How to quiet a skimmer.

[sfsuphysics]

I figured DIY would be the best bet since that's eventually what will probably have to be done.

But having turned my skimmer off while I was doing a water change, everything else was on (including the return), I noticed just how quiet my fish room was (this is with multiple tanks too!). My pumps are all but quiet as can be, my overflows are dead silent (ok maybe a trickle of sound), but the big stick in my ass is the skimmer(s). Also remembering a trip to Arnold's place his skimmer was almost silent as well, then I remembered he doesn't run a skimmer.

I think some of it is the hum of the pump, that 60 hertz hum you can hear through walls and floors and such, but also as skimmers get "better" in sucking in more air, they make a horrid amount of noise too as they suck in the noise.

My Bubble Master 250 (2 pumps to deal with!) sucks in air like nobody's business, they even have a "silencer" which is basically a tube with some cotton swab looking material stuffed in it, and that changes the slurping of air to more of a deep bass speaker, doesn't really seem quieter at all it just changed the sound type from one to another.

So anyone have ideas, solutions, neat tricks to quiet them suckers down?

 

[tuberider]

I've run the air intake lines away from the tank, I had one that ran into a closet at one point

 

[kvosstra]

Yep - Agreed - I ran mine under the house for a while - Wife said the noise was killing her.

 

[badbread]

I was wondering the exact same thing last night Mike. I turned off the skimmer to clean the neck and my god was it quiet! I actually ran the airline back into the tank and that quieted down the air chopping noise quite a bit but still not enough.

 

[GreshamH]

place pumps and skimmer on foam mat to isolate from the sump itself. If using a feed pump, isolate it and the tubing from any part of the stand/sump. Air intake doesn't sound like your real issue IMO.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well there is two sounds, the vibration of the pump itself, which for one skimmer I could put a foam mat but its ridgedly connected to the pump with a couple elbows, the other (the two pump one) is on a white acrylic(?) plate, so the pump itself can't be put on a mat, plus it's the Sicce pumps with a little rubber opening flexible opening near the intake which is what it's on, plus their connected to the skimmer via very soft silicon(??) tubing, although I definitely can hear them vibrating. The air noise however is significant. I don't know how well running air outside will work, I mean I'd literally need to run 20 feet of airhose

 

[tuberider]

I don't know how well running air outside will work, I mean I'd literally need to run 20 feet of airhose

Wow, you might need to take a day off after that one

 

[sfsuphysics]

 

[Gomer]

I've had to deal with vibration dampening for many things (from speakers to insanely sensitive lab equipment) and Sorbothane is the most amazing stuff ever for damping vibrations. It does nothing for noise related to the air intake though.

 

[badbread]

Is that Sorbothane stuff SW safe? If so, got a distributor to share with me?

 

[badbread]

Also, how thick should it be to silence a skimmer pump and return pump.

 

[JAR]

I was gonna make a box lined with carpet and run my skimmer intakes into that. I think it would quiet the sucking noise of the Sicce PSK-2500 pumps on my skimmer but have yet to do so.
That's my idea for now.

 

[GreshamH]

Is that Sorbothane stuff SW safe? If so, got a distributor to share with me?

Nitroprene is and IMO a better choice for such an application. A sister company to Reed has sold boat loads to Aerospace and it's currently being used in satellites, by NASA on the shuttle (IIRC) and in high end sound studios

I have a few samples laying around. I'll bring some to the Oct meeting.

 

[Gomer]

I'm not sure how reef safe it is or isnt. It is a very soft polyurethane polymer.

Just for reference: I have a ghetto rig in the lab for shaking stuff. You know those "massaging" pillows or chairs that shake? Well, we ripped out the shaker part and hooked it up to a power supply. If I directly contact it to the laser table, the table vibrates. I stick a 1/4 thick piece of the softest version between it and the table, and I feel nothing and only hear the drive mechanism.

I can bring in a sample for you to check get a feel for.
Sorbothane is explicitly a dampening material converting motion (vibration) to heat.
I get it at mcmaster.com

May be of interest to you
http://www.sorbothane.com/faq.php

And this compares sorbothane to rubber to neoprene
http://www.sorbothane.com/material-properties.php


I have no experience with nitropene though.

 

[porksmash]

You can also try attaching a pneumatic muffler to the end of your intake, if you can't run a hose elsewhere. It might reduce your intake and you will probably have to clean it every once in a while, but it'll probably work.

 

[Ibn]

DIY silencer, Mike. I made one for the H&S and the noise reduction is significant. Takes maybe a couple of minutes.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=168424

 

[sfsuphysics]

Easiest quiet method was I removed the ASM G3, whooboy! The room sounds a bit too quiet now, like something is wrong! Could have been two skimmers were just giving me stereo noise so it sounded louder.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

This is what a DIY kinda guy like yourself needs to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control

Then you can sell it to other reefers, get rich, and retire. Every reefer's spouse will make him/her buy one.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

http://www.silentium.com/UserFiles/File/PDF/Silentium%20Scube_New.pdf