View Full Version : Long term effects of loud water?
hineigger
11-10-2003, 3:57 PM
I was wondering if there were long term effects of loud water.
Some people have completely silent tanks. Outlets from filters are well underwater and theres no bubbles, and surface agitation is just minimal from a power head. Those tanks are cool... My 7g is like that. Completely silent.
But my indoor pond is VERY loud. The filter outlet is a long waterfall drop. Not a waterfall that 'flows' to the water, but we're talking a DROP. So it hits hard and loud. It must be very loud under the surface.
Are there long term effects to this? Will fish act weird if one day the pond goes silent?
Interesting question... As some people have loud tanks and some have completely silent.
aquariumfishguy
11-10-2003, 4:30 PM
If your asking if the fish will go deaf, or if your tank will fall apart because of "noise", the answer is 'no'. :D
...And as for those with completely silent tanks,
They should either clean the filter they have out or upgrade to a larger one! Your filter should cause "noise", and infact should upset the surface of the water. Despite how peaceful fish seem with little to no agitation, they actually do better in most cases if the water is well "stirred".
OrionGirl
11-10-2003, 4:38 PM
While I don't think the sounds associated with most filters is disturbing to fish (once acclimated, newly introduced fish may differ), I don't agree that a tank must have it. My tank at work is silent, yet the surface is moving around and the fish are all healthy. Tanks at home vary from a few splashes to water thundering through PVC. All are as quiet as I can make them, and none suffer from inadeqaute filtration or water movement.
mogurnda
11-10-2003, 5:24 PM
Your filter should cause "noise", and infact should upset the surface of the water. If one is clever, one can get an awful lot of circulation with very little noise. My 20 nano is turned over >20 times/hr, with a ton of surface movement and surge , but the closed loop system makes very little noise. The skimmer makes a bit of a racket, though. Anyway, my point is that splash, which generates noise, and surface turnover, which aerates the tank, can be easily separated.
Furthermore, planted tanks should have very little surface agitation.
my new filter makes me wanna pee
That has to be one the strangest statements I have seen on this board, which is saying a lot. There is no necessary correlation at all between noise and the quality of filtration, filter clean status or lack thereof, or even oxygenation. I have to guess that the individual drawing such a peculiar conclusion has never had anything but HOBs or conventional-flow powerhead driven UGs.
Not one of my display tanks makes any noise whatsoever, and if should do so, the offending component would be repaired or replaced.
Captain Hook
11-10-2003, 6:33 PM
Originally posted by mogurnda
Furthermore, planted tanks should have very little surface agitation.
I have heard of this to not let out CO2 but what if you have a planted tank without CO2 injection? I'm plannin on having a 20high with a AC mini (doesn't disturb surface much if water level is kept high). I'll be adding Flourish Excel and want to try the tank without an airstone.
aquariumfishguy
11-10-2003, 7:27 PM
Let me put my previous comments this way-
For the majority of us who either have A. a noisy filter. B. a noisy airstone C. a noisy skimmer D. a noisy powerhead E. a noisy fish, we can't get a perfectly silent tank. RTR, I find it strange that you limited my filtration options by what you read from my previous comments because I have many different filtration devices at home. I find HOB's to be rather quiet while some of my others are kind of bothering. :cool:
Perhaps the most logical reason for my previous post what this comment: "Outlets from filters are well underwater and theres no bubbles, and surface agitation is just minimal from a power head."
...surface agitation which gets cut down to a bare minimal for noise concerns is usually not a good thing...and is usually related to a cut back in filtration or no air stone (which isnt a big issue but some fish do well with these).
The need for airstones or surface disturbance vanished along with my youth - quite a long time ago - with the advent of reasonable engineering in filters and the abandonment of air-driven filters.
The concept that a machine or device must make noise to be functional is barbaric. None of my tanks are noise makers and have not been for decades. I have serious doubts that any of my setups or individual fish have suffered in any manner from this. As stated in my prior post, there is no obligate correlation between noise and clean filters or otherwise, or between noise and good oxygenation, or for that matter between noise and current.
I am aware there are plenty of noise-generating devices in the hobby. My point is that noise is not a requirement for filters or pumps and their assembly into setups exactly matched to the requirements of the fish and/or plants to be housed there. Confusing the existence of other than quiet machines with the nature of the job they do is fallacious and may be misleading to less knowledgeable or experienced hobbyists.