My Fluval 305 has never really been what I call silent, there was always a loud hum and intermittent rattle coming from which you never really noticed during the day. Things got to a head when my wife started complaining that she could hear it humming away in the middle of the night, something which I'd never noticed but she was right, I could hear it from my bedroom upstairs so something had be done.
First thing I did was to give it all a clean and then lube everything up inside. Put it all back together and the thing sounded even louder. Now I have a fear of the thing leaking so I've got it sat in a bucket in the stand so I thought I'd try putting some foam underlay under the bucket. Not much difference at all. I also tried removing the bucket but again no difference.
Next I decided to route the pipe so that they always rose towards the tanks, again no joy but whilst routing the pipes I noticed that the pipes were now tight against the stands back panel edge so decided to add some underlay foam between the pipe and back panel to protect the pipe. At this point I noticed that the noise levels were definitely now lower so had a look behind the tank and saw that the flow and return pipes were resting in some places against the wall. So I decided to cut some more foam underlay and put it between the wall and the pipes and what a difference this had made.
I can no longer hear the filter from my bedroom but also now when in the lounge with the tv turned off I can't even hear the filter, you now have to get within 2 feet of the tank and listen out for it to notice.
Sorry for long, non problem post but thought it might be useful to others, the above has been stuff I've done over the course of a week, so for me it wasn't an instant fix. The foam underlay I used is the stuff you use under laminate flooring, around 3m thick and comes in a roll.
First thing I did was to give it all a clean and then lube everything up inside. Put it all back together and the thing sounded even louder. Now I have a fear of the thing leaking so I've got it sat in a bucket in the stand so I thought I'd try putting some foam underlay under the bucket. Not much difference at all. I also tried removing the bucket but again no difference.
Next I decided to route the pipe so that they always rose towards the tanks, again no joy but whilst routing the pipes I noticed that the pipes were now tight against the stands back panel edge so decided to add some underlay foam between the pipe and back panel to protect the pipe. At this point I noticed that the noise levels were definitely now lower so had a look behind the tank and saw that the flow and return pipes were resting in some places against the wall. So I decided to cut some more foam underlay and put it between the wall and the pipes and what a difference this had made.
I can no longer hear the filter from my bedroom but also now when in the lounge with the tv turned off I can't even hear the filter, you now have to get within 2 feet of the tank and listen out for it to notice.
Sorry for long, non problem post but thought it might be useful to others, the above has been stuff I've done over the course of a week, so for me it wasn't an instant fix. The foam underlay I used is the stuff you use under laminate flooring, around 3m thick and comes in a roll.
