really, the sound of bubbles bother you???

[Magnum Man]

so I get the appeal of a completely quiet aquarium... but I actually find the sound of bubbles to be an appealing white noise ( like those relaxation sound tracks, people pay good money for ) now the sucking noises the hang on back filters make, when the water level gets too low, I don't find relaxing, and that motivates me to keep the tanks topped off, even if I am busy ( only requires moving the fill hook to the offending tank, and the push of a button to fill ) But. I find the sound of the bubbles on a properly filled tank, to be a soothing sound...

 

[Whitecloudminnowguy09]

I have 3 tanks in my bedroom, a great white noise for sure, I love it.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

It isn't the sound of bubbles which is annoying it is the buzzing of the airpump that is so. I use a few tricks which often can deal with this.

1. Place a piece of foam under the air pump. I tend to use Poret as it is a rigid rather than a soft foam. In some places I will surround the pump with the foam.
2. When using a smaller air pump for single tank use I often hang it by the power cord so it dangles in the air without touching a hard surface.
3. I prefer not to use them in the bedroom unless I can make them virtually silent.

My water levels almost never get low. It takes more than a week for the water level in my tanks to drop so you can see that is has. If I miss a weekly water change in the winter when heating causes more evaporation I may have to top up a tank. But this is a pretty rare thing.

What actually gets loud for me is when the water level in a tank using a canister filter drops so the spraybar output gets pretty noisy .

 

[GaryE]

My youngest daughter had a bedroom on the 2nd floor of our house til she was 10 or so, and now can't sleep without a fan or a mechanical noise. We had a forced air heating system, and the bubbling of my then fishroom down in the cellar carried upwards through the ductwork. I didn't even think of it, or notice it for a while, but there you have it.

I use no spraybars and only one diaphragm pump for the brine shrimp. It makes more noise than the two large linear piston pumps combined. The noise isn't the machines, it's the actual bubbles from a lot of box and sponge filters. I don't mind it, but in the house, it would be a bit much.

I like listening to music in the fishroom, but the bubbling does limit the genres and the sound quality from the cheap speakers.

 

[lottabubbles]

I like the sound of bubbles, like camping out beside a flowing stream.
if the sound of the vibrating air pump is a bother, you wouldn't believe the sound of the old 1950's aquarium piston air pump.

 

[GaryE]

I like the sound of bubbles, like camping out beside a flowing stream.
if the sound of the vibrating air pump is a bother, you wouldn't believe the sound of the old 1950's aquarium piston air pump.

I see your 1950s pump, and raise you three partially torn diaphragm pumps from the 90s.

I had a German made pump with leather in the diaphragm - probably 1950s. I found it in a shed I was cleaning out, and didn't know its story. It ran silently and with lots of air for its size for many years, til it started burning one evening.

 

[lottabubbles]

those old piston air pumps used a leather seal that you had to put drops of oil on. really messy if you handled It as time went on.
they cost $45 back in 57 and that was a lot of money back then.

 

[Back in the fold]

I like the sound of bubbles, like camping out beside a flowing stream.
if the sound of the vibrating air pump is a bother, you wouldn't believe the sound of the old 1950's aquarium piston air pump.

Oh Man ! I loved the sound those made . A friend’s Dad had one and it absolutely fascinated me as a kid . The belt that drove it was fun to watch as the piston went in and out . I’d love to find one and rebuild it and use it .
As for diaphragm air pumps I am shocked that most of the newer ones are throwaway’s . I have one that cost me $30 bucks and it stopped working . I contacted the distributor and was told they don’t sell replacement diaphragms . That’s a rite of passage in this hobby - replacing a diaphragm .

 

[lottabubbles]

I've had my Fluval Q2 vibrator air pump for quite a few years. I've re bellowed it once and those parts are on amazon.
this is the quietest pump I've ever seen.

 

[emeraldking]

really, the sound of bubbles bother you???​

Oh man, in some way I find the sound of bubbling relaxing...

 

[f_luxus]

My aversion to any aquarium noise led me to delve deeply into filterless aquariums. Best regards, Felix the Pump Grinch

 

[jaylach]

I am currently using two Whisper 20 air pumps to drive my under gravel filtration and both pumps run full blast.

My tank is in my living room so the TV is on when I'm there. Unless I'm watching a movie such as Avatar or Independence Day that sort of requires decent volume to fully enjoy, the volume is at a fairly low level. I can hear absolutely nothing from either bubbles or the pumps and the tank is right next to me, less than 3 feet away.

No tank in my bedroom but, if I did, mayhaps I wouldn't need my white noise machine to sleep as the tank's pumps might be enough. LOL! After living 5 blocks from the coast in Jacksonville Beach Florida for 12+ years I got so used to the sound of the surf at night that I can't sleep well if it is totally quiet.

As to piston air pumps, when I was a young teen, my grandfather gave me one for my very first tank, call it 1967-1968 and the pump was fairly old when I received. It was a 2 apposed cylinder pump that I want to say that the compression rings were felt but may have been leather. What was cool was that each cylinder had a small oil reserve cup on top so there was no issue or mess with keeping the rings moist. Not even close to the exact same but it was something like the following but with another cylinder. I wish I still had that pump as it was the best I've ever owned. I'd bet dollars to donuts that it would still run today. May have to had to replace the motor and, I'm sure, the felt/leather/ compression rings but I have no doubt that it could still be in use.

 

[lottabubbles]

I wish I had a pic of the pump we used to have. that drive shaft and motor look larger than ours. our fly wheel seemed larger. it put out a lot of air for our little 12 gal tank. I had one of those hinged clam shell big bubble trinkets. about every 10 seconds it belched out a big bubble and it would slowly flutter back down. watching it kept me out of trouble doing something else.
being this warm for Christmas Eve allowed me to clean my aquarium filter outside today Whoop!!

 

[jaylach]

I wish I had a pic of the pump we used to have. that drive shaft and motor look larger than ours. our fly wheel seemed larger. it put out a lot of air for our little 12 gal tank. I had one of those hinged clam shell big bubble trinkets. about every 10 seconds it belched out a big bubble and it would slowly flutter back down. watching it kept me out of trouble doing something else.
being this warm for Christmas Eve allowed me to clean my aquarium filter outside today Whoop!!

Something that many don't realize with air pumps is that they should be placed above the water level of the tank. If placed below the tank, and there is a power failure, the pump can actually act like a siphon and drain the tank.,, rare but a risk Of course there are one way insert valves to prevent this but they tend to also cut down the air flow a lot.

 

[jaylach]

Oh, another thought on air pumps... Say that you use one but it puts out more air than wanted. So you use a valve to cut the air flow. The back pressure makes the pump operate louder than it would with no valve restriction. Simple solution is to use a "gang valve". One with two outlets is sufficient for a single pump. You connect the pump to the valve and close one output with the other wide open to the tank. Then you just crack the other output valve to let air escape to where you have the air flow you actually want in the tank. This allows the pump to operate at full output which is quieter that restricting. These are the stainless steel two output valves that I use. I suggest using stainless valves as the cheaper plastic ones tend to be garbage.

Here is what I use. The black rubber cap to the left covers access to an air line that can be used to add more valves.