wet/dry is noisy; can I shout it down at night ?

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fisheye

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 18, 2004
Messages
16
Location
New York
I have a 75 gallon sw tank connected with an external wet/dry filtration system. The aquarium is in my bedroom. The return pump is very noisy (even if is a Quiet One 4000...) and this make me unable to sleep at night. So the question is: can I shut down the pump off at night ? is there any problem with drying bio balls ? in the morning they still look a sort of wet, but I am worried that the inactivity of the filter for ~10 hours a day may create problems with the nitryfing bugs on the balls. Any idea ?
 
Is the pump sucking air? If it isn't sucking air and it sounds like it is rattling then there is a problem with your pump. The only sound you should hear should be trickling water. Pull your pump apart and look for mechanical failures. My wet-dry filters are whisper quiet except for the trickling. The loudest parts on my tanks are air pumps. On a 75g you should not have a pump big enough that normally produces annoyingly loud vibrations. Shutting off the pump and denying the bugs the necessary food/water they need could disrupt the balance in your tank. Do you have any other form of biological filtration or a substantial protein skimmer? If so you might be able to get away with it. The bottom of the line is, a 75g SW tank with wet-dry should not be annoyingly loud. Is your pump in-sump?My 50g had an oversized refugium/skimmer/wet-dry set up with a 400GPH pump on the wet-dry, the skimmer had its own pump and 2 Rena 400 air pumps and it sat right next to my bed. That is just me though. Be careful!!
 
Agreed, do not shut it down. My pump is LOUD as well. I have tried several and the Quiet one brand I have now is tollerable. Unfortunately it's the worst part of the wet/dry...........the loud return pump. If you figure out a way to get it quiet, I'd be glad to hear it.

Jim
 
thanks for the feedback. This is the situation, I have the pump submerged (Quiet one 4000) in the wet/dry unit. The pump vibrate quite a bit. Is this pump too powerful for my 75 gallon tank ? it is rated 1017 GPH. I had to install a valve to reduce the outflow. Should I buy the 1200 or the 800 model ?.
 
Try to isolate the vibration. put the sump on a piece of foam ... or put the pump itself on something (inert) inside the sump. or both.
 
My Fix

The way I fixed this problem was to cover it with a cop that fit over the heading of my PVC pipe my neightbor actually tought me how to do it and it cut the sound down by about 70% I say give it a try and you should see deffinete results!
 
Fisheye...when you say you installed a valve, it has to be installed between the pump & the tank. If it's installed between the intake & pump, it will be be noisy trying to get enough water.
Most pumps are installed so they sit on the bottom of the sump. You can try to add a polyester pad under it to keep down vibration.
 
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