Little Giant v. Iwaki

I have a 90 gallon with a sump and a Little Giant 2-MDQX-SC pump. I am hearing a fair amount of noise from the pump. I do not think it is more than normal, but it is not what I would consider “silent”. This is a new system installed a few weeks ago, I do not think that the pump is faulty.

I am also in the process of setting up a water station in my basement utility area, consisting of:

• 2x 55 gallon storage barrels
• PVC manifold to drain both to a circulation pump, with one return to the saltwater reservoir.
• 2x small powerhead (Tunze 6015) for salt mixing and circulation
• Airpump and airstones for both sides.

I will be buying the above-mentioned circulation pump to assist with initial salt mixture and dispensing of either water to a container. I am hopeful that I won’t need the circulation pump to do much pumping during storage, instead letting the Tunze and the air do that job.

I was thinking of picking up another of the Little Giant, so that I could have a spare on hand for my display system and a circulation pump for the water station.

However, the noise level of my display has me thinking of buying a different pump for it, and sending the Little Giant to the basement.

I’m looking for someone to tell me whether the Iwaki MD20RLTX is quieter than the Little Giant.

 

Iwaki pumps are noisey, especially any that have a fan on them(starting with the 40 series). I have a 100RLT that sounds like a dishwasher

 

We have two LG's...an old "3" which is pretty darned quiet and a larger "4", which I bought because I liked the "3" so much. However, the larger pump is quite a bit more noisy than the "3".

On the same system we're running the "4" on, there's an Iwaki MD-40RLT (I think I have all the letters right), and it's one of the quietest pumps we have running. All you can really hear is the fan, but you need to be really close to it to do so...I wish all of our pumps were that quiet.

I'm also running a Pan World 200-PS as the main pump on a 210 gal build, and it's not very quiet at all, even tho the chief engineer from Iwaki designed them. The Dart I have running the closed loop on that system is WAY more quiet than the Pan World, and I'd have to say it's tied for our second quietest external pump.

Poseidon makes super quiet pumps, but plan on it adding about 5*F to your tank's intrinsic temperature.

One thing you might want to try is getting some Sorbothane hemispheres ("feet") to mount your pump on...they're REALLY great at absorbing noise and vibration. Try that with your current pump just to see how it works.

HTH

 

Thanks for your comments.

I am hard plumbed to my sump, and I wonder if that is part of my noise issue as there is a considerable amount of felt vibration in the sump wall. Not excited about trying to cram a flexible line in there, I am space-limited. Who isn't, eh?

Will work on some sort of isolation for the mounting, currently it is just sitting on the stand floor.

On the subject of pumps, I see that the 10/20/30 Iwaki do not have fans and thus are said to run quieter. I am not sure I am hearing fan noise, more of a droning which makes me wonder about the sump being hard plumbed.

 

I had a terrible time with my second LG transferring vibration and noise to the stand and having it get "boomy". In fact, our volitans didn't like it at all.

Once we isolated the pump and any plumbing, things got quiet and the fish calmed right down...pretty much immediately.

 

Is it motor noise you are hearing or just general hum. You can eliminate some of the vibration transfer by putting the pump on a piece of neoprene, like a mouse pad.

 

I little giant pump I had was significantly quieter than the iwaki I have now. The little giant was the 4 recirculater pump and I am not sure on the iwaki though. It is of similar specs though. It sounds like a jet engine under my stand. So loud and adds so much heat that I can't run it all the time. It will push temps over 90 if I let it and it has on one occasion. I am not sure if it is because of lack of circulation under the stand or the pump directly transferring heat though.

 

While my Iwaki external is fairly noisy the last one I owned ran for 10 years.Needless to say I purchased another. Never noticed any significant heat transfer.

 

I think it is probably that I am sensitive to noise and the aquarium is in our living room. I had wanted to put it in the basement but my wife disagreed.

I have been considering other options, possibly one of the Tunze Silence (I have some of their other products, seems to be high quality). One advantage to the Tunze 1073.05 is that I could throttle it down at night thru Apex programming. I am not concerned about the noise during the day, the main issue is that I want it to be quiet in the evening when I'm home.

Something to consider, anyway. I may talk to someone at Tunze and see if this is possible.