So, I was thinking of getting a second fish tank, and putting it in my bedroom. The only thing that concerns me is the noise of the air pump. There's no way I can sleep with something buzzing and humming away in the corner, 24 hours a day.

So I've been thinking about the Tetra Whisper range of pumps. Just how quiet are they? Will it interfere with my sleep?

I have an Penguin Emperior 400 that doesnt make a sound! I love it. I always found Whispers to be noisy.

In my experience, the Whisper pumps are extremely noisy. My preference is Top Fin air pumps--they do make some noise, but it's very low (especially if you set the pump on top of a sock or something like that ), and within a few days of when I first started using them I didn't notice them at all (and noise when I try to sleep does tend to bother me).

Also, one suggestion I remember hearing a while back was, if you have enough tubing, to put the pump in a closet or something like that, which cuts the noise down to pretty much zero, regardless of what type of pump you're using.

Cool. Thanks for the advice, guys. I think I'll give the Tetra pumps a miss, then!

Are you guys talking about air pump or filter? Emperor 400 is a filter, it's not an air pump.


In term of air pump, I like Whisper the best. They are very quiet.

i have a small wisper 30 that doesnt make a peep. but my wisper 60 is quite loud, but since im use to sleeping with a fan, it dosnt bother me.

Hmm, it seems tricky. I'll need to find a quiet filter too - the Pengiun sounds like the one.

Maybe a whisper, then. Or maybe I should put them in a box to deaden the sound.

I just bought a Rena 200 and it is very quite. Just a dollar or two more than the whisper. I dampened the little noise it did make, by putting a washcloth under it. My tank is in my room as well but white noise (fans, filters, pumps, etc) puts me to sleep

I have a Tetra Whisper 60 sitting right next to me and I don't hear it at all.

I have a Whisper 60 filter and a Whisper 10-30 airpump and they are silent. I love them, I hate a Penguin filter. Aqua Clears are no good either. I like Millennium filters, they are silent as long as the venturi valve isn't open.

Rena air pumps are VERY quiet. I completely forget about them most of the time because they're pretty much completely silent. I definitely recommend them.