A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Noise Control

It has been posed to me that my system makes too much noise. Particularly the drain. I have my set up in the kitchen and it is approximately 6" between drain outlet and top of the water. I have that distance just to add some oxygen to the water.

Has anyone else had to deal with noise issue and what did you do to resolve it? I am thinking just add a defector to dull the sound.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 9, 2012 at 2:11pm

Phil, I will reminder her again today.

Is the 1/8 hole for air to stop the siphon? The design looks good for getting solids moving off the bottom.

What are you doing for aeration? Did you supplement and an additional air pump?

Thanks for the drawing.

Permalink Reply by Ken Elrich on October 9, 2012 at 2:52pm

try increasing the size of the pipe from that 3/4". add adapter and install 1 1/2" pipe and make it long enough to go 3 - 4 inch below water line. it will slow down thw water and the fall will still add air to the water.

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 9, 2012 at 5:51pm

Thanks Ken, increasing the drain size is not an option but will keep it in mind for the new bed.

Ken Elrich said:

try increasing the size of the pipe from that 3/4". add adapter and install 1 1/2" pipe and make it long enough to go 3 - 4 inch below water line. it will slow down thw water and the fall will still add air to the water.

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 9, 2012 at 5:56pm

Thanks Phil, uhm was that a Nun or a drain..We were talking about.... Thanks for the explanation though.

Phil Slaton said:

Ah, time for the physics lesson. Venturi - The water flows by gravity down the pipe, it then encounters a smaller pipe. Old Mr. Venturi told us that fluids when hitting a constriction speeds up. Well, in this case the water in speeding up and passing by that little 1/8'' hold, it draws in air - the hole must be ABOVE the water surface. That air being drawn in aerates the tank. Returning the pipe to its original size, slows the aerated water back down and completes the Venturi process.

Nope, it runs on gravity.

Sister Ann Gabreal, a stunning Brazilian and Ursuline Nun taught me about old Giovanni Battista Venturi and made me dream of other things. She was smart as could be lovely as a fantasy and gave me a 4.0 in physics, god bless her. What a waste, a Nun.

Permalink Reply by Mark on October 12, 2012 at 2:48pm

I had noise issues also that bothered me at night. I have both a small system and a large system what I did for the small system was put two timers on the system to switch during the day to the water pump since the noise did not bother me during the day of the siphon working and at night it shuts down the water pump and turns on a small air pump which is alot quieter. The large system was the same until my fish got bigger so now I run the air pump 24-7 and the water pump only during day light hours. I use two two socket timers and run both systems with the same timers. I have 5 ,4 tail gold fish in the small system and 50 trout in the larger system.

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 12, 2012 at 5:47pm

Thanks Mark, I appreciate the input. I only have the one 20gal tank with 4 med size Comets. Are you moving water with the air pump or just use it for aeration?

Mark said:

I had noise issues also that bothered me at night. I have both a small system and a large system what I did for the small system was put two timers on the system to switch during the day to the water pump since the noise did not bother me during the day of the siphon working and at night it shuts down the water pump and turns on a small air pump which is alot quieter. The large system was the same until my fish got bigger so now I run the air pump 24-7 and the water pump only during day light hours. I use two two socket timers and run both systems with the same timers. I have 5 ,4 tail gold fish in the small system and 50 trout in the larger system.

Permalink Reply by Mark on October 13, 2012 at 10:59am

I made a quick video to show you my setup. I hope this helps. http://youtu.be/B9PDQbMBvis

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 13, 2012 at 4:21pm

Well Phil I went with your drawing. Since changing the pipe size was out of the question for right now. Mark thanks for the video, that helped.

Permalink Reply by Phil Slaton on October 13, 2012 at 4:40pm

2" pipe is an excellent size for aquaponics and culture operations. Is it quieter?

What size pump are you using?

Permalink Reply by John Cubit on October 13, 2012 at 5:53pm

Quieter yes but also now I have a problem with my siphon breaking So I have won brownie points with the wife. I have a Tetra 450 Gph filterless statuary pump, it is old but was never used before.