Vibrations (the bad kind...help with security problem)

[cultiv8t0r]

Gentlemen,

A shite state of affairs has arisen. After a long night of finally getting my clones into my 1000w dwc closet tent, I awoke to a note on my door from my downstairs neighbor:

"Did you get some sort of new equipment or something? I have a loud vibration on my living room ceiling. Its giving me a headache. Gimme a call"


Ah, the joys of apt. living. Here are some pics of the setup and then I'll dicuss the issue in detail.

the tent



cooling area with 5000btu ac and two squirrel cage blowers on bungies



detail of insulation under tent (several layers of styrofoam insulation 1/2" sheets and foam carpet padding



inside:

big 28 gal rubbermaids with bubblers



bungie mounted GH 320gph dual diaphragm air pump (the culprit)



Ok..

Now, this neighbor thinks I have quite the computer server room up here. She's very nice and is working with me to minimize/eliminate the vibrations screwing up her living room experience.

So, not a burn but this is definitely jeopardizing my ability to continue!!

She lets me into her place to test for noise, and I have isolated the vibration...not to the ac or the loud ass blowers, or the air pump itself, but to the actual bubbling in the tubs.

.....so what can I do...I feel like I've pretty much exhausted my insulation options...there's a lot, and although it has helped she's still not cool with the noise level.

-maybe switch to smaller individual air pumps? but then there is still bubbling, and that seems to be the problem.

-anyone know of an air pump setup that is more stealthy? the GH pump seems to send resonations down the air hose and into the tubs, maybe due to the diaphragm action.

-would bio buckets (or any hydro setup) be configurable to be quieter than this? i know a big water pump and waterfall action is required

-should i just switch to soil? (I know nothing of soil growing)

thanks for any help all. this is one of these ->

 

[Natural]

A friend of mine had somewhat of the same problem.
People could hear it in the basement.

He bought a big piece of foam and put his buckets on top of it. Once adjusting them so they stayed stable, no more noise!

Sorry, I don't know exactly what kind of foam... it was like the foam some people use on their beds... He bought it at a furniture store.

 

[Guest]

i used to have a gh dual diaphram. they produce 35 liters of air per hour. i decided i wanted much more and got a much more powerful one, @ 65 liters per hour. it was AMAZINGLY loud I am amazed my neighbors didnt complain like you and believe me i was expecting it. lost a little sleep. it was bad.

so we sound proofed it, and man, its like it doesnt exist.

very simple sound proofing board @ home depot, pretty cheap stuff. measure, cut, put together, put a fan in to keep pump cool, cut holes...

note i cut about 2-3 more holes on each front and back, intake and exhaust, for the box, as well as 3 on the top to let hot air escape thru them.. and no difference in noise.. it was needed to help cool temps..












see the pic with the pump and the black 1/4" tubing? we plugged it into the pumps intake, and ran it outside the box, so its pulling in cooler air. turns out the box does stay cool enough, but this makes me sleep better

good luck

 

[cultiv8t0r]

thanks again lorax...you've been really helpful man. I think I might give this a try, but I do suspect that its the bubbling action itself that is the bulk of the problem.

I might try your sound proofing box. Natural suggested, some way to further insulate the tubs themselves. I'll see if those together are enough.

Soil?!?!?!?!? Last resort. Just completely unknown territory to me, and so much slower.

EDIT: hey lorax was the material for your soundproofing box styrofoam sheeting? My home depot doesn't apear to sell any soundproofing specific materials. What are the dimensions of your depicted solution?

also still open to any other suggestions fellas! cheers.

 

[Guest]

every home depot has this stuff.. the problem is the employees are incompetent and may not know where it is..even managers.. i found it waaaaay in the back behind the construction equipment..

yes its basically just heavy duty styrofoam. you could put a layer of it down first, on the floor, and then put a tarp over it, then your buckets on that.. that would kill noise i think, and cost ya maybe 40 bucks based on your room size..

a little secret..bout 2 years ago when who was then my best friend and i set up a 2k dwc.. we were in an apt type scenario with shared walls.. and we were scared because of the noise and began wondering if it was too much and if we should go soil.

truth is you will find the fan for the carbon filter is a lot louder than the bubbling. i thought it was vibrations, not bubbling, causing problems?

