My overflow silencer

S

Squint

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Jan 21, 2004
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There are two O-rings that hold the tubing in place so it doesn't pull out or get sucked further down in which case it would no longer conduct air.

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Nifty little air vortex. It also keeps the water level high so that there's no noise from the water coming over the baffle.

It's very quiet now and only took me 15 mins to make after putting up with all the noise for nearly two years. I already had the acrylic pieces from an earlier project and only needed to drill holes in the tube.
 
Yes, the 2nd picture is of the outside box of the overflow at back of the tank. The silencer goes into the drain hole where all the slurping and gurgling sounds used to emanate. I used to have a cylindrical sponge and an airline there which made it a little quieter but not much.

Small world, I'm also in central IL.
 
I looked at the Dursos about 2 years ago when I first switched to a wet/dry but never got around to getting the PVC pipe parts to make one. Then a few days ago, I did more reading and it seemed that underwater intakes, which my doodad accomplishes by restricting the flow so that the water level rises above the holes drilled in it, and a tube for the air to exhaust or get sucked in, would do the trick as well.

Do you have hard or soft tubing? I have 1" soft vinyl tubing which deadens the sound a bit and makes for gentle curves and less turbulence. Then again, you may be moving more water than me. My tank is a 125 and the pump is only 570 gph at 3' of head.

I'm in Urbana.
 
I origonally had PVC but I had to crank my pump way back to a trickle with a ball valve so the noise would be tollerable. I switched a week ago to the white ribbed spa flex hose and now I can have my pump wide open for the same amount of noise. My pump is rated 650GPH at 3' head. I also have a 125gallon tank. I am considering switching it to a canister if I can't get it quieter. This tank is in my family room so it need to be quiet. I think next time I will go for several smaller overflows instead of one large one.
 
Hmmm...I had a Mag Drive 1800 running before and slightly throttled down. That pushed much more water than the pump I'm using now yet the overflow was the biggest source of noise by far. The other source of noise was the water coming out of the end of the tubing and onto the drip plate of the wet/dry. I just put some filter sponges there and that took care of that noise.

I think ribbed spa tubing may be hard plastic that would resonate instead of deaden noise caused by turbulence. The flexible vinyl tubing I use has 1/8" thick walls (you can get up to 1/4" thick) which I think help deaden the noise.
 
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