Aquarium equipment noise level

[m3rcfh]

Hi everyone
Been wondering if any of you ever had second thoughts about the trade off of having a beautiful piece of the ocean in your house versus the operational noise from the life supporting equipment.

I did my research for several months, upgraded equipment, took every step of containing and isolating the noise including using some Auralex foam on the wall, adding silicone tubbing and padding, but I'm still haunted by the low whirring of my Vários 4 pump at night and the Tunze Nanostream + Nyos Skimmer during the day. Don't get me wrong, these products are the quietest ones I have ever dealt with, it's just that every moving or fast spinning part has to cause some sort of noise and I get that. I'm too part of the problem as I am very sensitive to noises, and any won't let me sleep.

Curisouly my first tank I ever had had a Fluval cannister filter which produced absolutely no noise. You could not hear anything even standing right in front of the tank. I guess that would be impossible with a pump that is at least 4 times more powerful sitting on an open sump. So it leaves me wondering if upgrading to a bigger tank with sump was the right choice.

I wonder too if anybody had any non-conventional solutions to encapsule the noise in the stand without creating a mini sauna... other than moving the tank to the basement!
It also occurred to me to undersize the return pump to the very minimum as I run my Vários on the lowest power level. Smaller pump = quieter maybe?

Are there people out there that share the same experience and would like to pitch in? Or am I alone on this?

 

[hatfielj]

Which equipment is making the noise? I use a BubbleKing skimmer and a Red Dragon return pump and I can't even tell they are on they are so silent. The only noise I have is the slight sound of trickling water.
I'm also very sensitive to noise and have learned to use ear plugs and white noise at night to help me sleep. I live in the city so I have to do this to drown out the sound of traffic.

 

[m3rcfh]

Which equipment is making the noise? I use a BubbleKing skimmer and a Red Dragon return pump and I can't even tell they are on they are so silent. The only noise I have is the slight sound of trickling water.
I'm also very sensitive to noise and have learned to use ear plugs and white noise at night to help me sleep. I live in the city so I have to do this to drown out the sound of traffic.

I shut the Skimmer and wave maker off at night, as they are the loudest (Skimmer produces a surprisingly loud vibration noise, I don't get it how people reported the Nyos being silent). So the only thing running at night is the return pump, and I hear it quite well from my bedroom as the low pitch whirring echoes.

Are the red dragons really that quiet? Heard very good things about it, just don't know how quiet compared to the Varios...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Noise was a big issue for me as my wife hates it. I once asked a powerhead company how noisy their pumps were and they said they were submersed pumps so were silent. I stopped asking such questions. [emoji23]

 

[TinyChocobo]

Noise was a big issue for me as my wife hates it. I once asked a powerhead company how noisy their pumps were and they said they were submersed pumps so were silent. I stopped asking such questions. [emoji23]

Ha!

I actually went from AC pumps to DC pumps myself to help keep the noise down - and I can ramp them down [read: make them quieter] without shutting them off entirely.

Personally I find my own 'life support' systems more noisy/annoying - HVAC for example tends to be noisy.

If I could I would put the sump in a basement and have the DT on the first floor - then it wouldn't matter much how noisy it was and, if it did, I could sound insulate the area more easily.

Presently my sump is in my stand under my tank and the whole setup is in the lobby of my office. It's pretty quiet in there so I need the tank to be pretty quiet - but have gotten no complaints about it.

That said - I'd rather hear the whirr of a pump than the trickle of water.

 

[hatfielj]

I shut the Skimmer and wave maker off at night, as they are the loudest (Skimmer produces a surprisingly loud vibration noise, I don't get it how people reported the Nyos being silent). So the only thing running at night is the return pump, and I hear it quite well from my bedroom as the low pitch whirring echoes.

Are the red dragons really that quiet? Heard very good things about it, just don't know how quiet compared to the Varios...

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the red dragon pumps are PERFECTLY silent. You can not hear them when they are running. The sound of water in your overflow will be WAY louder than the sound of the pump if you can hear it at all. They are expensive, but well worth it for people trying to reduce noise and they last longer than pretty much any other pump you can find. IMO, you owe it to yourself to upgrade you return and skimmer. You'll be pleased

 

[Rick Krejci]

I despise the 110v 60hz hum of AC equipment, so I've gone over to DC pumps.

On my Reefer 250, I bought oversized DC pumps(Varios 6, Reef Octopus regal 150sss, 2x mp40) and run them on low and they are all basically silent, even with the cabinet doors open. With this setup, even sitting right next to the aquarium, I get no hum whatsoever. All I can hear is a very low rumbling of the skimmer breaking up the air, which isn't irritating to me at all.

The 250 is also adjusted so that there's no trickling sound at all even running no filter socks.

Sitting 8 feet from the tank, the sound from the fridge 25 feet away is far more noticeable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I could certainly hear my DC Tunze Streams.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I could certainly hear my DC Tunze Streams.

BUT THEY ARE SILENT!!!

