RR Tank buld

I believe the bubbles go away when your pump matches close to the maximum potential flow of the drain pipe you're using because it pretty much starts a siphon and doesn't take any air with it, so yes one way to solve it would be to use a bigger pump, but that carries the same risks as using a valve on the drain pipe. Over time as algae/calcium deposits build up your overflow pipe will slowly get restricted and eventually may flood.

The air bubbles coming through the drain pipe are actually a good thing (and normal) in the sense that they indicate you have extra flow capacity on your drain pipe.

The only ways I know of to deal with this are bubble towers (or something similar) to try to quiet it down and reduce salt creep in the sump, or using 2 drains, one siphon, one emergency.

Maybe someone else has other ideas.

 

so how does the two drain thing work?

that totally gets rid of noise and bubbles?

I really have no problem with pumbing the return bulkhead as a 2nd drain, if it makes things quieter and easier

 

Basically you have a primary drain and an emergency drain. The primary drain has a gate valve that you slowly close until it creates a siphon which means that the flow is restricted enough that no air enters the pipe (you need a closed standpipe for this I believe, no air vents like a regular standpipe). This means that your primary drain is 100% quiet with no bubbles because there is no air enter the water stream.

The emergency drain you adjust the height of it to be slightly above the water level while the return pump is running so that if the primary drain gets clogged up/stopped up the water level will start rising but will then just flow down the emergency drain rather than over the top of the tank.
There are ways to make standpipes adjustable height or you can just use a 90 degree PVC elbow and rotate it so that the water level has to be higher than normal in order for water to get in.

Some people like making their emergency drain as noisy as possible so you know something went wrong with your primary drain and you can check it out ASAP.

Also you have to make sure that your emergency drain is large enough to handle the full capacity of your return pump. If you have a 1" primary drain and a 3/4" emergency drain then you need to make sure your return pump doesn't overwhelm the emergency drain.

It's sometimes called the "herbie method" if you want to google for more details.

 

its done....
totally silent (not just quiet)

thanks!!

 

Nice wood work

Is your day job working with wood. Looks like the kind of stuff my dad would be making.

Great work.
Mike

 

6speed you actually did the emergency drain? Congrats. Got any pics? :trampolin

 

Have you posted in the "my ride" section in the "bucket"? If not post some things about your chevelle there. Most people there have lil racers. We need some American Muscle. Oh yeah, nice job on the stand.

 

any more pics yet?

 

Ok
Plumbing is dialed in
freshwater drained out
OOLite Sand rinsed and IN tank
(also, btw....I was able to get the quiet 1 pump silent by increasing the retun line to 1")
Tomorrow the RO/DI unit arrives
Tomorrow Salt water goes into the tank!!!!

Here are pics of the Herbie method plumbing, and sand bed

 

Looking good!

One thing to keep in mind that you might have to readjust the valve on your main drain once saltwater is in there since it will behave differently from freshwater in the plumbing and I believe has slightly different flow rates etc, also as a slime coat develops on the plumbing it might act a little differently too.
Also don't forget about the time it's going to take to make the RO water, might take a day or two.

Question for you too, what is that chamber in your sump on the right? It doesn't look like it's going to get any flow as it is right now. Does your return pump not fit in there?