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bcoleman
10/28/2001, 10:05 PM
I am in the *early* planning stages of building a reef aquarium. Meaning...research, budgeting, facilities management, environmental parameters, etc. No purchases have been made yet.

I am planning on locating the tank in my living room which of course houses my home theater setup. Would playing The Matrix at high volume be stressful to fish or any of the marine life in the tank?

Doug
10/28/2001, 11:38 PM
Hi Bcoleman and [welcome]

Skipper
10/28/2001, 11:39 PM
I have my home theater in my living room with my tank and have not noticed any ill effects. However, I do not have a really big system with a kicker subwoofer. At loud volumes with my system, nothing seems bothered. We probably need someone with a kicker system to put in their thoughts, though. HTH

Vpham97
10/28/2001, 11:42 PM
My tank is in the living room; my home theater is in my room, pretty powerful subwoofer. I have some rattle on the tank(MH LIght bulb & reflector.)

Doug
10/28/2001, 11:42 PM
Hi Bcoleman,

I have a home theater here also and have never noticed any problems in either of the tanks that I have in the family room.

I play my system very loud and have never noticed the fish acting funny in any way while doing so. With all of hum and vibration from the pumps inside the tank I do not really think that fish notice the music or sound effects.

The only concern that I have is that I might rattle my MH lamps to death one day but the animals do not seem bothered by the high volume and pounding bass.

HTH

Doug

Doug
10/28/2001, 11:48 PM
Hi Bcoleman,

Just as a frame of reference I have 2-15" side firing subwoofers facing each tank with a dedicated 500 watt amplifier for each, about 5 feet away from each tank, with the subs and total combined power for all speakers at just over 2000 watts.

It can get very loud in here at times and I have more than once knocked items off the shelves in the room and have rattled the window frames and lights in the room.

HTH

Doug

bcoleman
10/29/2001, 08:34 AM
Wow...based on Doug's setup I will have no worries then whatsoever. Thanks for the rapid response.

Have not purchased anything yet...not even a tank...I am practicing the patience part of this hobby right now.

ByTor
10/29/2001, 10:03 AM
Doug! WHAT?????:eek1: WHAT???? :eek2: ooooh WATTS!!!!;) VERY COOL!!!!:dance: BTW my fish seem to really dig Pink Floyd :D at only a measly 500 total watts:D

cyclist1
10/29/2001, 10:57 AM
If you have ever been snorkeling or diving on a reef, you will find that it is actually a very noisy environment. There are crashing waves, boats and all kinds of sounds. I don't think your reef will suffer much if any at all from your home theater system. Mine sure hasn't.

Andrew

Agu
10/29/2001, 11:37 AM
My son had a full band in the basement room adjacent to the tank and at times we cold feel the ground vibrating outside. The first couple of times they cranked it up the fish were visibly agitated. It appeared they became accustomed to the vibrations very quickly once they realized it wasn't the sound of impending doom :D .

Agu

SeaMatt Nematocyt
10/29/2001, 03:51 PM
Related to what Andrew stated above the sounds coming naturally from the ocean can in fact dwarf whatever kind of sound system humans can try to reproduce.
Sub-sonic vibrations from larger mammals ie whales, travel for miles. I know some of our theaters can do the same but at levels we can actually hear.
I have wondered the same thing at times and was never concerned for the deep wavelengths but I still question the sharper hi pitched sounds.
I say so long as the MH lights don't come crashing into the tank and the tank stands erect then you all should be fine.
Question is....How are "your" ears?

-Matt

tyoberg
10/29/2001, 05:15 PM
Agreed. Besides, only a small fraction of airborn noise is transmitted into the water (on the order of 1%). Most of your noise that the fish might hear from outside the tank comes up from the floor via the stand. If you "short" something to the tank, they're going to hear it loud and clear.

The energy put into the tank depends on the interfaces between the floor and speaker and stand and what the source level is (say "11" for example). Incident angle may come into play for extremely loud low freq airborn noise (subwooferage). Higher frequencies are attenuated more.

Your fish live with the 60Hz hum of powerheads and cooling fans (that are hard mounted to the top of the tank)--my guess is those are normally the major contributors but I haven't had time/money to sink a sonar array into my tank and do any sound cuts.

Somebody should stick one of those suction cup microphones to their tank and fill us in what the fishies are really hearing.

Ty

Skipper
10/29/2001, 05:20 PM
I haven't had time/money to sink a sonar array into my tank and do any sound cuts.

LOL!! Well hop to it....:D Inquiring minds wanna know.

Doug
10/29/2001, 08:00 PM
Hi Everyone,

What Ty said makes a lot of sense. One thing that I have noticed in the past is if I slip and let the door on my stand slam shut the fish will get scared but even the lowest bass notes that my system creates with loud explosions or thunder does not effect them at all.

Hi Matt,

Question is....How are "your" ears?

Huh, what?:D Just kidding.

After all of the years with loud home stereos and even louder car stereos I am really surprised that I am not deaf.

Doug

tyoberg
10/31/2001, 05:54 PM
I found a website dealing somewhat with this--it seems that you can make a hydrophone and pre-amp that are inexpensive. I may tinker around with it if I get some time.

Aqm fish sounds (http://home.t-online.de/home/Peter.Schmalkoke/aqua-amp/index.html)

Ty

Rube
10/31/2001, 08:23 PM
Ah, obviously no true audiophiles here. You should be worrying about what your tank is doing to your sonic environment! That large pane of glass must play merry he11 with your surround echoes and cause all kinds of standing waves. The solution? My next tank will be shaped like a doughnut:p.

Jerry W
11/02/2001, 02:22 PM
I'm not one hundred percent positive, but sometimes while practicing my bagpipes for a couple hours, I swear I can hear small gurgly voices crying "FREEEDOMMM!"

budhaboy
11/02/2001, 03:45 PM
jwtrojan44- do your fish lift their scales and"moon" you too????

Jerry W
11/03/2001, 06:12 AM
budhaboy; LMAO !! I'm thinking of re-naming my eel "Longshanks!" Thanks for the laugh. JWT

DgenR8
11/03/2001, 10:04 AM
This thread has been a funny read! I often wondered about fish tanks in bars and clubs, with the music POUNDING for long stretches on a regular basis. I have a friend that does tank maintenance for a large club in the area and I asked him once about it. His response was that he wished people would refrain from dumping their drinks into the sump long enough to find out if the fish would be effected by the noise.
IME, loud music doesn't bother my fish, as long as it's not HIPHOP or RAP! So, I just give them lots of old time Rock-N-Roll!!
They seem pleased!

bcoleman
11/03/2001, 10:50 AM
I am relieved that any tank I set up will not affect my DVD fetish. Also, the injection of humor was appreciated. I love this message forum and hope I can only report happy occurrences about my future tank!