 

[gcrawford]

Skimmer off at night, Varios 6 is totally silent at setting 3. All we hear is water trickling.....

 

[Neo Jeo]

My Vários 4 pump is silent. I have to check to see if its running.... I also with you. I want my silent. I went will all DC but my BRS duel retractor is a small hum. Right now my Eshopps x-160 is loud. Im looking for something else.

If your Vários 4 pump is making ANY noise, i would say its defective. Mine is SILENT. I have spent hours on making my tank quite. I have went through 4 different power head companies.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Which equipment is making the noise? I use a BubbleKing skimmer and a Red Dragon return pump and I can't even tell they are on they are so silent. The only noise I have is the slight sound of trickling water.
I'm also very sensitive to noise and have learned to use ear plugs and white noise at night to help me sleep. I live in the city so I have to do this to drown out the sound of traffic.

Im also looking for a silent protein skimmer. The BubbleKing skimmer seems to be very $. Do you know any others with a better price point?

 

[ReefNoobie88]

Water trickling is my biggest noise issue. SCA302 skimmer, varios6 on setting 2, gyres at 30%. All I hear with everything else off is the water down my overflow. This just needs to be adjusted with the emergency drain height a tiny bit more and it’ll be good in my opinion. You could try weather stripping to seal the stand doors.

 

[hatfielj]

Im also looking for a silent protein skimmer. The BubbleKing skimmer seems to be very $. Do you know any others with a better price point?

The Vertex brand is very similar to BK and I believe are made from the same components. Kind of like Acura vs Honda (BK would be Acura and Vertex would be Honda). I've heard their pumps are just about as silent as the BK.

 

[m3rcfh]

I wouldn't say it's a defective noise as in vibration or grinding, but it's definitely a low pitch humming. I can hear it on from the whole house with the minimum setting. And I do have Auralex foam behind the stand to help absorb some noise that comes out.

It's a good point though, I will try my luck with warranty.

Also Tunzes are not silent by any means, at least on my experience. I have my Nanostream 6055 set at minimum, and they vibrate like crazy. My current USA wavemaker is quieter.

 

[Neo Jeo]

I wouldn't say it's a defective noise as in vibration or grinding, but it's definitely a low pitch humming. I can hear it on from the whole house with the minimum setting. And I do have Auralex foam behind the stand to help absorb some noise that comes out.

It's a good point though, I will try my luck with warranty.

Also Tunzes are not silent by any means, at least on my experience. I have my Nanostream 6055 set at minimum, and they vibrate like crazy. My current USA wavemaker is quieter.

I found with my old return pump when I had it on a low setting it made more noise then on a high setting.

 

[Rick Krejci]

I wouldn't say it's a defective noise as in vibration or grinding, but it's definitely a low pitch humming. I can hear it on from the whole house with the minimum setting. And I do have Auralex foam behind the stand to help absorb some noise that comes out.

It's a good point though, I will try my luck with warranty.

Something must be out of balance, since you wouldn't be getting the normal 60 hz humming from a DC pump. I'd try to make sure your impellers are clean and not bent and, if nothing else, exchange it under warranty.

 

[m3rcfh]

Something must be out of balance, since you wouldn't be getting the normal 60 hz humming from a DC pump. I'd try to make sure your impellers are clean and not bent and, if nothing else, exchange it under warranty.

I'm glad I made this post, I thought that the low noise was normal with the Varios. I am definitely going to open her up and check the impeller and exchange the pump it if required. I got it from Amazon, and the original box came in destroyed. Makes me wonder if it was a replacement from somebody already... Hope CoralVue will take care of me after running it for some months.

Now it made me wonder if my Nyos Skimmer pump is bad too. It vibrates way too much. Initially I thought it was the lid making noise, but I got that taken care of and still sounds like a microwave.

Part of my issue is that coming from different pumps and skimmers I tested these are the quiestet by far. So it made me think that it can't get any quieter without spending 600+ dollars on a pump (which would probably be grounds for divorce at this point). Maybe it can get quieter and I just got bad products... I hope I didn't fill my heart with hopes again for nothing

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

I set all my pumps and skimmer on these things. Helps to dampen the noise/vibration:
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Ank...=1522088692&sr=8-4&keywords=silicone+pot+pads

 

[Tamberav]

When I had larger tanks with sumps and larger equipment, I had some audible noise although it did not seem to bother me. I moved and switched to AIO tanks and now have complete silence. The nano skimmer makes no audible noise, the lights have no fans, the MP10's/gyres are ran on very low settings so they have no whirring sound, ect. While I wasn't overly bothered with the noise before, I do enjoy the silence more-so.

I guess if a person had a tank in the bedroom and needed silence, a small AIO would be a solution to that, you don't even need skimmers, ect if you don't want since water changes are effective. My tanks are around 10-25 gallons. Of course it limits you on fish stock but if a person likes SPS, it has been shown by many beautiful nano's that more difficult corals can be kept.