Over flow Noise

[eden]

As you might have read, lately I set up a 4' bow front with trickle filter in my bedroom YES YES I know in my bedroom (stupid), But it looks so cool.

At nights its alittle bit noisey to get to sleep so i was woundering if there was any cheap media I could put down the overflow to quieten it a bit or will I encounter problems with clogging or any other CONS ie.smell etc....

I wont be sleeping in there to much longer so it dose'nt matter to much but it would still be nice to quieten it down a bit.

Any of u fish'os got any ideas on this ?

[Warren]

Hi Eden,

Try putting a piece of plastic at an angle in the overflow area. The idea is to get the water to flow down the plastic at an angle instead of trickling down to the bottom of the overflow chamber. You may also be able to fit some filter wool at the bottom to absorb the splash. Be carefull not to block up the exit holes!

[eden]

Thanks for those ideas Warren, I tried the filter wool idea a while ago and had the blockage problem, If I could lift it up off the bottem some how I think it would work well. Im going to try the sloped plastic idea of yours but to get it in the small hole at the top of the tricklefilter it will need to be thin and flexable are there any types of plastic that I should or should'nt use?

[Warren]

Some types of black plastic are toxic. Any thin plastic should do as long as it is not antifungus treated. If you sniff the plastic and notice a smell it may leach something into the water. It should have a neutral smell to be safe. Wash the surface of the plastic well. Sometimes the manufacturing process can leave toxic chemicals on the surface. If in doubt, wash it then leave it in a bucket of water for a few days.

If you are still worried, just keep an eye on the fish after you have fitted it to the filter. If a problem occurs you can easily remove the insert and do a partial water change.

I've only had one bad experience with plastic items and aquariums. I use a lot of spa-pool filters on my tanks. Once I did not wash a brand new filter housing out. The toxic muck in it from the manufacturing process killed 3 adult oscars in about 30 minutes. I learnt a valuable lesson the hard way and lost 3 great fish in the process (won't do that again). I've used lots of these filters in the past but have always washed them very well before use.