Stereo and Fish tanks - noisy need help

I used to run a 160 gal saltwater tank. But I had all of my power filters in the garage about 20 feet away. I was able to run the plumbing thru the wall (unusual floor plan) but you could run it under the house if you have a raised foundation w/wood floor. I also used multiple in line canister type filters. The only noise from the tank was nominal and was from a small airflow I put into the tank to help with water circulation. The water from the garage flowed into the tank on the bottom into an under the sand filter to keep the sand aerobic. The best part of this system was it was really easy to make water changes in the garage. A bit of a fussy set up but once done it was quite easy if operating a salt water tank could ever be easy - :-). But I was able to keep several varieties of fish as well as crustaceans.

Sort of like setting up and maintaining a high end audio system. You've got to love it to do it. And its expensive too.

If you can't do something elaborate, I think about the best way to do it is to get some of the canister filters under the tank and send their outflow to the underground filter. That way you do not need to have the airflow coming up thru the tubes on the ends of the filters which IMHO makes all of the noise which you can't otherwise avoid. The bursting bubbles are noisy even if you manage to get the motor noise damped down.

You might google up some info on how to set up a filter system and get some other ideas. I believe there are books on this subject as well.

Have fun!

hi. i run a 6 foot by 3 foot tank in my listening room. the tank is tropical set up and has three power filters keeping the water clean. the power pumps are housed in cabinets below the tank. they are fluval pumps so by no means top of the range, but work very well. the pumps do generate some noise. to reduce the output noise from the cabinet i have lined the inside of the cabinets with polystyrene sheets and this has helped to keep the noise very low. i also check for air in the filters which increse noise levels. in any case the noise is not that much, but it is noticeable when the room is quiet. it is good to avoid air stones and such as theire pumps are cheap and very noisy, unless you get a wheel type pump which are very expensive.

The most important question is what type of fish you keep. If you have a fresh water plant tank or a general low bio load, I recommend a quality canister filter like Eheim or RENA. Fluvals leak.....period. If you have Cichlids, well that's a different story.

I've used Fluvals for decades. Never had a leak.

Compact floursecent lights, Eheim canister filter. Use a spray bar near the top of your tank to handle surface water agitation without all the noise...