Any noise from aqua metric reeflex cube?

Nope, they are pretty quite iirc. I have some of there older m80 ballasts and even they are quiet but when I did installs we put these into a person who claimed he was "the most sensitive person to noise on the planet" which I agree with. He kept hearing a hum at night and swore it was the tank... ended up being a valve 3 stories down on his radiant floor system. Nobody else could hear it. He never complained about the ballasts.
 
I just hooked up a brand new 250 and the only sound is the fan, not loud but it is audible.
 
hmmmm, my tank is nearly silent. does it look like you can open the box, possibly replace the fan with something quiet? I am highly intolerant of noise.
 
I am intolerant of noise as well, I have gone to great lengths to choose exceedingly quiet equipment, the fan is not an issue for me. The benefits of having it outweigh the slight sound it makes.
 
I think that you would struggle to find something more quiet. I have had a lot and these are pretty good for HQI. An icecap electronic was quieter, but obviously not a HQI ballast.
 
Well I am going to be the odd one out and say I found them too noisy. However, that does not mean you cannot replace the fan (very easy to access) with a quieter fan either DC or AC.

Please also keep in mind I almost have the hearing of a dog, and I am hypersensitive to noise. I also need an AC or fan on to sleep.... but I never said I was normal.

I just ran my AquaMedic Reeflex 250w ballast. I am in my basement, on a dead silent work PC with no other noises whatsoever. Running the ballast out in the open, I can easily hear it 33 feet away...where it is as loud there as a "typical" desktop PC. Runningit enclosed would be far more tolerable. I could probably hear it 40 feet away, but ran out of room in the basement to measure.....yes I actually pulled out a tape measure :)

I run a Sunlight Supply BlueWave dual 250 M80 ballast(identical ballast to Reeflex) in the same part of the basement. It uses no fans at all, and I cannot hear the ballast from more than 3 feet away...even then it is the faintest "humming" sound. There is a good 5 minutes of warm up where I can hear it, maybe 10 feet away tops but it slowly fades to near silence.
 
I keep mine in my stand, no it isn't silent but with the doors closed I cannot hear it, I am like James, I can hear two crickets in heat from 3 blocks away. My old Hamilton had no fans, but did buzz, which was severely irritating.
 
Two crickets in heat? Not sure which I would rather hear, the ballast or that :)

If you want to know just how bored I am tonight, I just put the ballast in an empty metal cabinet drawer that I shut, save for the amount the cord keeps open. 6-7 feet away I cannot hear it at all, and it is more than tolerable 1-2 feet away.....I would have no problem with the noise at 1-2 feet away.
 
Jack and Jim, thanks for the feedback. I have found my obsessive compulsive noise issues to be aligned with Jim's hypersensitivity in the past...I got my stand sound proofing idea from him some years ago.

I have been running a 175w electronic ballast for years, dead silent. I'd like to switch to a Radium 250w bulb, hence the new ballast.

I'll look into bluewave ballasts. Since they have no fan, i assume they run pretty hot? Longevity issues?
 
rishma said:
Jack and James, thanks for the feedback. I have found my obsessive compulsive noise issues to be aligned with James' hypersensitivity in the past...I got my stand sound proofing idea from him some years ago.

I have been running a 175w electronic ballast for years, dead silent. I'd like to switch to a Radium 250w bulb, hence the new ballast.

I'll look into bluewave ballasts. Since they have no fan, i assume they run pretty hot? Longevity issues?
Click to expand...

Not as hot as you would think, I have found them to be only slightly warm to the touch after running for hours. They are no longer made( the BlueWave ballasts), but I cannot see why any other M80 ballast would be fine after removing the fans. It would not be a hazard, maybe slightly reduced life. You could also retro some silent 12v computer fans into the Aquamedic and reap the best of both....though you would need a 12v adapter added. They are rock solid as far as life, they will last years with or without fans.

Glad to see there are more people out there as OCD as I am about noise :). I have moved towards more silent equipment rather than soundproofing...though I still have it in place.
 
ashamed to admit it, but I choose silence over performance regularly. I run an undersized skimmer because it is the quietest one I could find...but nitrates were zero tonight so perhaps it is just the right size.

I just found that the bluewave ballast are not available.

I think the issue is the ballast overheating the capacitor used for starting. Heat is bad for them. It seems the blue wave used some kind of shielding.

I run Noctura computer fans to cool as needed. I suppose I could rig one up, though I am at capacity for plugs in my stand. I don't want another project.
 
I am bad about noise, I have replaced brand new ceiling fans before because I could hear the motor hum, Toni couldn't hear it but I could. I once heard termites in a wall, showed the exterminator exactly where they were, he was impressed and I was right.

It is difficult to make an aquarium silent, some equipment you just cannot, but you can deaden and muffle the sound to an acceptable level. If I stick my head in the sump I can hear the skimmer recirc pump, so I leave the doors shut and it muffles it enough to not be heard.
 
I don't have any super hearing powers, I think I am just unreasonable (at least that is what my wife tells me). I will say my tank is quieter than any other reef I have ever heard. There is such a range of what people find acceptable. Many say their vortech's are silent...for example

Any fans better than Noctura these days?
 
The Noctura is a good fan, not sure if there are better ones or not, never looked into it, my PC is buried under a desk and the sound of the mini split in the office drowns out any sound it would make.
 
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