Prpixel - What a nightmare! Wet/dry scares the bejesus out of me. The mere thought of 150 gallons of stinky, potentially salty, aquarium water on my hard wood floors, soaking into my Revel Studios, and leaking down into my bedroom horrifies me.
I used to have a 55g planted amazon tank w/ lights, CO2, etc. Its now sitting in my storage area, empty after I moved. I'm trying to build up the gumption to get back into aquaria, but the investment in home audio equipment necessitates that I figure out a way to make the two work together. From the comments above, it appears that nothing can be done...Aquarists either live with the risk and noise floor, or live without audio equipment. |
Is there any audiophile grade acquarium pumps out there with low noise? I believe that Audiogon should designate a separate section for audiophile grade miscelaneous items. In fact there are more things to be designed "audiophile grade" which means more ways to establish business for example Dog or cat that is trained or even breaded not to touch or scratch an audio/video equipment:^). |
First of all, marine (salt water) fish sink to the bottom of the tank when they die.
I had a 200 gallan marine tank (using wet/dry and fluidized bed filters) in my listening room. One day while I was at work and on my lunch break their was a power failure at home. Some sand got into the ball valve (prevents all the water from rushing out the returns in the bottom of the tank) and it stuck open. My wife did not know to turn the cut-off valve off (with huge red handle labeled "turn in case of emergency") and by the time she got through to me 150 gallons of salt water was soaking into the rug and wicking up into the custom bubinga speaker stands and the drywall. Shorted out the electric in the walls and in the room (good thing for surge suppressors) By the time I got home the speaker stands and bottom of the audio cabinet were ruined. Spent about 6-8 hours vacuaming up the water with a shop vac. When we moved about 6 months later I gave away the fish, tank, and all the filtration.
Bottom Line - Aquariums and audio don't mix. |
As more a fish phile then audio so far...you guy's left out the idea of an all natural tank using live mud sitting on platic egg crates for the natural way to break down nitrates. And then put any powerheads on a timer or shut them off when your listening.Or any of the Eheim/Fluval type filters are dead quiet. But for me I keep my two hobby's separate. I do believe that the unnatural vibration the music produces is stressful to them.
Clavio |
I had a 90 gallon African Cichlid tank in my room until recently. I used a big Hagen canister filter and it was very very quiet. So quiet, that from my chair I couldn't hear it at all. I think you should go for it, especially if you can put the plumbing in a basement... The fish never seemed to notice the music at all. |
Obviously a quiet pump and a sump-less set-up is required, which probably rules out a salt water set-up. A fresh water aquarium w/ eclipse mount on top filters would probably be better, but how to defeat the imaging issue created by a 3-4' long glass/acrylic tank in the middle of the speakers?
In the end, I'm guessing that its fairly impossible, unless I knock a hole in the wall and mount everything on the other side of the wall - which in my condo, happens to be my neighbor's living room... |
What a fascinating thread, and I thought having six cats was time consuming. At least fish don't leave hairballs on the sofa. Then again cats probably reduce the room brightness, and absorb stray sound. |
I was going to make a joke about making sure the fish were in the sweet spot, but this thread has turned serious. I assume fish don't have ears and somehow the vibration is scaring the sh*t out of them. They probably feel kinda like an achovy about to be attacked by a killer whale. I never liked anchovies, but feel kinda sorry for the rest of the little finned guys. I'm a tad of a hunter so no animal rights stuff here, but makes you hope that you don't come back as an audiophile's pet fish. |
All but one post actually talked about the negative impact of the a huge tank toward the music. There is no way it will help your music with a big piece of glass in between speakers. It will throw off the image and make the bright brighter.
I once help a friend setting up his first high end system in a room with a 110 tank since he originally wanted to enjoy music and watch fish at the same time. Two days later he moved the speakers out of the living room since he couldn't stand the noise of the pump.
I don't think fish and stereo go very well together. |
We have a 110 Gallon marine tank on the back wall of the listening room... all of the filters are in the basement and the only sound from the tank is that of rushing water (which is actually quite soothing). The tank actually helps to break up reflection off of the rear wall since it is an imposing structure with numerous angles, shapes, and materials.
As far as disturbing the fish, keep in mind that sound is magnified under water so what might be 95 db to us might be a heck of a lot louder to the fish. We haven't seen a fish die from a loud thwack of a bass drum though. One problem that we do have is that the plexiglass is showing very small superficial cracks from the loud sound levels (at least according to the aquarium people). Their suggestion is to replace it with a glass tank (which we didn't do in the first place because of the unconventional stand it is on and they said plexiglass would work better).
