180 gallon help. Need to silence a dart. Anyone with ideas?

[MarineGirl411]

I have not decided completely yet what to do. I will either plug up holes for a closed loop in my system and get all vortechs, or I will run the closed loop. My problem is that the dart pump is so loud to me, it annoys me. We have hardwood floors, and the noise on my small 40 gallon breeder running it currently drives me nuts. It seems to echo on the hardwoods. I currently have it on a small wood stand with a towel under it. It does not help the noise. Any ideas would be great. TY


I was also wondering if it would be safe to turn off the closed loop at night and run just a vortech? Or would this create a dangerous stagnancy in the pvc?

 

[jimroth]

Couple of ideas from a similar noise sufferer...
1) Open cell rubber padding is better than towels for killing vibrations. The stuff that they have for bartenders to stand on is good.
2) If the pump is hard plumbed try adding a section of vinyl tubing to isolate it.
3) I haven't tried this, but the ultimate is to suspend the pump in a kind of little hammock, you can make it out of wire and cloth, gets it off of the "sound board"

 

[ebonline]

You can also use a mouse pad under pump but if it is hard piped I agree with the above poster and put in a piece of spa flex or vinyl tubing.

 

[mpoletti]

I tried those, but ended up removing my reeflo pump and going with an atb internal pump. Any pump with an external fan will cause noise; from there it is up to your tolerance level. My problem was that the space between the stand and the floor only echoed the noise to make it worse.

 

[MarineGirl411]

the fan noise I am okay with. It's the vibration noise against the hardwoods and the pvc. It is currently hard plumbed right now. It is on it's own little stand and I am sure that adds to the problem. Do you think 2 vortechs would be better for a 180 than a closed loop? Also, would there be a problem in turning the pump off at night and then putting it back on during the day? I am worried about the stagnant water in the pipes. I am pretty sure that would be detrimental, but I am not positive on that. Thank you all.

 

[Charlies_Reef]

Wrap sections of pump and pipe Dynamat. What is Dynamat?

Dynamat is a thin, flexible, easy to cut and mold sheet that actually stops noise causing resonance and vibration...
It is mainly used in Car restoration, but it does have other uses as well.

 

[MarineGirl411]

Cool. Have you used it before? How well does it work? What exactly would I wrap in it? The pump itself? It won't damage it? Or would I make a box and stick it in there? What would be the best way to do it. TY

 

[Charlies_Reef]

One side of the material has an adhesive backing. Just attach it any surface and it will help decrease vibration noises. I have used it. It helps decrease noise. There are other valid points in this post that could probable help decrease noise your noise level.

Placement of the material would be determined by where the noise is resonating from.

Good luck. I took mine out because the pump itself was too loud for my taste