New skimmer too loud for living room- might abandon whole project

[dixiedog]

Originally Posted by torero500

Today I was doing test runs in my 20 tall sump, which will sit in a cabinet in the living room where I'll have my tank. I was running the protein skimmer (it's a Reef Octopus 150 2009 model), and the pump is just WAY too loud to have in a living room. Very annoying loud hum, there wasn't much I could do to quiet it down. I even put on a smaller pump for the reef octopus nw110 I had laying around, and it's about the same noise. It's not vibrating anything, the pump itself running and injecting into the chamber is quite loud.

I don't really know what to do. Can I replace the stock pump with a known quiet pump, like an Eheim 1250 or something to inject the water and air into the chamber? Not sure what size, or what fittings would be needed to accomplish this to make this skimmer run quiet.

That's odd. My Octopus 110 is absolutely silent. And I HATE noise. I'm talking princess-and-the-pea, can't stand any at all, no wife no kids, a mouse farting in the woods 100 yards away wakes me up.

[dbond]

Originally Posted by torero500

Coral Vue is sending out a new impeller, but I doubt it will fix it. I did that skimmer research and love the small footprint size of that cone swc 120, has a little atman pump. Supposed to be very quiet, and will open up sump space possibilities.

It's possible my Reef Octopus 150 is too big anyway. Might have to sell it. I'll probably get the smaller tunze 1703.020 silent return pump.

I recently picked up a SWC 120 cone with the atman pump and I can assure you they are very quiet I would even say quieter running than my BK180 and the performance is excellent.

good luck

[salsipuedes]

Originally Posted by torero500

Coral Vue is sending out a new impeller, but I doubt it will fix it. I did that skimmer research and love the small footprint size of that cone swc 120, has a little atman pump. Supposed to be very quiet, and will open up sump space possibilities.

It's possible my Reef Octopus 150 is too big anyway. Might have to sell it. I'll probably get the smaller tunze 1703.020 silent return pump.

I would have to say the swc 120 is a better match for your tank since i had the reefocto 150 on my 92 a few years back. Now I have a swc cone 160 on my heavy bioload 92 corner. Its silent,very slight low pitched hum when its on but still virtually silent. The reef octo seemed to pull a bit darker skimmate then the swc 160, but then again maybe I just haven't found the sweet spot yet. After seeing the build quality of the swc skimmers, i cant see why the 120 cone wouldn't be amazing quality as well.

Sell the reefocto, gain some sump room, and u get a quieter skimmer. I cant see why it would cost u more then another 100$ out of pocket for the swc120 cone. I had a bit of the same problem as u, the pump was a bit loud on my reef octo. Mine wasn't unbearable but it was noticeable if the ac kicked off. No solution, i lived with it.

[r-balljunkie]

Originally Posted by drstupid

my advice is get married, you'll learn how to ignore all sorts of noises in your living room.

ok.
almost 10 yrs married.....that was funny.

c

[fjr_wertheimber]

Yeah, drstupid, that was one of the funniest things I've read on this board yet... LOL

[lolgranny]

Originally Posted by drstupid

my advice is get married, you'll learn how to ignore all sorts of noises in your living room.

+1 lol

[HarrisonMG]

Originally Posted by dixiedog

That's odd. My Octopus 110 is absolutely silent. And I HATE noise. I'm talking princess-and-the-pea, can't stand any at all, no wife no kids, a mouse farting in the woods 100 yards away wakes me up.

I have a 150sss, which many people say is silent, but once I padded my return line I realized it is by far the loudest piece of equipment, 4x as loud as the return plus media reactor, pump for it, powerhead, overflow, and anything else......I don't hear that gurgling air noise people talk about.

The noise is all coming from inside the skimmer, the its a combo of pump vibrations and rumbling of the pump with the bubbles and the bubbles themselves. I can pick up the skimmer off its padded surface and it will continue to make the same noise.

Anyone have any experience with this skimmer?

[jestronix]

I run mine on a timer, no need to skim 24/7, palettas tank runs 6 hours I think. Trouble is youll find the next noisy pump or fan , then your listening to your fridge and the slight hum of the freezer fan. It's an endless loop trying to making reefing quiet. Just find a happy medium.

[HarrisonMG]

Originally Posted by jestronix

I run mine on a timer, no need to skim 24/7, palettas tank runs 6 hours I think. Trouble is youll find the next noisy pump or fan , then your listening to your fridge and the slight hum of the freezer fan. It's an endless loop trying to making reefing quiet. Just find a happy medium.

That's exactly it. I bet my tank was much louder than it is now, I just don't realize it. My phone says ~55 dB last I checked

But I think I generally don't notice the nouse as much in the day, it's mostly at night or when I wake up.

[HarrisonMG]

Although I remember now people have said it's better to leave your skimmer on constantly. I wonder--if you leave it on only s few hours a day, what implications does that have on the skimming? Is it enough for all the water to go through and be properly skimmed?

And how about this--if the skimmer is off 75% the time, then is the skimmer pulling out 3x more skimmate during the time at which it is running? Therefore, will it take out less water and more gunk?

[jestronix]

Originally Posted by HarrisonMG

Although I remember now people have said it's better to leave your skimmer on constantly. I wonder--if you leave it on only s few hours a day, what implications does that have on the skimming? Is it enough for all the water to go through and be properly skimmed?

And how about this--if the skimmer is off 75% the time, then is the skimmer pulling out 3x more skimmate during the time at which it is running? Therefore, will it take out less water and more gunk?

That's an interesting thought and possibly true.