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  • Results 1 to 15 of 15

    Thread: Fluidized K1 Barrel Filter Noise

    1. #1
      EricL is offline Junior Member
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      Fluidized K1 Barrel Filter Noise

      Hello,

      I am wondering if anyone has had this problem, or has a solution to it. I just got my filter running today, and the water pump (sequence) is fantastically quiet. The air pump for my moving bed is the PondMaster [Danner] AP-60, which is quiet enough since it is tucked away in a shed. I ran a 1/2" line from it to my bio barrel and into a 10" rubber diffuser. The amount of air is great, but the barrel itself is quite loud. When you place your hand on it you can feel it vibrating. The deep drone/hum of the barrel is very irritating, and isn't covered up by the waterfall noise. Any ideas on how to quiet down a humming barrel? I feel like wrapping it in that sound deadening stuff for cars would be the kind of thing I'm looking for, but the barrel is right next to the pond and meant to look nice.

      Some stuff that may be helpful:
      - 1/2" line is braided vinyl tubing
      - enters barrel through 1/2" bulkhead near top (above water line). I added a couple gaskets on the outside in hopes that that was where the noise was originating, but that did not help at all.
      - inside is a 1/2" PVC going down at an angle, not touching the walls of the barrel, to the 10" diffuser which is "hovering" above the bottom of the barrel.

      It seems as though the vibration is being transferred through the water itself.

      Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give!

      - Eric

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    2. #2
      Huysy's Avatar
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      How big is your container and are you choking back some of the air? There should be a gentle boiling of the media.

    3. #3
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      I have two barrel MB's and all I hear is the media boiling and only if I get up too close. Perhaps you are trying to push too much volume through the filter that is causing the vibration ? ?

      Carl
      Carl Sowell


    4. #4
      pond happy is offline Senior Member
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      I just made the same filter and connected a Hakko 40L. Now granted the output of that is larger than your AP-60 at that shallow depth, but still the Hakko was FAR too powerful, and I too noticed a rumbling sound as it churned the media at high speed.

      In the end I connected the Hakko to two airlines and made a 2nd moving bed. Now it runs both and the humming is gone. If you get real close you can hear the media swirling against the plastic drum, but there's no changing that.

      So my guess is that you've got too much air power.


      EDIT: As a secondary guess, if the hose is touching the lid and you've got the lid locked onto the drum, that can pass vibration from the air pump directly into the lid which plays it like a drum. That would also create that sound too. My tubing comes in through the lid, but if yours comes from the side and still touches the lid from the inside, I imagine the effect would be the same.
      Last edited by pond happy; 06-14-2017 at 11:50 PM.

    5. #5
      EricL is offline Junior Member
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      The container volume is 50 gallons. I am not choking back the air at all. I just tried inserting a fitting inline with a small hole to bleed off any excess air and that does not seem to change the humming sound.

      I can hear the media boiling when I get up close as well. That is not very loud and is actually kind of pleasant imo. By "too much volume" do you mean water volume? I'd estimate the flow rate at a little over 2000 gph and it is gravity fed through a 3" pipe from the first barrel.

    6. #6
      pond happy is offline Senior Member
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      No, I mean air volume. I think the AP-60 puts out comparable to my Hakko 40L, and I can tell you that I had to run my Hakko with only about 60% of the air going into the MB, or else it boiled too hard.

      Keep in mind too that the air pumps themselves often have harmonic vibrations, and so maybe check the positioning of the pump too. I know if I put my (normally very quiet) Hakko onto the drum lid you'd swear a Blue Man Group performance just started somewhere down the street!

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      Grumpy is offline Senior Member
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      Just as a test, you might try wrapping a couple of ratchet ties around the barrel to see if that will help reduce the noise. Perhaps the thickness of your barrel is less than some others?

    8. #8
      EricL is offline Junior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Otrex View Post
      if the hose is touching the lid and you've got the lid locked onto the drum, that can pass vibration from the air pump directly into the lid which plays it like a drum. That would also create that sound too.
      The barrel is a "pretty" one without a real lid. The pipe is running through the side though... Maybe I should run it over the top through the hole instead? The bulkhead has gaskets on either side in an attempt to isolate the vibration.

      here are a couple pics. The barbed fitting near the top is where I connected the air.

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    9. #9
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      My first guess was too much air, and my second guess would be related. You have a hard pvc line running from the wall of your barrel to the diffuser. I think the vibrations from your diffuser is transferring the sound to your barrel. Your barrel may be acting like a sounding board. You could try to run the vinyl tubing on the inside too to see if that helps. You'll have to find a way to weigh down your diffuser though. I seem to remember on another thread that the vibrations from an air diffuser can be so strong, it can actually break small diameter pvc.

    10. #10
      pond happy is offline Senior Member
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      Yes, given this style of barrel, I think the problem could very well be: Too much air which has the secondary effect of causing a vibration, made even worse by the one-piece design of this particular barrel.

      Try over the top with the air and see if that helps. Maybe some normal air hose (soft) tubing too, since rigid pvc probably makes the vibration worse. But also try attaching a bleed line to reduce the air flow to the diffuser by about 30%. Connect the bleed line with a small ball valve so you can dial it in just right.

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    11. #11
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      Thanks so much! I'll try replacing the pipe inside (it's actually schedule 80, so super rigid) with vinyl tubing... and somehow hold it down.

      I'll tee off the line near the pump and have a ball valve bleed too. Actually, that might be nice to blow right at the pump. That thing gets a bit toasty!

    12. #12
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      Take the small screen off reach in and grab the PVC pipe while the unit is in operation to see if it quiets things down. Is the diffuser heavy enough to not move around if you use flexible line?

      The rain barrels look good.
      Last edited by BWG; 06-15-2017 at 09:39 AM.

    13. #13
      EricL is offline Junior Member
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      That sounds like a good way to test that out. I'll give it a try.

      Quote Originally Posted by BWG View Post
      Is the diffuser heavy enough to not move around if you use flexible line?
      No, especially when it inflates. Not sure how I'll get that stable without causing vibration to transfer

      And thanks! I think so too

    14. #14
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      Just as an update, it seems the head space in the barrel combined with the all-in-one design of them is the cause of the noise. My temporary solution (I'll come up with some way to make it pretty once the rest of the pond is done) is laying a couple scrap sheets of EPDM on top. They seem to absorb most of the vibration, and I can't hear the humming from more than a few feet away.

    15. #15
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      Try a round concrete patio or stepping stone on top.

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