capekate

I love BigAls online... I must have caught them at a great sale two weeks ago. The Tetra Whisper air pump 100 went for 18.99 and that was for the '100'g rated one.. I also picked up some coralife T-5 fixtures 36' size for about 44 dollars each and when I went back a week later online they were something like 89.00 ea. So it does pay to shop during those great sale days!

AlyeskaGirl

I have a Fusion Quiet Power and a Rena Air 200, the are pretty quiet. The Rena is probly more quiet.

prairielilly

I 'usually' do too capekate...however had some troublems recently...

snowball

buy a tetra whipser 3-5 gallons. Its a airpowered filter than comes with a pump.
Take that out those are small n quiet

edlab03

im currently running a topfin on one tank and a tetra whisper on another. both are very quiet and relatively cheap. those two combined is always a good thing.

DE88ROX

Mouse pad!!!! what a great Idea!!!!!

Twice now I was at a Meijer store (its our version of wal-mart and its locally owned) and had a tetra whisper (sits on 4 rubber legs) and air lines in hand ready to buy. I always put them back because like so many on here. I hate hearing things that go hum in the night.

Im going out tommorrow and buying it. I have a few mouse pads floating around here somewhere. With the mouse pads and the pump being placed inside the aquarium cabinet I should be good to go.

AWESOME IDEA!!!!!

grump

You can always hang it with a string under the tank away from anything so it has nothing to vibrate on...This is how I stoped mine from vibrateing and driving me NUTS ...LOL Rob

Tombo

unfortunutly i dont think they sell these in america but there is a air pump called "the aqua twister 4500" i have this and it comes inside a sound proof cover and is not audible even when im standing next to the tank. however it is expensive mine cost £56.00 which is about $98.00 u.s dollars i think

dancerhas

A word about those Tetra Pumps....we bought one for our 30 gallon about 6 months ago, and it broke after about 5 months. The arm that the diaphragm is connected to is mounted by a rubber sleeve that slips inside a plastic socket (hole.) This makes for very quiet operation, because the design prevents any vibration from being transferred to the body of the pump. BUT...the plastic socket is too thin...ours broke into a bunch of pieces. Constant vibration has that effect. Anyway we've bought top-fins from here on out...they're almost (not quite) as quiet as the Tetra's and much cheaper (At Petsmart)

Just thought I'd share our experience...I hope yours is better.

prairielilly

Thought I'd update with another little tidbit I learned later rather than sooner: I've been running the Tetra Whispers since this thread and have been very happy with them - sticking it inside the aquarium stand sure doesn't hurt either. However the overall noise level also seems to have a lot to do with the actual air STONE...I had been using Elite AquaFizzz tubular airstones (recommended by Dozey) and they did the job admirably; while cleaning up one day though I had to take the stone off the tubing for whatever reason and it shattered. This had happened to me before with the Elite stones, seems they're fragile. I replaced it with a similar green one bought at Walmart, might be PennPlax. The difference in noise level was substantial - the new setup was much, much louder. Today I replaced the green stone with another Elite one; complete silence. Air stones don't cost much, I'll gladly pay for replacing the Elite ones (should they shatter) in order to get the quietness.

eiginh

I use a tetra whisper and it is super quiet! It's sitting on top of the box it came with b/c my air line tubing is pretty short so that might also be a reason why it's really quiet. The splashing water noise from the filter and airstone makes more noise than the pump. My Dad is using an aquaclear air pump and that makes me want to pull my hair out! I'm going to try using the mouse pad trick and hopefully it works!

unijabass

I got Tetra whisper, and I can't live of the humming sound it produces,
I tried everything- just to find out that humming sound is always there.
Even when I hold it, or when it hangs, or when closed in a wooden box with
towel under and around it, it's the motor that produces humming sound.
Too bad, since my fish really enjoyed the bubbles, and it is so useful, my searcc
for a better pump will go on, this one goes back!

Nutter

I use the Sonpar brand pumps & think they are fantastic. I have the smallest right up to the largest model & you just cant hear them running at all really. I actually have to touch mine to feel them viabrating gently. They last for ages, are very powerful for thier size & are the cheapest pumps I can get. As the others said though, positioning is everything when it comes to airpumps. They will all make lots of noise if they start to move around or have the cord against something.

gremlin

I put a mousepad under my air pump (when I have the tank set up in the winter). If one doesn't work, you can always use 2 or 3. Another thing that works well is the foam floor pads that you kneel on (garden store area). They are nice because they are usually water proofed. They are also thicker. If you have several air pumps that can sit in a central location, you could probably fit 3-4 on one pad. Or you can get the heavy duty rubbery rug that you stand on that is supposed to be good for your feet. I've seen those at Costco occasionally. Since they are a solid rubber, they could probably be cut to size for where ever you need them.