Silencing the Aquaponics - Part 1

Part 2  : Here
Part 3 :  Here


Yesterday I was visited by a nice couple, interested in setting up Aquaponics in their home. The wife did comment that is a bit noisy, and I explained that at night the system will be switched off so that it do not disturbed the neighbour.


Its good to have comment and feed back, I did not realise that its was noisy and I decided to embark on a task to make the set as silence as possible. So this next few weeks will be my trial on making it quiet, since nothing much to be done on the basic set. This silencing of Aquaponics could be good for those that need a setting in close neighbourhood living.


There are few area that need to be look at in silencing an Aquaponics set. In my setup the following make noise.
  1. Water inlet
  2. Water Outlet
  3. Excess water bleed off
Water inlet as below need to be change to a less noisy setting.


I change it to the one below, it still need some work of feeder pipe going right down to the growbed. This water inlet already reduce some noise from the set.


I need to use different pump for above water feed. I have a few pumps from my previous experimenting until I use the one pump method and make them redundant.

These two Astro 3000 pumps, although they are same series and look identical but pump on left is of higher rating and wattage.


Below is the left pump specification. Astro 3000 Power Head, 40 watt/1900 lt/hr


and next the right pump specification. Astro 3000 Liquid Filter, 29 watt/1738 lt/hr


I recommend this Astro 3000 Liquid filter  for 2 growbed its 29 watt as compare to above pump which is 40 watt and only marginal increase of water flow. Another good option would be  Astro 2000, it have lower rating than this but would also work for 2 growbed as used at the UiTM setup.


One is power head and the other is liquid filter, as I mentioned its best to use the Astro 3000 liquid filter due to its lower power consumption or the 2000 which is cheaper and even lower power usage.


Above testing the power head, its a bit slow in starting full flow. After few start stop and checking its impeller rotor I am satisfied that it can be use without problem.

Existing pump used is 110 watt for the four growbed, switching to two 30 watt pump I am reducing power usage almost by half and increase reliability by 100%. Resun Penguin pump that I use never give any problem, just that I am trying out other alternative to improve power consumption of my setup.


BTW those pumps above are already more that three years old and in constant use for about more than two years without any problem.

Next the outlet.

The normal outlet I use is this elbow, its give maximum splash and good mix to oxygenate water in fish tank. In doing so it generate considerable amount of noise. So its got to go.


The classic outlet was replaced by straight tube with threaded adaptor at the end making the restriction. If you have problem getting threaded adapter you could try using end cap after making 3/4 inch hole or smaller on it to do the restriction. 


This method was tried before, it work and less noise as compare to the elbow outlet.  Photo below at full flow condition.


I am making few outlet with varying PVC pipe length picture above are using 6 and 4 inch PVC respectively while the one below is an 8 inch PVC.


Additional note : 


4 inch PVC pipe length is not reliable in making positive siphon as tested, I need to try 5 inch next. Why the varying length.. its due to my installation I need shortest down tube as possible. If your installation do not have height problem then use 8 inch PVC pipe with restrictor.


Straight outlet and elbow side by side. If you need low noise then use the straight pipe, the elbow will give maximum noise and water mix.

Finally the last part, I need to silence is the excess water bypass. I am still running  Resun Penguin pump for other 2 growbed so there are more excess water compared to before, once I use 30 watt pump for these 2 growbed then I don't have this problem any more.


Those holes on the down tube are for aeration and it goes down near water surface reducing noise.

This noise reducing task is still work in progress, 2 more grow bed to be done. Its probably next weekend I'll get it all completed.

Cheers.

7 comments:

  1. Affnan,
    You're going to think this is crazy, but I had a dream last night about how to silence the downspout on my system! So, I woke up this morning and tried it, and it worked!

    All I did was cut a length of 2" pipe (my downspout pipe, with 2 elbows, are all 1") so that it fit over and around the lowest part of the downspout standing straight down to the bottom of my fish tank. I cut a notch at the bottom (under the water, like a triangle), and a notch at the top, so that I could slip it over the downspout easily. I also drilled two holes all the way through near the bottom of the pipe (under the water).

    It doesn't affect my siphon performance at all, and all the water goes into the 2" pipe, making the drip much quieter. Then, when the siphon kicks on, all that water gets funneled straight to the bottom of the fish tank and creates mega-aeration. It actually stirs up the bottom of the tank quite a lot. After about 10 seconds at full flow, I think the water inside the 2" pipe gets about level with the water coming down, and it's almost silent, but still delivering lots of bubbles at the bottom.

    Pretty cool!

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  2. Brian,

    Great if you could post photo on your blog its much helpful.

    My silencing work, however it reduce the aeration, I need to figure out something else that could increase aeration at the same time reduce noise.

    I may try doing like the bypass pipe, the only problem I'm facing now is my growbed to tank water level is quite low.

    Affnan

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  3. hi Afnan, someone gave me a gift set of a pond and astro 300 liquid filter but with no instructions. Could you help explain or show a picture to instal the filter? Do I immerse the whole thing into water? Is it water proof?

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    Replies
    1. Its design to be placed in the pond, its water proof. Just make sure no bare wiring expose within the pond/tank. It will be damage if you run it dry, water help to lubricate and keep it cool.

      Hope this help.

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  4. Hi Affnan,

    I had planned to use your 'High Water Siphon Outlet' to reduce the noise on my urban aquaponics setup. But now I see that you have not used it for any of your solutions in this post, and therefore makes me wonder if I had made a mistake.

    Can you advise on this?

    Thanks and regards,

    George

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi George

      Thanks for your post, the high water Siphon I only use it on area where it only needed, otherwise a more simpler holes muffler type were use. The only reason is economics, its much easier and cheaper to make the holes muffler type. The high water works, just that if its not need then its best to use the cheaper alternative.

      Delete
  5. Encik affnan boleh saya dapatkan no telefon encik?

    ReplyDelete