A couple months ago while visiting the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography we had the chance to tour the facility with Fernando Nosratpour. While perusing behind the scenes we spotted an interesting plumbing part that we’d never heard of before.
The Proco Noise Reducer Expansion Joint is a heavy duty metal threaded rubber gasket which is great for perfecting the largest aquarium plumbing installations. The primary use of the Proco fittings is to absorb pipe movement stress, reduce system noise, isolate mechanical vibration and compensate for alignment and offset of hard plumbed fittings.
Proco makes their noise reducer in a variety of sizes and configurations, and the dual-rubber connector helps to reduce noise by decreasing vibrations, also helping to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on sensitive equipment like chillers. If you’re using an internal pump you can just stick to the usual high quality silicone tubing to isolate noise and vibration.
But if you’re using something much larger like a Reeflo or Dolphin external water pump, Proco has fittings that start at 1.5″ pipe diameter for $56. You can get these expansion joints all the way up to 12 inch diameter for more than $500. We all know how loud the heavy duty external water pumps can be so hopefully, the use of Proco Expansion Joints can help reduce and minimize overall system noise. [Proco]
