Trio123

I have a 65 gallon tall (29in hieght) tank running at 78. I have a air pump running on it but it is so noisy it's driving me nuts. I live in a one room apartment so I cant get away from it, probably causes some vibrations in the water for my fish too. It's new so nothings wrong with it and I tried padding it so it would vibrate against the valence and wall but to no avail. I have gourami's which I believe prefer still water... but also plan to have an African Knife and Congo tetras which will probably require more oxygen. Any solution would be greatly apprieciated.

susitna-flower

How did you pad it? I have one that I had to set on a foam rubber pad. Another I have on a kitchen towel, the towel is under and up one side to keep it from vibrating against the wall where it is.......One is hanging on the wall, and it doesn't seem to be a problem.

COBettaCouple

What make & model is it?

Trio123

A few paper towels between it and the wall and it and the valence. And it is a Hagen Elite 803. Thanks for you help!

Allie

All of our we very noises so we just stopped using them. The battery operated ones are just as loud.

COBettaCouple

The thing to do is to have it make as little contact with other things as possible. That pump has a pretty flat bottom so unfortunately it has a lot of contact with the surface underneath it. You might try placing it on a thick towel or a pillow even and leaving no contact with the sides or top. See if that lowers it's noise level.

Trio123

I put it on top of the valence (I had it on top of the filter where it was touching both the wall and the valence) it doesnt look as nice but it is quieter. I am also turning it off at night, anything wrong with that? I dont have live plants.

Trio123

It is silent as can be now. My boyfriend had the idea to hang it on the wall! It worked and it's silent and we get to sleep now!!!

Trio123

DO NOT USE THIS TECHNIQUE!!!! I broke my air pump. It just stopped working. I havent taken it apart yet but I would guess that the pump maybe shifted from hanging and then over heated... is probably warped now.

sirdarksol

I like my Whispers. They come on long, padded feet now, instead of the flat-bottomed ones, and I never hear anything unless it bumps up against a wall.

Trio123

I will look into that if I get another air pump. Thanks.

Drea

My 2 whispers were noisy. I installed a gang valve on both. They are much quieter, and I still get good aeration, lots of bubbles, and control.

Narcicius

I need some quieter one I'll look into the ones with the longer feet, but I understand the noise it kinda ruins the calming nature of an aquarium.

Tavel

I have yet to find a suitably quiet air pump in the stores. I'm still using the orange thing that comes with the spongebob beta tanks, it's for a 5 gallon aquarium, but at least it's quiet! lol

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to get air pumps for my other aquariums...but don't have any more orange spongebob pumps. hehe

Narcicius

Sounds like the spongebob pumps are the best idea, my air pump is kept beind and below my tank so I can't really hear it over the waterfall effect from the filter. Good luck and post a comment if you find anything.

COBettaCouple

Funny enough, all our airpumps came from wally-world. The Aqua culture pumps with 2 outlets. They're inexpensive and even the ones we've been running over a year are silent.

Narcicius

I have that same aquaculture pump, I'm just not using it right now, can't find a way to stop airflow to one of the outlets.

COBettaCouple

it's not 100% perfect, but for a while I had one that I wanted to do that with so I stuck a small length of hose on it and put a bunch of tight knots in it and clamped the end with a clothespin.

BlueGreen

I have a Whisper 60 inside an oak cabinet underneath a 36g tank and it still hums louder than I would like. It is also hooked up to a 3 gang valve. I am in the process of building a red ceder box to try and help with the noise.

Does anyone turn their air pumps off at night? Any problems?

COBettaCouple

I don't turn ours off ever. Is the air pump making contact with anything, especially on the sides?

BlueGreen

No, I have it on a shelf. It just hums and when everything is off in the living room, it is fairly noisy. So, today I started to build a box out of a hard wood and maybe that will help. I just switched to a cannister about three weeks ago and started to lose fish, so I added the air pump thinking they were not getting enough oxygen.

BlueGreen

Made a box to help reduce the humming noise and it didn't help much... So, I took it out and just moved my cannister outflow to move the surface water. Hopefully, this will be enough.

COBettaCouple

I know they usually don't have good stuff, but walmart does have these Aqua Culture air pumps. we have a bunch of the 2-outlet ones around the room and they have always been very quiet.

BlueGreen

I purchased a Whisper 60 w/ 2 outlets and hummed way too loud for me. I built a box out of a hard wood to try and muffle the sound and that didn't work. So, the air pump has since been removed and placed back into the original box to collect dust. I am counting on my Eheim cannister to fulfill the job.

COBettaCouple

I've not tried whisper filters myself. We first got the AquaCulture pumps because they were cheaper and since they've worked so well for us, we haven't used any others.

Tavel

some people mentioned building a containment box to quiet the air pumps...well I suggest suspending the air pump with rubber bands (or bungee cords). Still build the box, but build it around that principle.

Computer enthusiasts use that trick on hard drives when making super silent PC's.