Noise! Help

[pweissma]

Hi Everyone,

I'm putting together my first reef tank and think I made a bad choice of tank. I got a Marineland 18" cube with their c3 sump and the Marineland suggested pump which is the Maxi-Jet 3000 rated for 775 gph.

I'm getting lots of noise from many different places which I think would be eliminated with a smaller pump. The tank itself is about 20g since it's really a 17" cube despite Marineland's claim that it's a 25g 18" cube.

Is the pump far more powerful than I need for the tank? What size pump should I get?

Details:
The drain is 1" and I have it running straight down to the sump. I'm getting lot's of noise from the drain hose itself. The siphon break at the drain intake makes a loud gurgle and it's also pulling down a good amount of air making additional noise inside the sump. Also the sump is designed to use bio-wheels. I'm not using the bio-wheels so the water just splashes. I put some sponges in the sump to lessen this noise but the flow is faster than the sponge's ability to absorb the water. The final noise is the hum from the pump itself.

I put a ball valve on the return. With the flow greatly reduced all the noises are gone except for the pump hum.

Thanks, I appreciate any advice. If there is no easy fix I'm ready to ditch it all and get a Solana.

 

[aznt1217]

Man, sounds like a bunch of little issues here.

Do me a favor can you post better pictures up of your setup? I see it on craigslist but I can't see much.

1. Not sure what the hum is but it could be the fact it isn't fully submersed in water or maybe it's vibrating the actual wet dry itself. Get some rubber mats and put it under it. I did it with my return and it substantially decreases vibration noises. Also check if the impeller is seated fully into the pump.


2. For the splashing, you have to extend your pipe down lower or have a T or an L or something submersed in the water so you can slow down the splash and have it inside the water already to avoid the noise.

3. Good call on the ball valve, but decreasing the flow is not one of the objectives lol. With the gurgle you are going to want to make sure it's a durso standpipe. Sometimes that's not enough for people so they have to put an airline hose like so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CECTDF0_B6o&feature=player_embedded

 

[pweissma]

Thanks aznt1217. I've been working with Russ at Saltwater Critters. From the pictures I sent he wasn't impressed with the sump design. He sees it as a source of lots of noise. I would need a new sump and then there are the issues of lighting an 18". From your youtube link I'm sure I could get rid of the drain intake noise but I don't think it's worth getting this setup to work so I ordered a Solana from him.

If anyone is interested I can post my tank and sump pictures.

 

[aznt1217]

I'm curious... post a picture of your sump please.

Good choice on the Solana and vendor

 

[pweissma]

Marine 18" cube

Here are pictures of the sump and tank plumbing. Entering water fills the left chamber. There is a good amount of air bubble noise from this section. From here water fills the grey media containers. The grey containers have no drainage. I suspect that water will just flow across the top of the containers rather than through the media. From here water cascades down to the right onto the bio-wheels (not in the picture). There is another partition to the right creating a second water cascade. After the second cascade water is in the final section for the return which extends under the whole thing. The return pump sits by the cascade so most of this area is a dead zone for water flow. I'm really looking forward to abandoning this whole thing and getting my Solana running.

 

[aznt1217]

No wonder... the bloody thing is set up like a waterfall lol.