Sump design/noise

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
D

Dylema

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 28, 2010
31
0
0
Adelaide, Australia
I am finalizing my design for my first sump. The sump is going to be made from an old 3' tank (92x30x35cm). It will be filtering a 4'x20"x20". There is going to be about 4000L/h going through it. I want to keep the noise to a minimum. My original design is a semi trickle semi submerged bio filter

Sump01.jpg


Could you tell me if this design is going to be noisy? My other design would be to have a separate compartment to submerge the end of the drain pipe but I don't know if this will make much difference?

Sump02.jpg


or if I should go with a completely submerged media and drain. This is my lease favourite idea though.

Thanks

Dylan

ps the diagrams are by no means to scale. the water level would be between 1/3 tnd 2/3 of the tank depending on evaporation/top up
 
Having the drain empty below water will help with noise slightly. Mine doesn't and I can just barely hear it behind the closed doors of sounds crash into the tank. I used a couple of layers of mechanical filtration to help break the fall into the tank.
 
Thanks for the replies. makoshoemaker, Correct me if I am wrong but I can fill the tank to any depth greater than the low baffles of the refugium. Any excess water will just pass over the top of the plants etc. If I raise the height of the central baffles as indicated in your red lines this will just raise the minimum water level. And lower the trickle section so that will quieten it down a bit. I will have the low baffles at the minimum level for my pump which is about 15cm. This gives me enough room for a sand bed and some short plant/floating plants. By the way this is a fresh water setup.

I am more concerned about the noise from the water falling from the main tank down into the sump. I made a mock up of the sump's trickle section today in a 200L storage container. since I am still waiting on delivery of the main tank I just used the pump straight onto the trickle area. (It was a very crude version of what I will have) With the aid of some sponge, and a few variations of pipe configurations, I managed to get a gentle trickle sound and not crashing water noise So I am confident that with a lot of tweaking and more sponge layers inside the cabinet it will be a manageable sound level.

Can anyone tell me if their sumps are too loud? if so what is the problem area. Thanks.

Dylan
 
The only noises I hear from mine are the sound of water entering the sump and pump...both are faint and unnoticeable behind closed doors. However, they needed adjustments and Danner sent me a foam thing to set my pump on to lessen the vibration noise.
 
Wait your plants arent going to be completely submerged? If not your design will be okay, because the water will just run over the roots correct? With the trickle section it shouldnt be too loud if you do filter media at the top and bottom. It will dampen the noise
 
makoshoemaker;4628926; said:
Wait your plants arent going to be completely submerged? If not your design will be okay, because the water will just run over the roots correct? With the trickle section it shouldnt be too loud if you do filter media at the top and bottom. It will dampen the noise
Click to expand...

Sorry for the confusion. The plants in the design are by no means to scale. I will probably use a floating pond plant and or grasses that I know from experience has a phenomenal growth rate hence good nutrient/nitrogen removal.

Dylan
 
Thanks for the tip on the oxygen I hadn't thought of that. I might have a look at what other short fast growing plants I can use. I have previously had good growth from Java fern that might just fit or I could try some mosses but I don't know how fast they grow. I think I should get plenty of gas exchange through the trickle and water movement at the surface from the sump return anyway.

Dylan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom