How silent can a tank be made? And how?

R

romeorose

New member
I am thinking about getting a fish only live rock tank to house a Clownfish and some gobies, possibly a Purple Tang.

I am wanting to put this in a room where I critically listen to music, so I am wondering, just how silent is it possible to get an aquarium and what would I need to do to achieve this?

Is it bet to use some sort of wave maker or would I need a powerhead?

What is the most silent Skimmer I could use?

And if I do a wet/dry setup under the cabinet, what's best for it and the overflow/return?

In a best case scenario, will I be able to still hear any water/machinery? How much can I expect to reduce noise?
 
You can get a tank fairly quiet with the right combination of overflows, pumps, skimmer, cabinet, etc., but never truly silent. The first question I would ask is how loud do you listen to music, and what type of music? Loud or violent music especially with lots of bass, can freak the fish out, even if it happens to be classical. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if it is really soft and subtle, the noise from the tank might be too much if you have a really critical ear. I guess what I am saying is that a music room might not be the best choice for a tank, if you have other options. I will leave the best equipment choices up to others to answer, because I am fairly new to SW, so don't have a lot of experience with all the various brands.
 
Sounds like you are planning a small fowlr... you dont need a skimmer really. There arent any that are silent. If its a smaller tank, you dont need a sump either. If you want a skimmer (never hurts) a hob model is the simplest and quietest solution. If you want mechanical filtration on a fowlr (recommended), an Aquaclear 500 or two would work, depending on the size of the tank. They are virtually silent.

My kessil lights are virtually silent. Powerheads/wavemaker should be silent. The only noise from a tank like this should be from the hob skimmer..mine is fairly quiet.

Aquaclear 500, a quiet set of lights like leds, no sump, no skimmer...should be virtually silent.
 
I'm a listener as well. Been able to get tanks down to about 35db, which is pretty quiet. Requires lights with quiet fans, silent pumps and a skimmer muffler. Oh, and a herbie or BA drain system. Even so, loudest thing on these tanks was the water trickle over the weir. I had actually been able to get my big display down to 30 db, and then I bought ETM Radions which have less-than-silent fans that run 24/7. Kind of annoying.
 
I have a basic set up but with LED lights, bubble magnus curve 7 skimmer, Jebao DC return and 2 Vortec circulation pumps the only noise I have is water flow into overflow and to the sump. I have tried other circulation pumps, returns and skimmers and all had an annoying electric "buzz", especially external skimmers. I also use a tool bench silencing pad under my sump which absorbs a lot of vibration from pumps etc in there. Although not silent now it is not too distracting from TV volume.
 
I have a very similar setup to you. Bubble Magus dc skimmer, jebao dc return pump, two jebao wavemaker, and a reefbreeders led. I have a fully enclosed standard and hood with muffin fan (large computer case fan) built into the back for ventilation. The whir of the fan is the only thing audible other than a slight noise from the wavemaker. I have a bean animal overflow and it's dead silent. The DC skimmer is much quieter than the ac versions.


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I have a fish-only tank that is dead silent. It uses a large Eheim canister filter without carbon for the main filter. A second Eheim canister filter (smaller) suctions the top film with an Eheim surface extractor and has carbon and fine pad that I change regularly. Fish live for years in this setup. Fish-only tanks are very easily cared for.
 
ca1ore said:
Requires lights with quiet fans, silent pumps and a skimmer muffler. Oh, and a herbie or BA drain system.
Click to expand...

Right here.

The noise will come from the overflow system, the return pump, and the skimmer.

A herbie or bean overflow, a quiet return pump, and a DIY muffler for the skimmer are all easy to do. My lights don't have fans, although maybe they should.
 
The loudest thing on my tank is the fans on my 4 AI hydras. Not much I can do about that. They are not so loud to be an issue. Once the light cool down and the fans kick off I have a little water flowing noise, but it is not much.
 
your best bet is don't run a sump or skimmer, you don't need them in fowlr, just a powerhead or 2 for water movement.. you'll want the surface of the water to move for oxygenation but not so much you can hear it. you can have a nearly silent tank that way. and ofcourse there are some nearly silent lights out there.. the inexpensive LEDs that have no fans in them is one.. they usually make them for freshwater tanks... i have a 4' one i'm not using if you are interested.. although it's designed for a planted tank.. but I guess that will give your purple tang some algae to munch on ;) you could also use those inexpensive LED light strips.

I've run many fowlr tanks like that.
 
When I first started out before I got the coral bug, I had a tank with no sump or skimmer, just a canister filter with the outlet mellow the surface of the water. I had LED lights, but not reef ones that needed fans to stay cool. That setup was dead quiet. Even with everything turned off in the room and standing next to the tank you couldn't tell it was running. You could only tell if the AC was turned off and the room was errily quiet, then you could hear a slight hum from the canister and a bit of water noise. I swear I could hear the fish swimming it was so quiet. In order to do this, you would want a tank with a low bioload, as a canister is minimal filtration, and of course no coral as the lighting was not enough to support them.
 
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