 

[cultiv8t0r]

yep....and that would stand to reason, that the blower would be a bigger problem than the bubbles.

and yet, I systematically tried many configurations of things on and off, and found that t the noise was only noticeable with the bubbles going. (it was even ok with the pump on and connected to nothing)


EDIT -

-i've found that keeping the airstones above the bottom of the tubs/buckets _significantly_ reduces vibration (but this is reducing bubble production unacceptably- may have to switch from 4" stick airstones to the round fat little cylinder ones)

-i put the air pump into a little box made of 1" rigid foam insulation that it hangs off bungies in.

well, the last thing i'm going to do tonite is to add a bit more foam carpet padding under the buckets.

then I have to wait and see if its enough.

 

[cultiv8t0r]

heres my housing for the pump, still bungie mounted. hopefully helped a good amount:

 

[Guest]

did you just make that? badass man.. how does it work? ours took a little tweaking but now its great. one thing I found was the little 6 outlet prong that connects the airlines to the pump vibrates, make sure it isnt vibrating against the box or it may make more noise than it fixes.

 

[cultiv8t0r]

yeah, its floating in there which is nice, the bungie holds up the box and the pump seperately.


i gotta move quick... i got 6 nice little guys that are getting root bound in their cubes!

 

[Harry Gypsna]

get a silent(or supposedly silent) pump-those compressers are noisy as hell compared to something like a hailea aco(these arent silent but a lot quieter than multiple small ones and certainly quieter than that GH one, i was gonna get one til i heard it in the shop)
you could make a box for the pump ad use rockwool for sound insulation, just make sure you leave a hole by the pumps intake.

EDIT Whoops too late, posting without reading the whole thing.....

 

[Buzzsmirk!]

get the air stones off the tub floors!!!

get the air stones off the tub floors!!!

the air stones u r using r making contact w/ the bottom of ur tubs.
the only real cure for this is to get the type that use a suction cup to keep them suspended off the tub's bottom. u will need to silicone them in place (suction cups)
good luck!!
BUZZ!

 

[cultiv8t0r]

^ exactly man- got 8" aquarium bubble wands with the suction cups (and had to resist buying a sweet chameleon) and the noise is greatly reduced.

between those, the insulation box for the air pump, and another few inches of foam and styrofoam insulation under the tubs (lost vertical space for flowering! ) i think i'm good.

I just went down there with the neighbor's son and we couldn't differentiate any sound from her fridge. if she still complains she needs to and relax.

^^ next time i'm at the aquarium store!

 

[Sauce]

You should just make the switch to powerheads instead of air pumps. Powerheads are much better anyways although they will create a little extra heat, so depending on the res size could be a problem.

You could try using those long flexible air diffussers (black color).

Pretty funny about your neighbor though. That would freak me out a little.

 

[Guest]

I agree with sauce, Powerheads are a good consideration most have a venturi for injecting airbubbles

Also natural cork is very good at isolating vibration and noise.

 

[Guest]

I have used the long flexible air stones and was unimpressed. currently i use short, fat little ball shaped ones, that sit in the bottom without help. I guess they are weighted. small though, about 1" diameter.

you recirculating? if so, this powerhead talk is old news to you.. if not, consider it.. it definitely increases DO levels. only reason I dont is I am working with 5 diff strains and dotn know how they all eat; didnt wanna link up off common rezzes without knowing.

glad its working out man. you have balls to say computer room, i'd have love to watched that conversation.. lol..

 

[cultiv8t0r]

fingers crossed!

yeah man...I'm definitely thinking about my recirculation options once a few bucks can be freed up to buy some pumps. powerheads or reg. pumps, I"m think a pump that draws out of one bucket and waterfalls into the next. three pumps/three tubs. plus that would solve any issue of oxygenating the res. tub, because its got no air stones in it

 

[nitrousBB]

hey i cut some pool noodle rings glued to the bottom then slid the air stone in helped a little

 

[2buds]

I would pick a day when your neighbor is in good spirits and isolate exactly what is causing the vibration. For the vibration you describe, it is something large and securely mounted that is carrying the vibrations through the structure. Cooling fans and ac compressors seem to generate alot of harmonic resonance/vibrations. Cut one thing off, go down and see if it went away, do this till you isolate what is causing the harmonic vibration to carry. Then address the actual problem and quit wasting time on petty stuff. Shit man that carpet foam should isolate an air pump. Look into things made to isolate high end speakers from floors, should work the same for your situation. Good luck and try isolating the one thing that causes the ceiling to resonate so loudly by process of elimination, cutting one thing at a time off till you hit the big one. Peace

 

[nugster]

If you got the money....... http://www.dynamat.com/products_architectural_dynapad.html
Problem solved