History
Hardware
General
Man Made Live Rock
 		Mistakes
Picture Index
Help

Home
Last update: September 2005

Stand Pipe:

    The Modified Durso Standpipe that I use has served well and not caused any trouble at all once the noise issue was taken care of.  The first one I made was built using Richard Durso's instructions.  While it did keep the water level in the overflow high, it sounded like a freight train, or actually like a freight Drain!  No matter what sized hole I used or how hard I tried it just would not stop sounding like a flushing toilet at least once or twice an hour.

    Now it could be said that there is the possibility that I wasn't doing something right, but let me assure you I really tried to make it work.  I tried any and all suggestions I could find to make it work, but ultimately tore out the original in exchange for not less than 5 others of similar design.  I tried longer and shorter hose, fatter and skinnier PVC, I adjusted the height of the standpipe several times, in short I played with many variations.  I finally stumbled on one that works for me.  I think it is actually a result of various things working together as opposed to a magic bullet.

    There appear to be several areas of concern when building a standpipe that may just fall into the category of an art or magic rather than science.  The troubles I had with the original were dealt with from top to bottom.  The first was the slurping sound coming from the intake.  Then was the whistling sound from the air intake, then the gurgling and flushing sounds coming from within the pipe itself and the sump area.

    I would not want you to think that you can just build what I have and place it inside of any tank and it will work.  I do not know if it will or will not.  It could take considerable tinkering to get a setup that will work for you.  What I have to share is just my experience with standpipes and many attempts to get them to do what I wanted.  What I do know is that it works fine on my Oceanic 75 Reef Ready that it was built for.  I have used pumps from 300 to 1200 gallons per hour on it with little noticeable increase in noise so I am fairly certain that the design is good.  I just cannot say it will work in any and all cases.

    It is interesting to note that Oceanic tells me they suggest the "maximum recommended flow is 800 gallons" on the 75RR apparently for the noise reason.  Yet they did tell me the teeth and bulkhead can handle at least 1200 gallons per hour but "at that rate you will have a disturbingly loud setup".  I currently run it at 900 gallons and unless the sump volume gets lower than the output from the Spa-Flex my Bionic eared wife doesn't raise the issue.  The power head breaking the surface of the water is louder than the overflow and sump areas.

Near as I can tell there are a few key ingredients that worked for me.  They are listed below in no particular order.

  •   All joints are air and water tight.  Pipe tape was used on all threads.  PVC solvent was used only on the elbow to T-fitting joint and the PVC tube to bulkhead fitting joint.  All other fittings are slip and were given pipe tape until tight.

  •   1.5" PVC pipe, 45 degree elbow, and T-fitting.  The 90 degree elbow just didn't work for me at all. Nor did the smaller tubing I tried.

  •   There is a bottle neck down to 1" at the bulkhead.  How this is critical I do not know, yet I have the gut feeling that it is.

  •   The rigid tubing extends down into the 1" Spa-Flex hose about 6" or so.

  •   The Spa-Flex has a gentle curve and is angle cut (the opening is facing down) at the bottom.

        First up on the quite the standpipe crusade was the whistling that was coming from the air entering the standpipe.  Figuring that since the sound was coming from the top, I had better concentrate my efforts there.  In short the whistling stopped as soon as I quit using the large white caps that are specified in the original plans.  I swapped them out to a threaded fitting that happened to have very inexpensive caps.  Since I didn't have the correct sized bit for the rigid tubing I had to go with a smaller one.  Tilting and turning the drill with the small bit to get the hole just a bit larger simultaneously killed the whistling sounds that had been coming from the large white cap holes.  I would presume it would have something to do with the angles involved, but I am not a whistle building expert, so that is just a guess.  The outcome was a total accident, but a nice surprise none the less.

        I would like to say that extending the rigid tubing down past the bulkhead was an act a genius on my part.  But it was not!  Somewhere I had read that using a rigid tube would stop the sound from the top end of the standpipe.  It did not do that for me.  Swapping the 90 degree elbow to the 45 degree did however eventually stop the top end from slurping.  So I was trying all sorts of lengths of rigid tubing trying to get the slurping sound to go away.

        I was frustrated that all the lengths that I tried were not working.  So I took my last three foot section of tubing and made the bend, to stop it from falling down the standpipe, just like I had before.  While deciding how long to cut it off this time I just set it down the hole in the top of the standpipe.  It hung on the bulkhead sticking out a good 8 inches or so.  I sat down on the couch just looking at it, trying to think of how short or long to try this time.  Maybe several minutes passed and the standpipe did it's normal gurgle and flush.  This time however the gurgle knocked the tubing loose.  It fell down past the bulkhead.  Ahhhhh, the silence was deafening!  I couldn't believe that it was gone so I waited at least an hour before removing the tube to trim the bend portion down to size.  Then I replaced the tubing, wiggling it past the bulkhead.  As soon as I did the gurgling stopped again, now the sump area was quite at last.


    Standpipe  -- This is my modified Durso standpipe.  This design allows for the use of all stock parts.
    An alternate view: Standpipe Modification alternate

    Spa-Flex and Fitting  -- This is a shot of the Spa-Flex that is below the bulkhead.  Notice the angle on the open end.

        Notice that in order to get the tube over the fitting you will need to heat the Spa-Flex.  I did that by filling a regular coffee cup with water and boiling it in the microwave.  Then dunk the Spa-Flex in the cup as soon as possible.  Wait for about 30 seconds, then rapidly slip it over the fitting.  I tied it with a zip tie to make sure it didn't slip.  Then I stuffed it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  When I took it out I cut the zip tie of and gave a tug.  I couldn't pull it apart with full strength.  Even so I used stainless steel hose clamps on both the Spa-Flex and the Clear reinforced tubing I used for the return Line.

    Tube Connections at the Bulkhead  -- Notice the curve in the Spa-Flex.

    Both Tube Joint Connections  -- Notice the Fitting between the bulkhead and the Standpipe.  These little guys come with a knob on them that will need to be ground or filed off before it will fit into the PVC pipe.  Even so it is a good idea to flare it a little as your solvent will take up some room.  I actually had to use a hard rubber mallet to pound them into the PVC pipe.

    Standpipe Parts   -- This is a layout picture of all the parts I used to make the standpipe, minus the rigid tubing. Note- Not all these parts were used, but they are what I worked with.

    Standpipe Schematic Diagram   -- This should illustrate how the parts I used were placed.



    Back to the Hardware Page