# RIO 2100 pump, whats this? and what does it do?



## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

what is this and what does it do? 









also im running this as a UGJ with 5 jets on my 85g, it blows fairly strong more than I expected,
it is working nothing stays on the ground but is this bad for the fish? I put gold fish in there and they struggle to stay in one place.


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## como1103 (Feb 3, 2008)

i bought a used tank with a powerhead from a guy on craigslist and it had one of these...i was also wondering what in the heck it is...


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## BenHugs (Jan 13, 2007)

the only thing I can think of is a venturi for letting air into your water stream??


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## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

The lower part of the piece you circled in the photo is the venturi, the top piece you circled is the tube you attach to the verticle spout on the venturi . 
The elongate ball at the top of the tube, sits above the water line, and as the pump pumps, it draws air into the flow and provides a stream of bubbles that shoot into and across your tank.
This is a great addition for breaking surface tension and extra aeration, and is privided on many power heads. If you submerge the powerhead too much, it with not provide bubbles, and you may elect to do it this way. 
I never use air pumps on my tanks, I prefer this venturi method.


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

Somewhat off topic, but have you installed the pump yet? Do you find it pretty loud? Not a mechanical loud, a vibrating loud. I am curious because I was surprised how loud mine is.


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

*boredatwork*


> Somewhat off topic, but have you installed the pump yet? Do you find it pretty loud? Not a mechanical loud, a vibrating loud. I am curious because I was surprised how loud mine is


I have the same pump and mine is absolutley 100% silent. To the point that I can't tell if it turns on when I pulg it in. The only indication that it is working is the sand storm that occurs in front of my UGJ's. I have it submerged all the way to the sand level behind a large lava rock with a penguin prefilter on it, but I don't think that would have much effect on the vibrating noise. It could be that I have mine positioned differntly than yours. The intake it sticking straight up. I dunno, just a thought.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

boredatwork said:


> Somewhat off topic, but have you installed the pump yet? Do you find it pretty loud? Not a mechanical loud, a vibrating loud. I am curious because I was surprised how loud mine is.


Can you do a video with audio of the noisy Rio? That might tell some people whether you have worn or dirty rotor, something in contact with the pump body, or a bad mounting.

You may find answers to noise questions most people never considered at Durso's websites. Richard Durso's the guy who took the flushing toilet sounds out of the living room reef tank! http://www.rl180reef.com/


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

Stickzula said:


> I have the same pump and mine is absolutley 100% silent. To the point that I can't tell if it turns on when I pulg it in. The only indication that it is working is the sand storm that occurs in front of my UGJ's. I have it submerged all the way to the sand level behind a large lava rock with a penguin prefilter on it, but I don't think that would have much effect on the vibrating noise. It could be that I have mine positioned differntly than yours. The intake it sticking straight up. I dunno, just a thought.


Thats so weird. So the situation is the I have three of them, and they were new out of the box. I even used one to fill my tank the first time. I had it in a 5 gallon bucket that was getting water from the faucet. Even in the bucket it had a very noticeable hum to it.

I should mention my tolerance for noise is very low. But these pumps are not silent - in my case.

Mcdaphnia, it's definitely vibration, nothing mechanical - not like a grinding or anything. And like I said they are brand new and its all three of them. I have bad luck but I don't know about those odds. I would say with the three I have in my tank Its louder than my refrigerator. And its a very resonant noise - thats the problem. You can hear it two rooms over. In fact its louder 20 ft away than it is up close.

I have it on a 8" extension from the UGJ pipe that lies on the bottom of the tank. I am working on a fix that will put it closer to the bottom. Maybe that is my problem. But I also have the output pointing down so my intake is horizontal. I could also try rotating it.

I have medium size rocks covering the PVC piping, and sometimes if the rocks get a little loose the vibrating gets worse. But if Ihold everything down tight, there is still a hum to the whole tank. As a point of reference my FX5 is way quieter than these pumps. Even when just one is on.

The parts I need to lower the pump is coming on this weekend, so maybe if I still have the problem I can post pictures and a sound file. And I will start a separate thread. Sorry, haha.


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## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

i have one and its dead silent.even if you put your ear on the tank, nothing.mine is mounted about 8" up on a piece of 1/2" pvc.


