Micro air

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The durso can be a good setup. I have a durso stand pipes on both my tanks and they are near silent. You can hear a small trickle on one of them.
When I do get noise from the overflow, that means the air hole is clogged or nearly so.
IMO there is little or no difference between the two if they are setup properly.

As far as opinion on them, you can only get a opinion from the people who decide to respond to the question.

I didn't see what return pump you are using.
 
I'm using a Little Giant 1/10 hP pump. 3000 RPM 1325 GPH. I dont have alot of water noise......most of my noise is in the sump......air coming out of the return to the sump.....so much air it looks like the water is boiling . IT's louder than my hot tub. I have removed all the durso fittings and checked for blockage. I have replaced a piece of flexible corrugated type pipe with pvc. I have checked the vent holes. Everything seems to be ok......just a ton of air making it down into the sump and what the bubble traps dont catch....instant micro air.
 
by looking at your pics and recently playing with my new set up it sounds like your pump is in need of a ball valve on the return to slow the flow. Or your pump is cavitating and causing air bubbles cause it is running so fast. try slowing it down a bit with a ball valve on the return to the tank line cheap and easy test you can even buy barred fittings to go on the black silicone hose so no glue.
 
Looks to me like you have an over the top return since the smaller (extra) bulkhead is capped off so switching to a herbie system will be real easy for you. You already have the gate valves sitting there too. If you want, you can simply take the top off of the durso standpipe and use that for the primary overflow or switch it to a 1" standpipe. With a herbie you dont really need a standpipe (for the primary drain) at all but I would recommend using one anyway Also, hunter is right about choking the flow down on your return pump to help with the micro bubbles. Not only will it allow them to rise when leaving the skimmer before getting sucked into the return pump it will help to quiet your overflows.
 
by looking at your pics and recently playing with my new set up it sounds like your pump is in need of a ball valve on the return to slow the flow.

I agree.
On my tanks, where the water comes down the pvc pipe into my sump, the water does boil, but it's not bad, and with bubble traps setup right, the air bubbles will rise to the top of the water and pop.
Usually those are bigger air bubbles and don't cause micro bubbles in the display tank as bad as skimmer bubbles.
 
I messed around with the durso setup for a couple of days, and was never happy with the noise level. I didn't want to use a herbie because I only had 2 holes in my overflow and I didn't want to go over the top, but I finally relented. I used loc-line with a couple of loc-line elbows and it doesn't look bad at all. Very clean. Herbie, is super quiet, except that I let mine trickle down through the backup overflow just a little so I don't have to be messing with the level all the time.
 
When I switched from durso to herbie, that removed all micro bubbles and gurgling/water fall noise issues.
 
WAIT a sec.. are you feeding your sump at both ends? I did more pic looking.. you should only be feeding the sump from one end and returning to the tank from the from the other end so the water goes threw the skimmer then threw the rock and agree bed. then into the return pump and to the tank.

Also is the big ball valve on the back side of your reactor go to your pump? If so maybe try a different return pump with a bigger inlet necking that pump down with all those reducers will cause the water to agitate and cause air bubbles. or getting smaller feed line to the pump.

hope this helps.

my overflow inlet into the my sump is under water and it makes mass bubbles as well.
 
My overflows enter the sump at different locations. The person that sold me this setup delivered and set it up. As a rookie I probably should have maybe started out with a smaller system and did some research before jumpimg into the hobby. All the plumbing is the way he installed it. I am now learning the hard way things that I probably should have known before I invested so much. So I'm at the point to where I will change over to the herbie type overflow and emerg. drains and also tie the other overflow pipe into the refugium end of the sump like the other one is. Then cut back the flow of my pump. As far as cutting back the flow of the pump...what would be the best for the pump, cutting back the flow with a valve or re-plumbing from the sump to the pump with smaller pipe.? I'm also going to check the amp draw on the pump motor just to see how heavy its load is. That big valve is 1.5 in. I could remove all the 1.5" pipe to the pump and replace it. Looks like both sides of the pump are .75" or 1" at the most. I see your point about going from 1.5" to .75" in a distance of about 18 inches would create alot of turbulance.
 
Problems solved. Ripped out all old plumbing and reworked it all. Changed from durso to herbie and cant believe how quiet it is and with the gate valves, adjustment was a breeze. And no air in my sump. I now have both of the returns entering at the same end of the refugium. The water now enters the refugium and then travels into the compartment with the protein skimmmer and UV sterilizer and then through an assortment of mats and sponge and then the bubble traps to the pump. Thanks guys for all the advice and ideas The only thing that I didnt do yet is reduce the pipe size between the sump and the pump motor but if all things run good the way they are now I'm not sure if I will make that change.
 
Glad to hear that replumbing the overflows worked out. Keep in mind, you will occasionally have to retune the gate valves on the overflows.
 

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