Stockman mod

A

Amanda

[Well I finally made the stockman mod for my amiracle overflow! I am in heaven! It is absolutely silent. I cant believe I waited sooo long to do this very minor adjustment! It was super simple and I am a very happy reefer now! :taz:]
 
[Amanda, come build two for me. :) I'm going to make a strange off-set weir for my 55g with dual drains, so I can finally open up my Mag 9.5 full force.

;)]
 
[Marc, for ten bucks I think your teenager could build it in his sleep! :p If youd like to see my pics of how it goes together just let me know.]
 
[My stockman sounds like a sparkletts water dispenser. Continuously there is the sound of large bubbles being sucked down the drain and then bursting in the sump. I have tried holes all the way from 1/32" to 1/2" with no luck. "Flushing" seems to stop at ~1/16-1/8" holes.... But as soon as I get the flushing to stop the large bubbles start. Any help???

The top portion of the stockman is a 1" pipe and is about 10" long. It is then taken down to a 3/4" pipe which is about 2 1/2' long dropping straight into the sump. No curves or elbows in the plumbing at all.]
 
[Have you tried adding a hole to the top cap??

Tesfield - I will get some pics up here soon, my cam battery seems to have run away.]



Edited By Amanda on 1078635940
 
[trackz- sump is a 10g. pipe is about 3" below waters surface.

amanda- hole is in the top cap. see references to trying everything up to a 1/2".

Any ideas?]
 
[They can be really finicky about getting the exact size. I actually have done three different smaller holes then drilled each one, one larger size drill till I got it exactly right. As far as dropping into the sump, I put two elbows on the bottom so the water comes out of the pipe going back up right under the sump water level]



Edited By Rick on 1078637895
 
[I have several caps. I have several drilled variations (1, 2, 3 holes, various sizes of each hole) on the caps. all seem to run into the same issue.

I just threw couple of elbows on it to bring the output just below the waters surface as you have yours and it didn't seem to make a difference. I am assuming at this point I am having a problem with too much/not enough back pressure???? any thoughts?]
 
[OK. did some reading of past posts on RC. Here is what I think is happening.....

Water is draining out of the line faster than it is coming in. This causing a good amount of air to be sucked into the line. Then when more water is coming in the air is pushing back against it trying to rise. Eventually enough water is above the bubbles causing enough pressure to push the out causing the "burping" in the sump. This isn't like the classic flushing effect as there is enough air being drawn in via the hole in the cap. I am thinking of 2 possible solutions:

1) put a ball valve at the end of the drain. close just enough to create the right amount of back pressure so that it isn't draining too quickly.

2) add more water flow. Currently the 1 U tube is limiting the amount of water I can actually push into the overflow to even get it to the stockman. So I would look at adding a U tube and then open the gate on the return pump a bit.

Tell me if you think I am off-track here.]



Edited By grim-bob on 1078641202
 
[If you had a pipe straight down from the overflow, with no stockman pipe at all. The water would just siphon down till the overflow was empty or at least till air gets sucked into the pipe. By adding the tiny holes in the stockmon overflow pipe cap its suppost to add just enough air into the pipe to slow it down so the overflow is filled by the tank water running into as it is flowing into the sump. If you plug the cap completely or pull the cap off does it act the same either way?]
 
[if plugged completely it starts "flushing" if the cap is pulled off it is the same as with it on. Burps large bubbles from the bottom of the pipe.]
 
[What I have done to one of mine that I got tired of making holes in and could not seem to get it right was this. I went and got a small valve like the ones that you might use as a shut off on the little plastic pipe on ro/di systems. Then I drilled a big enough hole in the top of one the pvc caps big enough for a small piece of pipe to stick in. Glued it in with some pvc glue and stuck the valve on top of that. Then I used the valve to adjust the air coming into the standpipe and I was finally able to get it just right. One thing you might think about also is that after the standpipe gets slimed up a little it gets a little quieter and the water going down into the sump seems to quiet down.]
 
[OK. Got it quieted down. Here the story.....

I went with my thoughts on the bubbles building up in the pipe until they were burped out the bottom.

I put in a 3/4" valve near the bottom of the pipe (just above the tank lip for easy access).
I dropped the bottom of the pipe 1" below water level with an elbow on the end to direct the flow were I want it.
I gave the valve just a slight adjustment at a time. Each little bit the burps got smaller as did the total amount of bubbles being output.
At the point where I no longer had any burps but still had a good continuous flow of bubbles it was near silent.

I checked and I had only moved the valve maybe from noon to 1 o'clock. Just a tiny bit was all that was needed to slow the water down just enough that it wasn't sucking too much air down the tube causing the burps.

The only noise left is the hum from a air pump and a Mag9. Finally my wife can chill out.]
 
[Was it a ball valve or a gate valve? ...curious for my purposes. And what size hole did you end up going with on the plug?]



Edited By Trackz on 1078902606
 
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