This looks like a diaphragm pump? These are mostly pretty noisy from the ones I have seen, but you could try minimising the amount of vibration by putting a pad of thick rubber or neoprene between the feet and your wall? Also some will be transferring down the pipes, this is a bit harder to isolate, but you would be surprised how effective a few strategically placed pieces of foam can be.
I do this for larger air pumps and it makes a big difference. I have noticed more recently there are some companies that have been producing some very high pressure low db pumps for misting systems.
Is one who’s pumps I have looked at for high pressure aeroponics, the are surprisingly quiet and capable of up to 120 psi, so if you need the 50psi of pressure or more the pump you have is putting out when it gives up the ghost you could look at something like these?
Mechanical isolation to reduce direct sound transfer.
You have your pump fixed securely to the wall so it can essentially ‘grab’ the wall and shake it at 50/60Hz even if you have rubber mounts. I have similar problems with air pumps.
So I get very strong bungee cords and make a four-way harness to suspend the pump in the air, not connected to the wall. I see your pump is attached to flexible hose with jubilee clips so that solution is totally possible with your setup.
“Do it Yourself Isolators
In less sophisticated solutions, bungee cords can be used as a cheap isolation system which may be effective enough for some applications. The item to be isolated is suspended from the bungee cords. This is difficult to implement without danger of the isolated item falling.”
Basically, make sure the cords can’t just slip off with the vibration by liberal application of zip-ties etc.
To deal with the vibrations through the hose, you need an expansion chamber.
Fit one as close as you can get to the pump and it will even out the pressure waves that are causing vibration down the hose past the expansion chamber.
As you can see, pumps that come with one fit it directly to the pump.
In my experience there comes a point where making a low quality pump perform like a high quality pump costs more, and is less reliable, and less effective, than just buying the expensive but good pump. The cost is spread out over longer but often the cost is more, for an inferior performing part in your system.
Don’t forget the cable ties/zipties to stop the bungees slipping off and water being pumped everywhere.
Expansion chambers also work great on airlines to even out the flow. 2x100ml syringe with the plungers removed and the fat flat ends glued together are about the right size for airlines.
And if your airstones are raised from the floor, maybe by a rubber seal round each end, then the air does not make them rattle on the floor of the tank.
How did you know before buying if the screws are stainless steel?
My ebb and flow tables are 1.1 meter x 1.1 meter in size. I am not sure what size of pump there is needed? Flooding time would be 5 minutes maximum I guess.
how big is your reservoir? and what type of hydroponics you do?
I need one more pump: I want to do ebb and flow with rockwool. my table is 1.1m x 1.1m. I am not sure which pump to choose because I did read I need to be under 10 minutes flooding time and also depends on how high I want to flood the tables.
What you think what size of pump do I need for that? (Its my first time hydroponics, thats why I am not really sure yet about the pump choices)
You should figure out how much water will it take to fill your flood table, then it should be fairly easy to find a pump that will do that in any given time.
Most pumps come with a diagram, of how much water it will deliver at what hight.
Then you messure the hight from your reservoir bottom, to the max water lvl in you flow table.
Find a pump that do a little more then what you need, by comparing thouse numbers or just build in a overflow and over size the pump.
All that been said, I am not sure RW is ideal for Ebb n flood.
Im afraid a 10 min soak of a RW cube will leave it too wet, depriving the roots of oxygen and cause slow growth or bigger issues.
RW is better for drip feeding IMO, where hydroton, growrocks and other course medias that drains fast. Are much more suited for ebb n flood, but maybe if it’s a shallow ebb n flood it could work.
Where did you find your inspiration for RW ebb n flood?
I do drip feeding in hydroton pot’s, on simple flow tables that drains back into the reservoir.
1 of 2 Veg cabinets
