Re: air pumps: which makes the least noise?

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

This might be a bit of a digression, but why not. :)

Quietest pump per volume output: The Linear Piston pumps that you can buy
from places like jehmco.com.  I'd say the one we have is about as quiet as
EACH whisper pump we used to run --- and we'd run five or six of them!  
We were just amazed at how much better the fishroom sounded after
replacing them all with a single hulking unit.  The other cool part was
that in the three or so years since we did this, we haven't had to deal
with the constant stream of repairs and replacements to the flapper pumps.  
Good riddance!  Power is awesome.  It's a compressor, so you can run them
very deep and choose the flow.  And you can make a manifold out of PVC and
plastic or metal stem valves so your house looks like a fish store.

It's not for everyone.  I'd say you need to really be running 5-10 tanks
for it to make sense, and the $189 is a bit to shell out in advance
(though as I say, over many years it starts to pay off in pump repairs and
replacements), but folks spend more than that in livestock and CO2
systems.  These pumps occupy an interesting niche in between the 1-2 tank 
setups and the hundreds-of-tanks fishroom run off a loud regenerative 
blower... kind of like the "modestly insane" fishroom.

  - Erik

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, W Hung wrote:

> I'm looking at purchasing another air pump and want
> one that's strong yet quiet.
> 
> Has anyone every owned the old supra series and the
> newer tetratec deep water series. They look similar in
> design. Which one is louder?
> 
> Also, if someone could compare noise levels of air
> pumps that would be great. I currently own a Rena 50,
> Rena 300, Tetratec AP50(loud) as well as the old
> series Whisper 100. The quietest air pump I've ever
> owned was a Penn Plax Silencer 50, but those are no
> longer made. 
> 
> So here is my ranking for air pump noise. This is not
> scientific: (the unacceptably loud level starts at the
> Tetratec AP50)
> 
> Silent-------Good------Pretty Good-------Loud-----> 
> PPlax Silencer
>      Whisper 100
>         Rena 50
>                 Rena 300
>                                   Tetra AP50
>                                           Challenger  
> 
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-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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