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## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

boredatwork said:


> Somewhat off topic, but have you installed the pump yet? Do you find it pretty loud? Not a mechanical loud, a vibrating loud. I am curious because I was surprised how loud mine is.


yes its pretty noisy, I can hear the huming from another room. it sound louder than my fridge.


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## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

I will record it and post it and let you guys see whats wrong with it or maybe its just me.


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## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

heres the vid, sound like its rattling or something...?
http://files.filefront.com/MVI+0424AVI/ ... einfo.html
http://files.filefront.com/MVI+0426AVI/ ... einfo.html


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

Yea I can hear that rattling. It doesnt sound like impeller though - its too intermittent (relative to the impeller speed). Did you try it without your intake filter? Or maybe there is only like one piece of sand in the impeller? I would try cleaning it out - it cant hurt.


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

fishwolfe said:


> i have one and its dead silent.even if you put your ear on the tank, nothing.mine is mounted about 8" up on a piece of 1/2" pvc.


Now I am bummed. I will try and put together separate post in the near future on my situation.


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## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

wow that is strange.and all three are like that?does the sound go away with the prefilter off?how does the shaft the impeller magnate sit on look like?


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## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

Did you try running the pump separate from you UG system? and in that manner did it still hum?
Try it horizontally just pushing water, to see if it produces the same hum. 
The intermitant sound seems like a piece of gravel, or something? bouncing around below the UG plate or in the tube. 
My pumps hum when it, and the plumbing touch the side of the tank, so I had to brace a sponge under the pump, and between the PVC and the side, to baffle the sound.


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## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

I am running only one pump and none of it touches he glass.
I will remove the getho filter I have and see how it sounds like.


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## trantran (Jul 6, 2008)

ok so i just went and open the pump. the impeller is clean no sand or anything. i try running it with out the filter and its still the same. maybe mine is difected? should i return this? i got it from big als.


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

I got mine from big als too. One thing that I did was to zip tie the pipes for the UGJ's to the egg crate. Nothing moves. Maybe your pipes are vibrating on the bottom of the tank??? You could look in the product reviews section and see if this is a common problem with Rio's. Maybe I just got lucky and got an extra quiet one.


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## redstallion02 (Jan 17, 2008)

*Sorry still off topic.

I run only Rio Pumps and have heard this nose before, but was able to solve it each time.

Either a broken shaft, or there is air in the pump. Just a trapped air bubble. When you put these in your tank you sometimes have to spin them around a few times untill all the air bubbles stop coming up.

I have 4 of these pumps running in my living room and you can not hear anything except the stupid overflow.


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

redstallion02 said:


> I have 4 of these pumps running in my living room and you can not hear anything except the stupid overflow.


Haha, thats such an important point. The pump is quiet...relative to your overflow. It doesn't mean your pump is quiet.


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## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

my rio is quieter than any pump i have used.you cant hear it unless your a dog.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

trantran said:


> heres the vid, sound like its rattling or something...?
> http://files.filefront.com/MVI+0424AVI/ ... einfo.html
> http://files.filefront.com/MVI+0426AVI/ ... einfo.html


 I can hear them. Sometimes one grain, sometimes more....

*................ Sand.......... **and there will go your rotor..*


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

I was thinking the same thing. Small intermittent taps.

Are you able to pull out the entire impeller assembly including the magnet? If so, flush out the housing and rinse the impeller. Carefully check the magnet for tiny pieces of metallic debris. If they were doing this right out of the box there could be tiny pieces of machining left over from poor factory assembly.


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## duaneS (Aug 31, 2006)

Many times a rattling sound is caused by cavitation, bubbles collapsing into the impeller, that can cause the impeller to pit. 
Cavitation can be caused by a tiny piece of just about any debris in the volute and interfering with flow.


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## redstallion02 (Jan 17, 2008)

boredatwork said:


> redstallion02 said:
> 
> 
> > I have 4 of these pumps running in my living room and you can not hear anything except the stupid overflow.
> ...


I guess I should have said that if I shut the sump off you would not even know that I had anything running. Only one runs the sump, two are ugj and the third is for a 29 gallon tank that runs ugj as well as a surface aggitator but you could put your ear to the tank and not hear them.

I listened to it again and still am convinced that it just needs to be cleaned and then rotated to let all the air out.


