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I have a 29gal tank in my room and have been using a tetra whisper 40 for an airpump for about a year now and it is starting to get noisey! I have a hard time sleeping with it humming/rattlin. Anyone have some pumps that are Really quiet and stay that way???????????????

It "could" be the rubbers/valves inside of the pump they do break down get holes etc.

Check the underneath to see if it is sitting level, as a temporary measure put it on to a piece of carpet this will soften the noise. You might have to take it to a LFS to get a rubber/valve replaced.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Ok. It is on the carpet. I pulled the bottom off and nothing looked like it had holes or rips in it. it rattles pretty bad tho

Hi,
Generally there are just a few things that can go wrong
in this style pump. It's called a "vibrator pump" because
there is an electromagnet run directly off the AC mains,
and a armature that swings (vibrates) back and forth
between the two poles of the magnet. Attached to that
armature is a rubber diaphragm and inside the base that
the diaphragm is connected to are a couple of flapper valves.

With the constant vibrating, the rubber diaphragm will
develop cracks, especially where the diaphragm is connected
to the armature, and those cracks leak, and the result is
progressively less air is pumped (the volume goes down) and
the air stone, or air driven filter does less and less.
The flapper valves are very thin pieces of rubber and these
can dry out and crack. The result is, of course, less air
is pumped.

The rattling sound occurs when the armature vibrates or
swings more than it should. These pumps are designed to
work into a back pressure. If something changes such as
the air-stone becomes saturated with bacteria and the air
cannot pass through the stone easily, the back pressure
increases and the pump works harder to deliver the air.
In this case, the amount of swing of the armature
is greatly reduced and the pump output drops off.

If the airline is open or leaking, the armature
is vibrating against less back pressure and is
able to swing more radically and the rattelling
sound occurs.
You probably have a leaking airline somewhere, cracked
hose or bad gang valve, or your diaphragm is cracked
and leaking.
The repair kits for those pumps runs around 5 or 6 dollars.
If you like the pump, I'd purchase a repair kit and
replace the flapper valves as well as the diaphragm.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

But then, repair kits are generally almost impossible to find, you're doing well if your lfs has one repair kit for one specific model pump.

And it's usually only a couple bucks more for a brand new pump, the price difference isn't worth the trouble searching for a repair kit.

So Is it true I could run a pump rated to like 10gal therefore it'd be smaller and more quiet and would have to put a valve on it

Depends on what you are trying to run with it.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Just an airstone!

Hi,
This "Rated at" phrase for an air pump is actually kind of
misleading. At one time the rating meant that it would
run a typical (for those days) air lift filter and an
air stone for a specific depth tank (such as a 10G tank)
and you would use a valve or two to regulate which
device got how much air.
Included in this rating was the depth of the tank as
the pump would have to "fight" that much weight of
water to get the bubbles out of the air stone - And even
the air stones themselves presented problems as
different types of "stones" present different back
pressures to the pump.

If you get a pump that puts out too large a volume for
what you are using and you put all of its output into,
say and air stone, the air stone with actually lift off
the bottom of the tank toward the surface and put out
such a volume of bubbles as to make a tremendous noise.
If you have pump that is providing too much air, then
a valve should be used (back pressure will ruin a pump)
to bleed off the excess air. To muffle the noise (hissing)
out of the bleed off side, simply attach a small 10 inch
length of hose to the valve and insert a pipe cleaner into
the hose. The hiss will be muffled and disappear.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Awsome frank Thanks! Learn something new every day!!!/:'

Too much back pressure on your pump will cause wear and ultimate failure of the pump. Before that happens you will experience what is happening, a loud pump. There may be several sources for the noise. If it is not the pump then it may be caused by vibration, the pump or even the hose may be vibrating against the tank, stand or anything causing a racket.
If it is the pump, then you may be able to muffle it as Frank suggested, but it may also be too late. A multi port gang valve releving some of the pressure may be just what the doctor ordered, but keep in mind that air will take the easiest path and if it finds that it is easier to go thru the muffled side it will drastically lower the amount going to your airstone.
You asked about quiet pumps, and mentioned that you are running a 29 gal tank. I have found with my 29, that I can run the smallest rena brand pump (a very good and almost totaly silent pump)(it's rated for a 5-10 g tank) and have more air then I need. In fact it is valved down.
Keep in mind that the bubbles don't actually oxygenate the water it is the gas transfer at the top of the tank that does and anything that agitates the water will greatly influence that rate (the filter). My 10g I find that the filter puts enough oxgen into the water and I need no bubbler at all.