On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 22:22:07 -0500, "NetMax"
wrote:

"Mariachi" wrote in message
roups.com...
I have noticed in the past few days that my filter is causing a low
buzzing sound from vibrating in the tank. I have one of those internal
filters. I don't know what it is but sometimes you can it vibrating
against the tank and you can feel the vibrations if you put your hand
on the tank glass. I was just wondering if that is really bad for the
fish? I just spent 20 mins moving the filter around moving it's cable
around so it doens't touch the lid etc but I can't make the sound go
away. usually it's because the power cable is touching the lid and
causing the lids to knock together but not all the time.


It sounds to me that your filter is out of balance. Try cleaning the
impeller and the well.

To answer your questions, a fish's hearing is more sophisticated than
ours as they have 2 systems, ears and lateral line receptors (to help
identify magnitude and direction). This allows many to feed in the dark,
and blind fish to eat with little hindrance. Having said all that, they
probably tune out any sources of constant noise (vibration) just like we
do (ie: white noise). Intermittent noise would be harder for them to
become accustomed to.

I'm running, lessee, one, two - four new Whispers right now, all set
up for the first time within the past 8 weeks. I was initially a
little concerned because each of them was noisy. Not terribly noisy,
but not the old silent Whispers I remembered. For a week or two, I was
periodically lifting and jiggling and reseating impellers and
resetting lids - they'd be better for a while, then start up their
rattling or vibrating again. I just noticed a few days ago that they
are all silent, and I haven't fooled with any of them for at least a
week. Maybe there is something to the advice "they'll settle down
after they've been running a while." Maybe the aloe in the Start Right
greased 'em up good. (smiley face goes here.)

And by the way, it's been about a month now since I set up my new
Tetratec 500, and I'm in love with it. It required some tweaking and
twiddling for the first couple of weeks, adjusting the wet dry section
to fill and empty regularly and not get stuck in fill or empty mode.
The sponge in the wet-dry section is really large and is becoming home
to one heckuva lot of bacteria. I've figured out that if the filter
gets stuck in the fill or the drain mode, it continues to function
pretty much like a regular Whisper or Aquaclear, with the bio section
simply remaining under moving water. It has two powerful outlets, only
one of them is used for the wet-dry chamber, so the other outlet is
unaffected by any interruptions. The filter was very noisy for the
first couple of weeks, but has settled in and runs quietly now, BUT
every 30-60 seconds, when the wet-dry chamber discharges into the
tank, there is a very loud gurgle - which some people might not like.
I like it, because it tells me the filter is working correctly. It's
blending in with the ambient white noise in our environment. And I
love the heater unit in the filter - it is proving to be be accurate
and stable at whatever temperature I set it. If I replace any of my
other filters with a Tetratec, it will be for the heater module.

And speaking of heaters, my original heater in that tank was one of
the new stainless steel jobbies from Foster and Smith. I was attracted
to the outboard thermostat/controller and the sensor that could be
suction cupped some distance from the heater. It's nice to be able to
adjust a heater without rolling up my sleeves first. The 200W was a
little under $20, and the unit worked well. It's out of there now, too
late, it happens, because I lost an ancistrus cat to it. I've heard
this could happen, but never to me. I found a dead bushy nose and
there were no signs of anything to give me a clue as to cause of
death, except for a dark stripe across his back. After I removed the
stainless heater a few days later, I say a brown burn stripe on the
heater, and it matches the stripe on my dead fish perfectly. So yes,
it really can happen. It was probably fate that made me notice a
plastic heater guard from Tronic at the pet store the other day. I
don't know if it's a new product, or I just never looked at one
before, but I've try-fitted it on a couple of my other brand heaters
and it seems pretty universal. No suckermouth will have to live with
an unprotected heater in any of my tanks again.

-- Mister Gardener