air pumps -- need help/advise

[LithoMan]

Hi All

 

I am running 2 air pumps in fish room

back to back  on a wood stand with 2 X "L" Brackets to brick wall  i have put sponge under the brackets and the pumps sitting on sponges.

1 x hailea hap-120  and 1 x lp-100 resun

the resun causes a louder vibration/noise

the vibration makes a humming noise through all the walls "NEIGHBOR NOT HAPPY AND HAS COMPLAINED A FEW TIMES" im in a villa so my garagewall backs onto his lounge room .

At night 100% you can hear the thing humming...

now my question is...

what can i do ?

And is there a betterbrand pump i can get price not an issue....

if i box them up and run a fan in the box ??

Hang them ??

look forward to ideas and suggestions

 

old photo attached and not a good pic but if you look top left corner you will see what the pumps are sitting on..

 

Thanks

[LithoMan]

i know there is a japan brand 

SAKURAGAWA

hp-150 and so on

cost nearly $1000

anyone using it ? and do we know if its 100% more quite and better

well $700+ better

[Tori]

Would a little blower be a better option ? I know the impeller on a blower make some noise but thay don't vibrate which is your problem.

[LithoMan]

looked at blowers they make a very high pitch whistle sound.. very loud

[yanke]

i have the same air pump the resum 100

to do my room 

i have it on a stand  and i leave one air line open so there no back presser only a little open

and i get no noise at all and take it and put it on the other wall that go's to your place 

that may stop the neighbor from complaining 

[LithoMan]

I will try opening air line.. it is on my wall side

but 2 pumps on a stand causing noise and vibration

[peter.ng79]

Try Hiblow airpump Edwin.The best airpump with low noise

[DFishkeeper]

 

I use these in my fishroom from AOA, made by the same company that make the Nexus filters, made for ponds and very powerful, will pump up to 5.5metres depth and will do 130lpm at 1 metre depth.

Uses 106 watts and according to box runs at <50 dba, I find them very quiet with little vibration.

From your picture, you don't seem to have a lot of deep tanks, you may get away with one of these instead of 2 x LP00.

http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=4022&catID=14

[LithoMan]

Hi mate

I will look into it but i am 100% sure 1 pump wont run it

Every tank 3 outlets 

2 x side drop pump and 1 x sponge filter

Then divided tanks .....egg tumblers....

3 x brine shrimp makers...

And now i have more tanks from that photo

92 air lines in system this is why i have 2 big pumps and a smaller one in a different section

For good flow

Once i take 1 off sponge filter and lower tanks start to pump very soft and some none at all

 

[Buccal]

Pond ones are a lot more quite.

But giving them nice large manifolds through out can sometimes reduce noise,,,, because sometimes a pump can be noisy when slightly choked, larger manifolds allow you to deliver full capable pressure.

Also i would have you could just extend flexihose to place you can have pumps not on a common wall,,, it's like a ever so light resonating droning weak hum in the ear drum.

When comparing actual performance, the pond one in same size comparison to the LP, the LP noticeably out performs by a little bit,, so if you try, just go bit bigger,,,,,, pond one lasts just as long and faults as often as LP,,,,,,. I've had two LPs cook in history so far, and pond ones just seem to lose effectiveness as they get well used.

[DFishkeeper]

 

I have my two old Resun LP 100's fitted with new diaphragms and valves as emergency backups for my fishroom, and have hooked them up and tried them on both my Nexus 300 filter and my fishroom airline system.

While they pump just enough air to get me out of trouble for the short term while I repair or replace one of my Evolution Aqua airtech 150 pumps, I would need to shut down quite a lot of outlets on the fishroom airline system, they just do not pump anywhere near the amount of air as the Airtech 150, particularly when you have a lot of 2 foot deep tanks as I do.

Cheers, Doug

[LithoMan]

thanks guys

i am running the standard black irrigation piping in the room do you suggest i use a thicker piping ?

dreading the thought i have to redo it  looool but if needed i will..

so thicker the piping better preasure ?

i will take a picture tonight so you can see how its set up

 

thanks again

[LithoMan]

13mm ?

19mm?

25mm?

currently i have 13mm irrigation piping.

and the way its set up is back to back pumps not a full loop system( do you suggest to loop it?) will i have to move pumps futher apart so no back preasure ?

or leave it and try 19mm or 25 mm?

[DFishkeeper]

 

I use 13mm on my fishroom airline system in a BIG loop above and below top 2 rows of tanks on 2 separate lines of tanks, one line 9 metres long and the other 6 metres long.

[LithoMan]

thanks guys

[fishdance]

You can reduce vibration noise substantially by hanging the pumps with rubber hose (like spear fishermen use) attached to a platform/box from above. Get the pumps off the wall which is acting like a drum.

Or you could put the pumps in an entirely different room (much further away) and run the central air pipe back to the fish room.

 

[kingtiger]

How about placing the air pumps on a vibration dampening tiles?

Google vibration dampening tiles.

