Effect of spraybar sound on fish?

Hi all

I know this is kind of a silly question, but how does the sound of a spraybar (falling water) effect fish? I just completed setting up my tank with a spraybar and it makes quite a bit of noise.... isn't noise harder under water?

It is my intention to breed the fish so I need to NOT have them under any stress.

Thanks for the coming inputs!

 

why do you want to set the spray bar up that way if i may ask?

my spray bar has 3 pipes, one spraying down to the gravel, and the other two are flat, making plenty of movement at the water level.

 

I want to create proper circulation without a strong current. From my filter/pump I connected a pipe to the other side of the tank and let the water just drop in, but this caused very little surface movement.... I know added the spraybar but want to make sure that the sound won't be an issue, but my surface movement is now sufficient.

 

o okay, what is the filter specs? and the tank spec?

 

and yes, sound is louder under water, so i dont know if this is a bad thing for the fish 24/7?

 

It is a 90cm (L) x 37cm (W) x 50cm (H) tank. Going to be part of a large sump system (sump being built). Currently have large sponge filter with 700lph powerhead just to get my cycle going till I get the sump. Then this tank will be connected to the sump (BEEEEEG SUMP). Currently no fish. Will start of with some guppies till my tank is properly cycled, and will then shift to angels or kribs or geophagus or rams or "any of a long list of cichlids".....

 

Move the spraybar to just under the surface, and point it upward. The surface movement is more than enough.

 

as Zoom said, this is how my spray bar is fitted:



and this works very well, PLENTY of movement!

 

My old Discus breeding tanks had DIY HOB's(actually SOT's - sit on top...lol) - located above tank with flow falling back intio tank....bout a thousand liters per hour... a bank of 20 of these made an awefull racket to my ears.....yet,my Discus kept spawning.... Dont think the sound bothered them much at all...

Fish,having no "ears" to speak of will just percieve the sound we hear as vibration in the watercolumn...

 

Very well said azurekoi, come to think about it, if you think of Tiger fish in the Congo river, and the sound of the masses of water crashing against the rocks, and yet, they are fine, and breeding!

I can remember from school days, that the sound under water is a lot louder, and that water has a density of more than a thousand times that of air?(if my memory serves me correctly) and water can focus the sound more, and has the capability to create movement( ripple effect) ,,,hey I can actually still remember stuff from school. lol

 

The sound off the running water wil make you wee more and just ariate your tank more

Lol
My 2 cent

 

Along with a spray bar is it best to have the feedback pipe coming from a external filter near the surface of the tank or along the bottom and the pipe that sucks water into the pump near the bottom or near the top?

 

Hi Donny

That’s the tricky part of having a canister filter. Those of us that have them, tend to “hide” them under the stand, or in the cabinet, this will make an impact on the filters filtration rate! As the water needs to be pumped up into the tank!

I have tested this with my tank, and it’s a massive drop, as well as having the intake at the bottom of my tank, near the substrate. This also reduces the L/H rate of the filter. To put this into perspective, my tank is 800H and the cabinet is almost 600?(taking a wild guess) so by placing the intake at the bottom of the tank, the water travels up almost 700mm, then goes down to the filter, and gets pumped back into the tank, so that almost 6m of piping, with a climb of almost 1.5m.

I hope I understood your question correctly?

 

You understand correctly master Vez, do you think i should leave mine as it is intake at the top and outlet at the bottom.
Or should i place both at the top but on opposite ends of the tank

 

Hehe cool then, well I have my tank setup as follows.

(standing in front of the tank)

The intake is on the right hand side, sitting in the middle of the tank, with my spray bar coming in from the left hand side. The spray bar has three drilled pipes, one facing down, and the last two facing upwards.
The bar is placed about 3cm under the water level, and this makes a very nice current in the tank! I then placed an internal filter (600L/H) in the front left hand side of the tank, and directed the flow to the right hand side( to direct the flow to the intake of the canister filter) as well as I added a power head (with sponge intake rated at 800L/H) at the back left hand side of the tank, also directed to the intake of the canister filter, but this power head was placed a bit lower to the substrate.

A small pic will describe it the best:

 

Fully understood, what is the dimensions of your tank, as mine is a 1,2 with a crystal 60 and a power head in the back right corner.

 

@Vez,

Your theory is correct, but there is one thing you forget to take into account.... GRAVITY and WATER PRESSURE.

Whilst at 800 deep, you personally will not feel a huge water pressure, it does have an effect on the filter.

Do a quick test to see what I mean.
Take a fixed length of pipe... start a syphon. Now take a 10litre bucket of water and time how long it takes to fill the bucket if you hold the pipe near the surface of the tank. Then do exactly the same with the pipe lower down. You will notice the bucket fills up faster with the pipe lower... even though the pipe is the same length! So my theory differs slightly. If you have the inlet low, near the substrate, the water pressure + the height of the water falling down the back of the tank into the canister will be sufficient not to take any energy from the pump. Thus the pump is only responsible for pumping back up into the tank. Obviously the shorter the distance the better.

 

Thanks for the info Zoom, will mess around this weekend with the piping.

 

thanks @Zoom !

 

1200L x 450B x 800H