Way to silence a skimmer pump? Or kill your tank?

[astroboy]

For years I've wanted to make my skimmer pump inaudible. I saw this stuff at Home Depot today: Loctite Tite Foam. You spray it into cracks or gaps in concrete, wood, around plumbing, etc., and it expands into a foam that hardens up. It seems to me that if you covered a pump with it, except for intakes/outlets, of course, it would dampen any noise pretty well.. 

 

The question is, is this stuff inert, or does it gradually break down into something a reef tank would not be happy with?

 

Does anyone have any experience or chemical knowledge?

[tom39]

The foam is an insulation and incapacitating the pump in it would trap the heat in the pump by not allowing it to dissipate. This would cause the pump to overheat and prematurely fail.

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[astroboy]

5 hours ago, tom39 said:

The foam is an insulation and incapacitating the pump in it would trap the heat in the pump by not allowing it to dissipate. This would cause the pump to overheat and prematurely fail.

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I thought about that, but I was thinking the flow of water through the pump would be sufficient to keep it cool. I'm using an Eheim, I've run it fine outside the sump, never noticed it getting warm.....

[Jon Lazar]

I know this isn't what you asked, but you may have better results by making the pump more quiet in the first place, rather than trying to muffle the sound.

 

Much (most?) pump noise is from vibration.  Have you tried placing the pump on a vibration-absorbing silicone pad?  If that doesn't work, maybe the whole skimmer?

[astroboy]

Thanks Jon,

 

I've got it up on thin sections of cork wine bottles but I bet a silicone pad would be a big improvement. 

 

Mark

[GraffitiSpotCorals]

Ehiem pumps should be silent from my experience. If it’s just vibration then get a good pad. If it’s not just vibration maybe somethings not right with the pump. 

[astroboy]

On 5/27/2020 at 9:23 AM, GraffitiSpotCorals said:

Ehiem pumps should be silent from my experience. If it’s just vibration then get a good pad. If it’s not just vibration maybe somethings not right with the pump. 

I'm a big fan of Ehiems. I was thinking most of the noise came from the skimmer/skimmer pump, but after putting in a gel pad and otherwise fiddling with things I see the main noise comes from the return pump in the sump.

 

The skimmer setup seems to have a slightly higher frequency which the foam insulation I put inside the stand deadens fairly well and isn't as annoying as vibration noise. The pump itself (PSK 1000) is nearly silent when you cut off the air intake, the noise, such as it is, must come from the bubbles being thrashed around. I'm sure there's alot of science to that, cavitation or something perhaps?

 

I should say, my setup is quiet, my unreachable quest is to have it completely noiseless. 

 

I swapped in my trusty Eheim 1260 and that reduced alot of the noise but the flow is a bit too high. Which, now that I recall, is why I swapped it out five years ago. I'll have to shell out for a new return pump at some point, the current one might be 10 years old now, can't complain if it's gotten a bit noisy. It will be fine for mixing saltwater and doing water changes. 

 

 

 

 

[wangspeed]

If you want it to be near, start with ask inner that comes with a DC pump. There is no such thing as an AC pump that doesn’t have that annoying 60Hz hum and vibration, even the most expensive ones that people say are quiet. That sounds irritates me so much that I couldn’t even stand it for my mixing station. Iwaki, Sicce, Eheim, even the venerable old Red Dragon pumps. They all make much more noise than a common Jebao or Octopus DC pump.