Quiet Aquarium Filters

May 27, 2005 1:41 PM

My aquarium filter, an aqua clear 500, makes a lot of humming noise. Do you know of a very quiet filter (maybe one of those external ones?), or do you have suggestions for making it less noisy?
posted by about_time to Pets & Animals (8 answers total)

I had a Fluval canister filter that worked very well for years. It still hums, but if it's in a cabinet under the tank you can't hear it.
posted by InfidelZombie at 2:04 PM on May 27, 2005

A submersible (underwater) pump worked for me.
posted by sleslie at 2:45 PM on May 27, 2005

I have an eheim canister filter on my (90 gallon) tank. Works great, and is extremely quiet.
posted by mosch at 4:46 PM on May 27, 2005

The Penguin filters are pretty quiet. The only noise ours makes is the kind of babbling-brook sound that some people buy one of those little fountains for.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:09 PM on May 27, 2005

My mom has a Tetra Whisper filter for her 30 gallon fish tank, and it's very quiet.
posted by geeky at 8:06 PM on May 27, 2005

Go natural and eliminate the heater and filter.
posted by pracowity at 8:50 AM on May 28, 2005

Another vote here for the eheim canister filter. They are expensive, but do an excellent job and require less maintenance than others, plus they're nice and quiet.

http://www.eheim.com/
posted by freq at 11:00 AM on May 28, 2005

If you'd like to think about it a couple of days before you replace it, set the offending pump on a block of foam rubber or something. I always find the table top or whatever acts as a sounding board, and if you isolate the vibration, it'll quiet down a lot. In a pinch, stick it on an old folded towel for a couple of hours to see if it makes a difference before you make a trip to the store.
Sometimes they get louder when they get older, a rebuild kit used to be like a buck, and may help the noise. (It's just new gaskets and rubber bits.)
posted by unrepentanthippie at 1:07 PM on May 29, 2005