Danger_Chicken;4289919; said:
I've never built one or seen one, but going by other filters I don't see why this couldn't be nearly silent. Plumb the return to the tank an inch below water level and it will be silent, aireation will occur when the water drops on the media. As far as the water entering the filter, 1st create a top to stop evaporation and that will take care of most of the noise if not all. 2nd, if the water is draining on floss or sponge it should be fairly quite, especially with a lid.
Hey D_C:
I have a question regarding your ideas 1 & 2 about the OHF, which I feel needs examining before a DIY Build gets activated here. Please do not get me wrong, there is a lot of merit to your ideas and they are good, but I feel we need to answer a concern with the Beneficial Bacteria (BB).
Beneficial Bacteria needs natural oxygen to be able to do it's job of consuming the nitrites, turning the nitrites into nitrates, most of which the nitrates are removed with regular water changes, which in turn makes for a happy tank for it's residents and you. If a lid of some or any design is used on the OHF, it robs the BB of needed oxygen to do it's job properly and in the overall picture, doesn't make for a happy tank.
So with this in mind, we have to engineer a way to keep everything as quiet as possible and yet allow as much natural oxygen as possible to enter into the OHF, to allow the BB to do it's required job. If we rob the BB of needed natural oxygen, the system fails.
This is the delema of your ideas 1 & 2. Now once we figure how this works both ways we will be in business, but until then, we have to figure out not just the answers for asthetics to the senses, but also funtionality of the system and design, too.
So how do we figure a way to provide maximum noise reduction and evaporation, yet at the same time, how do we allow the BB to breathe and be efficient to it's maximum potential?
If we can answer these questions amongst us all, we may be onto something really good!
