How loud (or quiet) is your tank?

[ScubaSkeets]

I have always been using an Eheim AC pump for my return. Between the sound of that, and not getting my gate valve on the drain pipe quite dialed in, causing a gurgling sound, my tank was never as quiet as I wanted it to be.
Yesterday, I changed out the Eheim pump to a DC controllable pump. The pump is silent, and I am able to adjust the flow just right, so there is no gurgling sound. I cannot believe how quiet it is! The only sound coming from my tank now is from the slight hums of the protein skmmer and algae scrubber pump. If i turn those off, there is almost no sound. I have to check the water movement in the DT to ensure it's actually on
So, how loud (or quiet) is your tank?

 

[Cthulukelele]

The loudest thing in my tank is my skimmer output, but that's because I run my sump pretty shallow.

 

[CasperOe]

I keep my tanks in a separate room in the house, so I never really worried too much about the most quiet equipment! There's four saltwater tanks in a small room (abt. 15 m3) so some would probably say it's rather loud.

I don't notice it anymore :-)

 

[fish farmer]

I have a glass holes overflow which has slight gurgle. I prefer to have some noise so I know things are running.

I also have a pin style light timer which if everything is quiet in the room you can hear chugging along.

 

[mfinn]

I have always been using an Eheim AC pump for my return. Between the sound of that, and not getting my gate valve on the drain pipe quite dialed in, causing a gurgling sound, my tank was never as quiet as I wanted it to be.
Yesterday, I changed out the Eheim pump to a DC controllable pump. The pump is silent, and I am able to adjust the flow just right, so there is no gurgling sound. I cannot believe how quiet it is! The only sound coming from my tank now is from the slight hums of the protein skmmer and algae scrubber pump. If i turn those off, there is almost no sound. I have to check the water movement in the DT to ensure it's actually on
So, how loud (or quiet) is your tank?

When I set my 240 up 10 years ago I started with a Reefo Dart/Snapper pump as my closed loop and a Eheim 1262 as my return pump.
At the time everybody said the Reeflo pump was one of the quietest pumps of this type.
So after about 6 months, I had had enough of the constant drone those pumps made.
I swapped out the Reeflo for a Vectra L1. When I first plugged it in, I thought it was defective. Other than a little whoosh of bubbles in the tank, there was no sound. At all.
It wasn't until I could see current in the tank near the closed loop outlets.
It was dead silent.

That new Eheim 1262 was not quiet either. It was suddenly the loudest thing on the tank.
So it got swapped out with a Vectra M1.

The tank was now very quiet.

 

[dadnjesse]

My sump makes a slight water flow sound. I have two skimmers, my return and a UV with it's own pump. So 4 pumps running. My tank is in my bedroom and hardly makes any noise.

 

[Ernie Mccracken]

I ran those Eheim AC pumps for many years because they were quietest pumps I could find, but were still too noisy for my liking. Every day when I hit the "feed mode" button on my apex, it was peace on earth for 8 minutes.

I figured out that all the guys online who were calling them "silent" just couldn't hear them over all their other tank noise. My friend has a full high tech 180 reef in a small spare bedroom and I told him it sounds like a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant. He has no idea what I'm talking about.

 

[cilyjr]

My equipment is in a shed out side so the only sound is the 4 MP40s.

 

[LPS Bum]

My reef is pretty darn quiet, save for my Red Sea skimmer. That thing has an audible hum on a good day and is downright obnoxious on a bad day. And I keep it fairly clean too.

 

[icedgxe]

My tank is pretty much silent. If you walk in the room, you wouldn’t even know everything is on if it wasn’t for the water movement.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

im going through a leak test now. the only thing i have running is my return pump. all my equipment is in the basement, in the sump. I don't hear anything. Here in the living room, I do hear trickling water in the overflow. I do get A LOT of noise, like a running water faucet, behind the take as the water is passing through the gate valves. I can't figure out how to silence that. Outside of that, I hear no other noises.

 

[cilyjr]

im going through a leak test now. the only thing i have running is my return pump. all my equipment is in the basement, in the sump. I don't hear anything. Here in the living room, I do hear trickling water in the overflow. I do get A LOT of noise, like a running water faucet, behind the take as the water is passing through the gate valves. I can't figure out how to silence that. Outside of that, I hear no other noises.

You will need to either open or close your gate valve Some. Find out if it is coming from the gravity standpipe. If it is open the gate valve a tiny bit so a bit more goes through the siphon. If it's coming from the siphon close it a bit more to restrict so less air is getting pulled into the siphon.

 

[Idech]

I bought a DC pump because they are quieter. My tank is really quiet, I don’t hear much. At 8 feet, it is 32-33 db average.

My last tank was 44-45db; that’s quite a difference.

 

[ca1ore]

Light fans are the noisiest thing on my tank.

 

[NeedAReef]

jaebo dc pump, and my ATO beeping now and again is the loudest thing. I used a flow control valve on the feed line into the sump so I can easily dial in things and made a big difference. That and tuning the flow of the pump, it is super quiet.