lambo Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Hi all. Currently i have two 2ft tanks operating side by side on a stand, along with a 60 litre 'all in one' tank located elsewhere. The all in one tank currently contains fusca, one of the 2ft tanks contain some guppies, and the other is empty. All tanks are located in my bedroom. The filters running on the tanks are keeping me awake at night, and after putting up with it for months, it is time to try and fix this problem. I plan to relocate the fusca pair into the empty two foot tank, allowing me to turn off the all in one unit. That should save some noise. To do this the empty two foot tank needs a filter. The guppy tank is running on an old and cheap internal filter, that needs replacing. I figure i have two options. I could either buy an air pump and two air filter sponges for each tank, or two separate internal pump filters. Does anyone have any recommendations on which setup would make less noise, and what brands/models i should look out for (will most likely buy online)? I am happy to pay whatever price for a decent night of sleep. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 I had a similar problem. 4 tanks and it was like sleeping in a cauldron The fluval internals are the quietest I found, followed by the cannisters. The internals aren't great for messy fish, but for fusca and guppies they should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Wouldnt it be easer just to turn them off at night ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bren MacFish Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 I have hung air pumps off shelves, dangling in mid air they make less noise, or I sit them on foam. The water pumps just have to be turned off in order to sleep thru them, but they are quieter if you take them apart and clean them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beano Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 I use internal power filters. Even the cheap ones seem to be really quiet. My oscar tank has one and without the air intake pipe out of water you can't really tell it's on except the plants move. I have one extremely noisy air pump which I had a bubble curtain hooked up to, but I turned it off at night. I think you can buy quiet aerator pumps but they cost a lot of money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooshoo Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 Internal power filters certainly create the least noise in my experience. I have a 2ft with an internal filter and a 2.5ft with corner filters run via airpumps in my bedroom and i have to turn the air pumps right down at night in order to sleep through them. The 2.5ft always get dirty far quicker than the 2ft despite being less stocked than the 2ft! If you're going to be running an airpump in either tank during the day for aeration purposes then in might make most sense to use a small corner filter as an internal power filter in each tank and simply turn off the airpumps at night. That way you still have continuous filtration and you're not compromising the quality of your water either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canary Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 I have an internal filter in my 3ft tank which I've been happy with. Much quieter than the airpump I had previously. I have heaps of plants so I haven't worried about aeration and don't have one of those airlines hooked up to the filter (they make a bit of noise as well). IMHO I think that you can get away without airlines and airstones if you find a balance between fish stock and plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 you can't turn them off at night. the bacteria in the filter are aerobic. If you turn the filter off at night, the bacteria in the filter will probably die, shortly followed by your fish. Also, plants respire at night. If you turn filters off at night and surface movement ceases as a result, you risk O2 in the water being used up by the fish and plants (assuming you have plants), and the fish suffocating. Suffocation's not a huge risk IME, but if you did have a plunge in dissolved O2 at the same time as a bacteria die-off and an ammonia spike due to the filter being switched off, your fish would be stressed even further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooshoo Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 again a plus for being able to air driven filters down to reuce noise, as apposed to off completely. Still an advocate for the use of smaller internal power filters though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 I just shake my head and even think why bother commenting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 sorry Michael, did I miss something? you asked why not turn them off. I gave a reason. That's what the forum is here for - so we can discuss. I for one don't want to just blindly accept that there is only one right way to do things. I am sorry you feel that your comments are not welcome. Maybe if you didn't just pose the question and leave it at that, but gave some reasons as to why you think that it would be harmless to turn the filter off, we could all benefit from your knowledge. Seriously, I am not being sarcastic. I realise you don't use filters and you have great success with your method, but if lambo has cycled filters in his tanks and has enough fish that he needs to run a filter on them, then to my way of thinking there will be bacteria in the filter and it is likely to die when its O2 is removed, and when it dies it's likely to pollute the tank. If there were no filters in there to start with, and you had enough bacteria on surfaces that you didn't need a filter, or if the pH was so low that ammonia wasn't toxic and bacteria wouldn't function anyway, then you wouldn't experience a night-time die off if you cut off the oxygen supply. I am assuming that lambo's pH is not that low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted March 24, 2007 Report Share Posted March 24, 2007 The die-off problem seems to be less of an issue with internals than it does with things like canisters and HOBs due to the water volume, but I still wouldn't want to go that way if it could be avoided. Hanging air pumps works well, and if you need to reduce air pump noise even more, pop a square of bubble wrap over the spot where the bubbles break to stop the "pop" being so loud. This is probably a step in the right direction for gas exchange anyway as breaking the water surface too much tends to just shake everything out. Nice ripples apparently work much better :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooshoo Posted March 25, 2007 Report Share Posted March 25, 2007 mmm ripples.... i'm thinking i might go and chuck some bubble wrap in there now! darn that noisey filter of mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VickiPS Posted March 25, 2007 Report Share Posted March 25, 2007 I certainly agree with the recommendation to go with internal power filters. Resun have a good range of internal power filters: for my money they're excellent value -- quite cheap, but I've found them very reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 Ive also found the Resun internal filters are pretty good, are the tanks planted? could you get away with just a powerhead? If you go for a cannister dont believe what everyone says about Eheim being the most quiet, i can hear my 2215 much to my displeasure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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