Silent Air Pump?

[logley]

Have a new setup in the living room, and the air pump I've got is quite loud.

Been looking at both the Rena 50 and Tetra Whisper 50.

Any one use either?? Need the quietest. Looking through google, getting mixed results.

Both are same price, but need something quiet before wife kills me.

Help

 

[ntrueman]

I have the Rena 50 in my new setup, it's located in the cabinet with the filter and I cant hear a whisper from it with the door closed. Even open its hardly noticeable!

 

[OldMan47]

I have a few Whisper air pumps and a few of the Rena air pumps. The noise levels between them are beyond any reasonable comparison. The Whisper is a stage whisper. The Renas are quiet.

 

[frothhelmet]

I have a few Whisper air pumps and a few of the Rena air pumps. The noise levels between them are beyond any reasonable comparison. The Whisper is a stage whisper. The Renas are quiet.

SOrry oldman4, could you rephrase your last post, I can't understand the language. Thanks!

 

[logley]

Have plumped for a Rena 50, as people seem to think they are similar in noise levels, but more reliable.

Thanks all

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you probably have the best shot at being quiet with the Rena from what I've read. I think we have a whisper in the closet that can be really noisy if we turn it on. Over many, many years I've always found the quest for air pumps being quiet to be unreachable despite all the talk and attempts. (One more reason to love the modern external cannister filter and spraybar!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[electric yellow]

ive gone through air pump after air pump and am also looking for a quiet one. Our cichlid tank is outside our bedroom and the humming is driving us nuts. I am moving them from a tank where i can hide the pump underneath to a tank where it will sit on the stand in open space. So a Rena is the quietest? I bought an air pump because it is meant to be the best, its a Hailea or something but its noisey as.

is it nessicary to have an air pump when we use an external filter with a spray bar etc?

 

[waterdrop]

Oh no, air pumps and the airstones and decorations they drive are almost always just decorative. The exception of course are the cases where bubble-lift is being used to move water through undergravel filters or old box filters or such.

Gaseous exchange between the air and the water takes place at the surface of an aquarium. The movement of the water at the surface is the largest factor in increasing gas exchange. The water does not have be splashed or churned in any way that makes noise. It does not even need to be moved all that fast but the overall circulation does need to be broad and the surface must be one of the parts of the circulation that are moving. Spraybars that are just below the surface accomplish this in a broad and even way. Single filter outlet pipes aimed in the surface direction can also accomplish this but may not be as even about it.

Oxygen exchange and CO2 exchange are independent of each other. Each will seek its own equilibrium. People often confuse this matter and assume if one goes up the other goes down or something like that. In an aquarium, as one moves closer to environmental balance over the years, there is a trade off in that more oxygen is nice for the fish but more CO2 is nice for the plants. Better gas exchange can sometimes improve oxygen while driving off some of the CO2 that plants would like.

Bubbles moving up through an aquarium are deceptive. When I was keeping a bunch of tanks as a teenager I always imagined that all the thousands of little bubbles were increasing the surface area and promoting better oxygen for my fish. It turns out (there was a nice long scientific explanation by bignose in the scientific section of TFF) that the bubbles are not present in the water -long enough!- to make much difference. If you do not have a filter that is strong enough or independent powerheads that are causing significant circulation then an airstone can indeed play a role in circulation as it causes water to rise where the bubbles are and sink somewhere else. This can be a nice way to move water in a tank with fish that like calmer water (like discus and angels I believe.) But in most contexts we deal with here in the beginner section, airstones and other bubble decorations are just that, decorative!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[logley]

Just to let any know who's interested, I've now reveived the Rena 50. It is very quiet, not totally, but quieter than the bubbles coming out of the airator stone. I think the airator stone is a little noiser than the when used on the old air pump, as the rena is putting more air through it (which is fine by me).

 

[arobinson1984]

I've tried several air pumps over the last 5 years and have found eheim air pumps to be the quiestest by far.

Andy

 

[OldMan47]

For clarity, Frothhelmet, a stage whisper is a whisper to the audience when you are attending a play. You can hear it anywhere in the theater.