As was mentioned earlier, saltwater aquariums are an eternal money pit and when you see a $1000 worth of fish floating at the top of the tank, you kick yourself for not buying more audio equipment instead of the fish. Oh well, but it looks nice...
|
Weird, in various setups I have never had a problem with vibrations affecting the health of the fish.
Always thought I would but never did.
Jadem6- yea, finally found a hobby I could spend more on then fish. On the plus side audio gear usually does not just up and disappear....quit eating, get sick, melt, kill other audio gear, chase other gear out of the room...
An 80g tank really is not that large of a tank. Depending on the filtration setup, the tank could be setup very quietly. With larger tanks anytime you move thousands of gallons per hour, things can get noisy. |
I have had reef aquariums for 15 years and marine fish for ten prior to that. The issues I have had in those years are two. First noise, I would have a hard time with the noise in my present 400 gal. reef. The sump is in the basement and the tank above it but the overflow still makes a rushing noise. I have thought about a mini reef in my music room, possible circulating through the main tank but have not figured it out yet. The electrical noise is hardly an issue if you have dedicated circuits, I have the pump and metal halides on the other side of the panel to keep them as separate as possible. The other issue I had was about twenty two years ago, my wife and I were making a water change. The 55 gal. tank was between two rooms and up high. Or TV was below and in front. The bucket I used to pour the water into the tank slipped and about a gal. of salt water went into the TV. Damn tune just never worked the same after that. After three years it died, I opened it up to find a green aged copper look, very nice.
I think if it's well thought out a tank would be awesome! I don't know if you could do this but if there was a room on the other side of the wall, the entire tank could be set in that room with a cut-out for the tank. It would be very easy then to control the noise and would not effect the depth of the sound stage.
And yes Clueless, I have about 70 corals in mine. If you think Audio is expensive, you have not tried marine aquariums. Some Red Sea fish can run close to $1000 and corals can cost close to that for healthy specimens. It's a real drag when those babies die, try selling a dead Red Sea Angle over the Internet, maybe we need to start ReefgoN and the beginners can buy the old timers dead stuff. |
Salt? You mean from splashing? Certainly evaporation that boosts humidity can be a good thing in the winter months, and siad vapor is indeed salt-free, so it's ok.
If you put the tank at least a few feet behind the speaker plane you won't damage the imaging too much.
I sit in an 8' nearfield triangle two feet in front of my Steinway (angled back to help with non-perpendicular lines), and the stage is 20' deep!).
DO keep the lights and pump on the OTHER AC leg....but what about the gurgling? And don't you listen with your eyes closed? Maybe fish ARE fun? Hmmm....I'll stick to the Steinway. |
The other issue in addition to the others mentioned, is the vibrations that you will place on the fish... I had a similar setup at one time, and usually the next day after a listening session there were dead fish (from them killing each other). Moved the aquarium to a different room and never had another problem... Guess it depends on how sensitive / aggressive the fish are... I had triggers and more aggressive species.. I think the risk of a leaking aquarium is minimal, assuming you have well maintained equipment that is less than 10 years old, continuously in operation from the purchase... But you can never tell when 80 gallons will wind up in the room. The issue with evaporation and salt is minimal... Usually, the salt will stay in the aquarium, and I noticed no issues from that with the equipment... Anyone who lives anywhere near the ocean has more to worry about than what your aquarium could produce... |
80 gallon reef aquarium?
Ya got coral in there? Who cares about the music. Put it where it does best. It may be all that's left in another generation.
I remain, |
Will there be any cat?:^) |
I think there are worse ideas. Depending on the tank setup, if you use lids ect., any 18" away should not be affected by salt creep. Dedicated electrical lines solve the electrical problems. The sound stage would not be worse than having a large TV in the middle. This will not improve things..
It also depends how careful you are with water changes and cleaning. Me, I need a huge concrete slab. The biggest concern I would think would be the noise floor. Any pumps and water movement in drains ect create noise.
Marty |
The sound may be too liquid for your liking... I just remember how bad I felt when my aquarium leaked all over my collection of Road & Track magazines dating back forty years. Why the hell did I put the aquarium in that cabinet that was such a perfect fit when the magazines were underneath? Stupidity, is my guess. To expose yourself to any kind of problem with sound equipment sharing space with an aquarium is mind boggling. Do yourself a favour and forget the whole thing. Good day. |
In addition to the problems that you mentioned, it will also ruin your image and especially depth. Probably not a good idea. |
There is a very good reason I keep my aquariums (fresh and salt)in a separate room from my stereo. As you mention, there is a potential problem with electrical interference. You don't want them on the same circuits. While the evaporation does help keep the humidity levels higher, the thought of what all that salt could do to delicate electrical connections makes me cringe. |