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

I have read this discussion many times about Rio pumps. On a side note, I put my three Rio 2100's up for sale on Craiglist and I keep getting people who lose interest because they find out that a lot of people do not like Rio pump. These pumps do not have a good reputation.

The dilemma is that some people say their Rio's are silent and some say that their Rios are loud. In my experience I hate my Rio's because I find them unbearably loud. And I am not talking about an impeller noise when sand gets stuck in it - I am talking about a loud hum - which seems to be somewhat prevalent, especially in UGJ setups.

There can only be two conclusions. Either Rio pumps have a problem with a lot of pumps not working as well as others, or Rio pumps are not quiet. I don't know which it is. I would like to think the former - but I have three Rio pumps and all of them are loud, so that would be pretty strange to have all three not working "silently".

If you have a sump system that is loud turning off your pumps and not noticing any difference does not tell you anything about the noise of the pumps. It just means that they are not as loud as the sump. Especially since the noise I am talking about is a humming noise that is easily blocked out by a "real noise" like water flow. After running a sump I can understand how that can be true.

To test it you would need to turn off your sump and leave the pumps on. I am not suggesting you do that, but that would illustrate the problem.

Personally I can hear this pump when I am in a different room in my apartment. Maybe my dog would probably be able to hear it in the apartment next door or something. I am always extremely skeptical of people who say they have "very quiet" or "silent" equipment. I have never ever had any piece of equipment with moving parts that is silent.


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## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

i think the problem with the rio's running ugj is that there is to much back pressure on the pump causing the hum.if you were closer i'd let you come over and take a listen,you could bring your dog too  as with anything man made some are good and some are bad in the same brand.i've never had a problem or noise related to mine.its submerged with rubber feet in an enclosed stand.


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

fishwolfe said:


> i think the problem with the rio's running ugj is that there is to much back pressure on the pump causing the hum.if you were closer i'd let you come over and take a listen,you could bring your dog too  as with anything man made some are good and some are bad in the same brand.i've never had a problem or noise related to mine.its submerged with rubber feet in an enclosed stand.


Actually that is a shame. I would love to see another setup using those pumps with UGJ's that has a claim of being quiet. I always had a suspicion it was something I was doing, but I found so many other people with the problem and I could never fix it that I have to assume it was the pump. I will say that the pump itself is quiet. If I were to suspend the pump in the water without any attachments or near anything then its a quiet pump. But as soon as I use it for the UGJ's its loud. And I made three UGJ's setups to try to fix it but it was the same every time.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

trantran said:


> ok so i just went and open the pump. the impeller is clean no sand or anything. i try running it with out the filter and its still the same. maybe mine is difected? should i return this? i got it from big als.


 You don't find the sand because it is traveling through the pump. You will sooner or later be able to see where sand has been, as scratches accumulate on the rotor body and inside the housing. You can certainly hear the sand grains on the audio tape.

I am always surprised people still try the buried jets. Take a look at a reef frag tank where clearing detritus is critical. Use what they use. Much quieter and effective, while UGJ systems never seem to perform the task they were intended to do. Here is one you take all these little parts to remake a powerhead into something approaching a trolling motor. :lol: They sell you all the parts ready to go, but it still almost seems like DIY. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=18525


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

Mcdaphnia said:


> I am always surprised people still try the buried jets. Take a look at a reef frag tank where clearing detritus is critical. Use what they use. Much quieter and effective, while UGJ systems never seem to perform the task they were intended to do. /quote]
> 
> So...my tank has been running for about 4 months or so. The first three months I had UGJ, and the last month I turned off the UGJ and have just been vacuuming the sand when I do water changes. In all honesty vacuuming the sand is not a big deal to me. It probably takes about 20 minutes to get it done and it doesn't really "waste" time since the water has to drain anyway. And when you keep up on it its a minimal task. So I can say I have no desire to try to find another working method. Especially since I don't want to add any more sources of noise.
> 
> ...


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## boredatwork (Sep 14, 2007)

Forgot to mention that the biggest faux pas of using a UGJ type system is the obvious one. When you vacuum the substrate you see how much waste comes out of the sand every week. Depending on the setup, most people probably don't clean out their filters every week (probably not even every month).

Even if the UGJ was effective at removing the waste from the sand - the waste will just get pushed somewhere else - either somewhere else in the tank or into the filter. The waste is not being removed from the system.


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