Bought and returned a Seachem Tidal 110

[apastuszak]

It was just too loud. The sound app on my phone told me the Tidal 110 was at around 58 dB, and that's with the motor in the tank and me measuring it through the water and tank glass.

My Aquaclear 110 (with a Fluval 406 impeller shaft) was at around 45 dB.

From my Googling, 60 dB is the sound of chatter in a crowded restaurant, or an air conditioner from 100 feet away.

I'll be setting up the Aquaclear in the morning.

The return was more of a hassle than it should have been. They forced me to buy a new bag of Seachem Matrix for it, since the stuff I returned smelled "used." So, it cost me $10 to return it. But I did get them to waive the 15% restocking fee.

 

[fishorama]

The only time I notice loud filters is when the water level is low & splashy or it's been a really long while since I cleaned them, either motor noise or the AC sponges are clogged & sponges rise up until the lid vibrates. I'm sorry you had issues returning a product, that should not happen!

 

[apastuszak]

The new Aquaclear 110 seems to have a rattly impeller for some reason. The old one I have is really silent. I shall have to take it apart tomorrow and grease the impeller and shaft up and see if that helps.

I don't know if I am being hyper-sensitive about this stuff, but the noise just really bothers me, especially when I have a 55 gallon right next to my desk while I am working. I don't mind hearing a faint hum, but a loud hum is just annoying.

The AC110 I can just barely hear right now on my basement tank. I really have to focus to hear it. The one I just put in my family room is definitely rattling.

What's odd is that the two impeller look somewhat different between the two. The impeller blades on the new one are green. The old ones are white.

I did the same hack with this one I did with the old AC110. I removed the impeller shaft and replaced it with a Fluval 406 impeller shaft. That made the 110 in the basement a LOT quieter. The one in the family room, it didn't really make any difference.

 

[fishorama]

I have a tank next to my computer too but only 2 x AC 70s & a PH down low, they don't bother me except for splashing..

I may be losing some of my hearing in my 60+ years...at least according to my husband, lol. He has wife deafness, ha!

 

[apastuszak]

I'm 50, so I am sure some of my hearing is gone.

I cannot get this Aquaclear 110 to be as quiet as the one in my basement.

I've replaced the impeller with a Fluval 406 ceramic impeller. I've used silicone oil. I've used petroleum jelly. The impeller is just rattling.

 

[apastuszak]

Decided to give the Tidal 110 one more try. I was reading a thread on the Seachem forums, and their support recommended letting the filter run for a few days to see where the sound level ended up.

I decided to buy one from Amazon instead, to make returns much less of a hassle, and there was a Tidal 110 listed as "Used, Like New" for $39! So I decided to give it a try. The filters come with a 5 year warranty, and they haven't been on the market for 5 years yet, so I figure, any issues, I can get Seachem to fix it under warranty.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Andy, I wish I would have known you were thinking about one!

I have a thread on the Seachem Tidal 110 from some time ago. I got a really good deal on one online when they first came out. I don't care for this filter, although it's still in use on my 75g oscar tank. I needed the AC 110 that was originally on that tank for another setup, which is why I bought the Tidal 110 in the first place. https://aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/seachem-tidal-110-filter.286680/

 

[apastuszak]

I'm a sucker for trying out new filters. I bought a Second Nature WDF as soon as I saw it in the store (anyone even remember these things?). Also had one of the original Penguin Emperor filters when they first came out.

The filter comes with a 3 year warranty. If you register it on Seachem's website, they extend the warranty to 5 years.

It got a lot of great reviews on YouTube by some of the "big names" like pecktek, and AquaPros. But I am pretty sure that they were sent those filters for free by Seachem to drum up hype for them.

Through email exchange I confirmed with Seachem that the pad they provide is 20 ppi. That's the same density as the Aquaclear pad.

I'm thinking of trying an "all foam" setup and going with a 10 ppi pad, then a 20 ppi pad and then a 30 ppi pad.

I'm getting a "Used, like new" filter from Amazon for $39.00. Since the filters haven't been on the market for 3 years yet, I would have to assume Seachem would help me with warranty issues.

I like the IDEA of the filter. But I also saw the bypass video, where the water level was higher than the media basket and water was bypassing.

When a HOB filter gets clogged, you want the flow rate to slow down AND bypass to happen. Because if you don't, you'll end up with water on the floor. My old Whisper filters would not bypass, but instead water would pour out of the intake side back into the tank. That was a visual indicator that you needed to change the cartridge. I think the Whisper filters were actually a good design. Then Tetra bought them and cheapened them up to the point where the noise is pretty annoying and they feel flimsy.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I ordered more of the pre-cut blue sponges for my Tidal 110 a few weeks after I bought the filter. I've been running mine with 2 blue sponges on the bottom. A thin layer of filter floss and then a bag of ceramic bio media on top.

The heater clip on mine has stretched open to the point it won't hold my heater properly, so I had to resort to a mag-clip kit for this tank, like I have on most my other setups. I mostly blame the stretched out heater clip on the oscar and severum in this tank. They don't leave anything alone and bump the heater often, but after only a year of use? Meh...

In regards to noise, my Tidal 110 makes the same slight whirring noise that my AC110s do. Nothing that I would consider obnoxious, but of course that's subjective!

I power it down for every WWC and it has yet to fail to instantly fire up and begin pumping.

IMO, one of the biggest issues I think the Tidal line has, especially the 110, is the amount of black plastic that's sitting in the water compared to an AC110. The Tidal takes up more space in the tank.

 

[apastuszak]

The 110 arrived today from Amazon and I set it up.

It's loud. Just as loud as the other one. Not sure what the hell people were saying on all these videos where they said filter was silent. The noise level is annoying the hell out of me right now, and that's with the impeller housing IN the water, so I am hearing it through the water and glass.

I sent an email to Seachem tech support. We'll see how it goes. If I don't get a response in a day or two, back to Amazon it goes. I'd love to give the impeller shaft the vaseline treatment, but not while I'm making a warranty claim.

 

[apastuszak]

It is now 9:35 PM at night and the Tidal 110 sounds like an air conditioner running behind me. This noise level is completely unacceptable. I have checked it and made sure it's level.

I sent a support incident in to Seachem this morning, an hour after I set it up, and have gotten no reply as of now. If they don't respond by noon tomorrow, this thing goes back to Amazon.

How can anyone think this level of noise in an aquarium filter is even close to acceptable?

The noise level gets a tiny bit better when the lid is off, but you need to keep the lid on in order to get the nice blue popup "it's time to change the filter" feature.

My furnace is in the basement with me, and the blower motor just kicked on for the air conditioning and I can hear this over the blower motor.