PM me if you're interested it and maybe I can help with something similar, maybe.

Cheers

[Buccal]

Sitting on a square piece of 10mm thick foam works well to,,,, or a rubber square tile 300 x 300mm from Clark Rubber or possibly bunnings.

But a percentage of the time the noise occurs from the inside,, air pumps are just a bunch of rubber, plastic, metal parts that just wear, I personally can never see the point of talking about which brand pump lasts longer,,,,, I'm very big scale,,, the same goes for water pumps also, as well as air pumps,,, I've been through so many, cheap ones, expensive ones in betweens you name it,,, because it's big scale, the multiple series of pumps of all types through out, so I see over all performance of a product, which means I may be using up to 30x of the exact same pump,,,,,,,.        Some products can have 1-2 out of 10 fail between 6-12 months,, while 1-2 will last what feels like as long as I live along with various other outcomes.

More high end of the quality ranges, this can still be seen but only occasionally,, as quality is still more towards a consistent or regulated of same product items.

If the central spinning mechanics together with its housing lacks the tiniest bit of precision, then that's a wearing down or flogging out before its time is up,,,,, when the product begins to become flogged out, that's when the noises start to occur from the inside.

One would be Suprised to see the size of manifold required to fully relieve a large air pump,, if at all the pump is being choked with back pressure it increases excessive wear,,, from a miniscule up to very noticeable.

I use 25mm poly over winding distances, I did this as a add on many years later and purely for ease,,,, but my pumps are moderately choked,,, it's not the matter of, but that's after 80 air outlets to one side and 70 to the other with another seperate part that has 140 to the inside growouts,,,, ultimately a 50mm pvc ring beam over head would see a nice even pressure throughout the facility,,,,,,,, but yep I semi-flog my air pumps out.

When a pond one air pump floggs out, interesting thing is they just make a slight hissing sound like pressure leaking.

[Matthew]

Have you solved the problem yet?

I would suggest that you go to HiBlow Pumps. They are far better built and get a spare ready to operate should a problem happen. Always Always have a backup!

I would loop the airline and place the air pumps on the other side of the garage. You have placed them high due to the siphoning effect. But if all of the airlines go up first about the height of every tank then there is no need to have the pumps up so high. So move them across the room and place them on foam on the ground. 

hth

[MasterCATZ]

with the LP-100's I use 50mm DWV PVC pipes as the manifold , as the rubber adaptor that comes with them nicely slips over female 50mm fittings , I also use 50mm 1 way valves from spars with the springs removed for pairing up multiple units to the manifold 

 

 

[fishdance]

Only 5 years later....

I use 19mm polypipe for air circuits but have multiple open loops (no dead ends) just above each fish tank so the airline lengths can be all same length. More efficient and neater than a single main circuit at ceiling height that droops lots of confusing airlines.

I also have two large airpumps per air circuit. WHEN one pump fails, the other pump still supplies air to tanks at a noticeably lower volume until you can repair or replace the faulty one. This method of redundancy removes the need for two (or three) air stones/filters per tank to save equipment costs, space and maintenance. 

I have smaller separate air circuits for my more prized fish racks to reduce their risk further. On those racks I have my stored spare oxygen cylinders very slightly opened via a normally closed solenoid valve into these dedicated air circuits. Should the electrical power fail, pure oxygen is trickled into the air line circuits and into tanks without any moving parts. (Evenly if all airline lengths are the same). When power is on, the solenoid valves stay closed. Despite my initial reservations, I haven't had any issues the last ten years. I figured that I might as well utilise the spare oxygen cylinders while they are stored. 

I put one of the two air pumps on a dedicated - reserved electrical circuit that is backed up should electrical power fail. Only air pumps go on this reserved electrical circuit to reduce the chance of power trip. And only one of the two air pumps is on this reserved circuit to increase the back up power time (Currently 6 days) and this spreads risk of air pumps over two electrical circuits. 

I try to keep the same brand and model air pump throughout so hot swapping is easier and so I only need to keep one spare part on hand for all pumps. Obviously I keep a spare air pump (or four) ready too.

Unfortunately over time, manufacturers and models become unavailable. I've got a graveyard of about 30 large pumps which I keep meaning to throw out. Don't forget to change flapper valves when you change diaphragms. 

We probably should invest in more spare parts but it's often simpler to buy new pumps nowadays. 

 

[GTAGF]

My LP-100's run through 50mm manifolds a PVC male/female elbow is a perfect fit for the rubber adapters then using spa check valves with spring removed

(or else your adding a ton of extra vibration as spring forces the valve closed on every cycle gravity does the job just as good )

then the manifold runs underground by the time it exists to the fish room is dead quite 😄

 

lp-60's work with 15mm PVC pipes

always do airline manifolds in a loop so pressure in equal to all tanks

change the flapper valves at least with every second diaphragm change and clean out the very bottom filter down in the baffle and keep at least 0.01mpa / 1.5 psi / 1m h20 back pressure so the diaphragms are not over stretched

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by GTAGF