Noise, back-pressure and power heads

[Chineseghoststory]

You know something? I am a little irked that my Rio 600 PH makes noise when I turn the flow down, and it gets worse the further down I turn it. The fact of the matter is that my 7 bowfront just doesn't need that much circulation, at least not with the sand substrate I have in it. Okay, all of this would be moot had I simply used crushed coral instead since that is a lot harder for a PH to blow around and pile up ever so slowly from one place to the next.

 

Working unimpeded with no back-pressure, the pump is indeed fairly quiet. But when turned down at all it causes a rattle. I could get a smaller PH like a Rio 50. But I thought I'd ask first what others have done to keep sand from blowing around. Are there any thoughts on taking a fluid-engineered approach? By that I mean, could small holes be strategically drilled in the outlet nozzle (I use the adjustable one) which would vent some of the forward pressure to the sides instead of sending it all out the end of the nozzle? Kind of like porting the barrel of a firearm? Maybe that way the pump could be allowed to operate at full flow, yet some of the water could be simultaneously aimed from coming out the end. Come to think of it, this would make for more diversified circulation as well. Comments? Suggestions?

 

Jeff

[Physh1]

More noise and chatter is going to occur in PH anytime backpressure is applied. It causes turbulence in the impeller chamber. Rio's are probably going to make more noise than most.

 

I don't know if drilling holes would help at all. For that to work, IMO, you need more water pressure to make it efficient. Not saying it won't so anything just not enough to help you current problem. Now if you are meaning to drill holes and use the valve to throddle back flow and hope some of it goes through the drilled holes that will likely help you but the impellar noise would increase a little.

 

I think the best solution would be to buy a smaller pump....like the Rio50 you were mentioning.

 

Cameron

[Pikelet]

I don't know that pump at all but you could try adding tubing and a 3 way splitter to the output nozzle. That way you would prevent the cavitation problem AND reduce and distribute the flow. Just a thought.