The ratcheting part of that tensioner is a " long range" slack take up arrangement... the day to day additional slack is taken up by the oil pressure reaching the tensioner... so your description fills the bill...
I suggest you take this situation very seriously... most chain blowups are not the chain breaking... but worn out tensioner or rail friction parts.... or gummed up ratcheting tensioner....
Why it is making that noise I can't visualize at this time..