Hi guys,

just put bubble wall in my tank,and the air pump is sooo loud ! its Ghost 3 : GHOST 3 - Air pump [WL203] - £33.69 : Henley Water Gardens, The Dependable Aquatic and Pond Professionals!
The tank is in my living room,and its just too loud .

I got another tank upstairs,which has got this air pump : discount hydroponics supplies porus pipe - Hytec Hydroponics
It is loud aswell.but not that much,and because this tank is upstair it doesnt matter to me.
I also noticed that on the one that upstairs,it says running @ 40 dcb , does this tell how loud it is ?

So can anyone recommend airpumps that are silent ?

Oh,and are airpumps(air bubbles) usefull for fish/plants and does it matter how many litres an hour of bubbles it makes?
The reason i ask,is the one i got upstairs makes 96 litres per hour,and the one i got downstairs ( really LOUD) makes 420 litres per hour , which is probably why its so loud .
and if it hasnt got any benefits to fish and/or plants then i could just get pump that makes less and shouldnt be that loud ?

i have my fish tank in my room and your not the only person with that annoying sound.. i fixed mine buy putting in a cuborad under the tank.. but i also made a wooden box around it with just holes for power and my 2 airlines and that worked really well.. not 100% silent but alot more than normal anyway

You could make a box and insulate it some how. Do you need an air pump? I have a planted tank with good filtration and surface agitation, an air pump is not needed....

I wonder how an insulated shoes box would work???? just an idea.

Very good idea - i was thinking about same thing - put it in a box or something . If it worked for you - it should work for me aswell .

Harveyja,i am not sure if i NEED airstone,but i do like bubbles,and i got this really nice airstone,its like 2 in 1 ,it has got bubble wall and 18 LED light on top of it, 9 blue and 9 white,so it looks really nice at night

I have 1000 litres per hour filter which is more than enough for my 100 litre tank,so i am not using airpump to replace my filter,but i am still not sure if has any benefits for fish and/or plants , which is why i asked about it.

So looks like Rena or Tetra Whisper are the one to look out for .

Anyone owns these ? Any comments ?

Thank you

I have several Rena's, nice and quiet, but spendy. Tetra Whisper's are garbage in my opinion.

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29 Gallon Freshwater
20 Gallon Freshwater

I have a whisper,and its silent.It does humm a little,but the rubber feet help.Its not so loud its annoying,IMO.I also have an aqua culture and its as silent as the whisper.

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Wrap it in sponges. I hate this noise and this is why I replaced it with a power filter. AQUEON brand for 10 gallons and for 29 gallons tanks. It is quiet and it does the oxygenation well enough.

i am not talking about the filter here . i am asking about airpump for bubble wall

Sound like it looks cool :-). With your filter setup, imo, an airstone will have no added benefit to your fish or plants. Not sure if you know so sorry if im telling you to suck eggs, but you want to cycle your water about 5 times an hour. So as you mentioned you are well up...... as long as you have good agitation on the surface you will have a well oxygenated tank. See if you can get some dense foam and wrap it up and up in a box. As long as it can breath and heat is not an issue you'll be surprised how you can dampen the noise level.

I noticed with my pump that it got quieter when I squeezed it, so I used a really tight rubber band (the kind that comes around grocery store broccoli stalks) to secure a bunch of cotton balls (pulled out so they're more flat) to "squeeze" the pump, and that helped a bit. Probably not as much as the insulated box idea, but only takes about 3 minutes and stuff you probably already have to give it a try. If possible, you might also experiment with putting it on different surfaces, as some may be more vibratey/sonorous/loud than others.

Good luck!

The loudness could also be coming from restricting the air flow. Do you let the air pump go full blast or have your turned it down a bit? If you have turned down the flow, you need a splitter, so you can bleed off the air that's being restricted.

Before we knew this, our air pump was incredibly loud. We found out from the guy at the LFS that it's the air getting backed up into the pump. If you don't bleed it off, then it will be really loud and also wears out the pump very quickly.

If you haven't restricted the air flow, then I guess it is the pump..... and nothing I just said is helpful, lol.

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Interesting, I actually find my pump to be much louder when *not* restricted. Depends on the pump, perhaps. I had wondered about whether restricting the flow was bad for pump life though.

Put padding underneath of any type of about a half inch thick and the noise will mostly go away. Dry cellulose sponges can work.

Thank you guys for all your help

i will just buy Rena pump.cos i really cant cope with this noise :D

Will let you know if its any good,and because airpump hasnt got any benefits for my fish/plants i will buy smallest one , i think its 50 litres per hour .

Thanks again guys