excessive noise from sump pump?

[leon]

My sump return pump (ocean runner OR2500) has been making alot of noise over the last week or two, so took it out to have a look and found the magnet cracked! , so replaced with another from the spare unused pump i have, tried it again, same noise! , so replaced the whole pump with the new one ect, hopingf that would solve it, but no, still vibrating/loads of noise. does anyone have any clues to what it could be? it goes from the sump via a U.V steriliser, into rigid pipes up to the main tank btw.
cheers,
leon.

 

[Navarre]

Is it connected directly to rigid pipes? This will cause vibrations. I have my pumps connected to rigid pipes via about 6 inches of flexipipe. Is the pump externally mounted or internal?

 

[leon]

from the pump to u.v inlet is flexi, u.v out is flexi, then goes to rigid, its deffo the pump, took off the outlet pipe, and it was fine, connected it back up and made the noise again, but a load of gunk came out of the pipe into the tank!, im wondering if theres a blockage or its too much for the pump?

 

[Navarre]

If you hold the pump in your hadn so its free from touching any surface does it still make the noise? (keep it connected whilst trying this.)

Also you could try disconnecting it and then try the pump. if it still makes the noise

 

[leon]

disconnected the pipe, but was still running, made normal quite noise, connected it back up made noise again, moved from any surface, still made noise!. im thinking on a blockage/ restriction somewhere. or could it be the height the pump has to get the water up?, manual says 1m max height, this is doing 1.20m plus goig via U.V.

 

[Navarre]

The UV should not slow the flow down at all but the height might be a factor for sure. You say that you have changed the pump for another? is this a different pump or the same model? perhaps a stronger pump would be a better idea. However I must advise that your UV needs a certain flow through it to wok correctly. too fast and it wont be able to kill harmful things in the water as it will pass through far to quickly.

I would loko into placing the UV as a seperate flow from the main return pump as this pump is usually very fast and strong.

 

[leon]

yep the replacement is the same, have another in main tank with spray bar for circulation, had no probs with that! what pump would you recomend?, was going to upgrade to aN OR3500, and change the uv to a small powerhead anyway, i still need powerheads in the main tank for more circulation. any recomdations for them?

 

[ste2k3]

I think the head pressure is to blame. I used to run a couple of eheims and when I backed them off with a ball valve, they used to buzz a little. I would get the u.v. on to a seperate powerhead and upgrade to a larger pump. An OR3500 would be fine or an eheim 1264? anything that will handle the head pressure.

one more thing, are you sure its the ocean runner pump and not the powerhead as aqamedic do a set of powerheads which are 2000, 2500 and 3000. if its the powerhead, then it won't have enough power to "lift" the water.

As for circulation in the main tank, a few maxijet 1200s or even a stream? it depends on what your going to be keeping and how much flow you already have.

ste

 

[leon]

Its defo a pump, will upgrade it then , ha, was looking on ebay, one going for £45 brand new, hope i get it. Ideally i'd my tank like something similar to the one in your shop window, ideally , so the current circulation i have is 2 X's Aqua medic ocean runner OR2500's, one for the sump return (to be upgraded to a 3500) and the other with a spray bar at the bottom back of the tank at around a 40 degree angle, so would a couple of the maxijets suffice for what i eventually would like?
leon.

 

[ste2k3]

The tank in the window has 3 OR3500's returning from the sump and a maxijet 1200 powering a small reef clean. there is no additional water movement as its only softies. are you going for hard corals or soft? and what are the dimentions of the tank? you may be better putting one 2500 at each end of the tank on the back glass pointing at 45 degrees to hit the middle of the front glass. you could even use them as closed loops?

ste

 

[leon]

ah, see i dont know alot about corals, soft are easier to look after??? if so then them to start off with, maybe after success with them hopefully and eventually, get some hards.
closed loops???
Tank dimensions are:
72" x 24" x 18"

 

[ste2k3]

softies are less demanding than most hard corals and don't require as much flow. most people start with softies and then move onto hard corals. with it being quite a large tank, I would put the s 2500's at eather end pointing in and a couple of powerheads in the middle, or go for tunze stream (s) which will mean one or 2 large pumps rather than lots of smaller pumps.

a closed loop is where the pump sits under the tank and sucks water out and pumps it back in with out it going through any filters etc. all you see in the tank is a strainer and a couple of inlet pipes. I always prefer closed loops over powerheads/streams as you don't see anything in the tank. I'm using a 750 for my new tank.

ste