In Tank noise levels

[Jeff72]

Good Morning All,

I am new to the forum, but have been using it for reference for a few years now. I am no expert when it comes to reef keeping, but not a complete novice either. I have been doing this for about 6 years now.

I have a question about the noise levels in the tank. I am sure the noise in mine must be causing stress.

I have a 90 gallon reef. Set up almost one year ago on Jan 1, 2014. ATI pro gamble lights, bubble mag skimmer, equipment sump, separate refugium (or pod tank! - depending on the opinion of the day!) about, 125 - 135 gallons water total in system. Roughly 200 - 250 lbs live rock in system (I had a lot of live rock from two previous larger systems, but I didn't keep track of what/how much I put in this one) not much for live stock right now. Hammer head, aus elegance. Various paly's and Zoas. Two ocellaris, one blenny, one Mandarin (just introduced - very healthy supply of pods) one dwarf coral beauty, two fire blood shrimp. With much more planned in the very near future.

everything seems to be nicely settled at this point and ready to be stocked. Mostly sps, a few low flow areas for LPS. No softies in this one. I have tested for mag, kal, ph, alk, cal, about two months ago, everything was good. Should be - not much there to change it in this tank yet.

For water movement - one corner over flow, with a return. Mag 9.5 on the return. The refugium is taken from the entrance side of the equipment sump and returned to the opposite side, by passing the skimer and directly beside the overflow return. In tank there are two korillias 1150 and 1450 and one MP40w. The mp40 just replaced two other korillias of same sizes.

My question in all of this is this: how much in tank noise is too much?

It was much quieter in tank with the 4 korillias going. Now with the mp40, even with it adjusted perfectly and running smoothly and quietly, when I listen to the tank with my ear against the glass, It sure seems noisy to me. Everything seems ok to the eye. No ich, no jumping...

My plan is to change out the other two korillias with a Tunze.

How much noise is too much? Or am I worrying for nothing and the live stock really do not care?

Thanks,
Jeff

[RocketEngineer]

The glass is a large flat surface so it tends to amplify any noise that hits it. Considering the volume of crashing waves on a full reef, the noises we hear mean little to the critters we keep.

[jared355]

Good Morning All,

I am new to the forum, but have been using it for reference for a few years now. I am no expert when it comes to reef keeping, but not a complete novice either. I have been doing this for about 6 years now.

I have a question about the noise levels in the tank. I am sure the noise in mine must be causing stress.

I have a 90 gallon reef. Set up almost one year ago on Jan 1, 2014. ATI pro gamble lights, bubble mag skimmer, equipment sump, separate refugium (or pod tank! - depending on the opinion of the day!) about, 125 - 135 gallons water total in system. Roughly 200 - 250 lbs live rock in system (I had a lot of live rock from two previous larger systems, but I didn't keep track of what/how much I put in this one) not much for live stock right now. Hammer head, aus elegance. Various paly's and Zoas. Two ocellaris, one blenny, one Mandarin (just introduced - very healthy supply of pods) one dwarf coral beauty, two fire blood shrimp. With much more planned in the very near future.

everything seems to be nicely settled at this point and ready to be stocked. Mostly sps, a few low flow areas for LPS. No softies in this one. I have tested for mag, kal, ph, alk, cal, about two months ago, everything was good. Should be - not much there to change it in this tank yet.

For water movement - one corner over flow, with a return. Mag 9.5 on the return. The refugium is taken from the entrance side of the equipment sump and returned to the opposite side, by passing the skimer and directly beside the overflow return. In tank there are two korillias 1150 and 1450 and one MP40w. The mp40 just replaced two other korillias of same sizes.

My question in all of this is this: how much in tank noise is too much?

It was much quieter in tank with the 4 korillias going. Now with the mp40, even with it adjusted perfectly and running smoothly and quietly, when I listen to the tank with my ear against the glass, It sure seems noisy to me. Everything seems ok to the eye. No ich, no jumping...


My plan is to change out the other two korillias with a Tunze.

How much noise is too much? Or am I worrying for nothing and the live stock really do not care?

Thanks,
Jeff


The ocean isn't silent my friend.

[Jeff72]

I agree with both,

But it is not full of consistent/constant mechanical noise either. Not to this extent, and not consistent.

[Saltydrip]

I see both sides of this coin. While the ocean is quite loud with crashing waves and such I do hear your point about the constant drone that critters might hear. To be honist though it's not uncommon got fish to thrive at intakes and exhausts from factories or at the bottom of a waterfall where if you see to stand a few feet away couldn't hear the voice of the person in front of you.

After thinking for a sec while responding to this I think it's safe to say in my opinion fish don't care about environmental noise.

[whiteshark]

I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you have to put your ear on the glass to hear it. It's pretty impossible to make a tank 100% silent to the point where you can put your ear against it and here nothing. And lots and lots of great tanks have many MPs going that produce some level of noise. I would not be worried unless it was so loud it was disturbing you, and then I'd quiet it down for your sake. Your inhabitants should be fine.

[treliantf]

I agree with Jeff however I can not prove that the constant, regular humming of mechanical noises do more harm than those from crashing wave bumping on the reef. Quite often you hear nothing at all inside a calm fringe reef during the night in the summer and our tank can duplicate this only when power outage occurs. Intuitively I think there may be something bad to the tankmates inside a noisy tank. We need controlled experiments to prove this.

[Reef Frog]

Fish and inverts don't have ears so don't "hear" like mammals & other higher order animals do, but they can certainly defect vibrations and changes & subtleties in the pressure waves in water. There are plenty of vibrations coming from near and far underwater.

I am sure certain sounds or sound levels could disrupt them. But since most of our fish exhibit normal behaviors in our aquariums like eating, sleeping, defending territories & even breeding - I don't think the hum from a few pumps is something to worry about.