Aquarium in a very loud environment?

[Chris]

A few of you may have some sort of experience with this.. how feasible would it be to keep a tank in a very loud environment? I'm talking about a night-club type atmosphere with music playing 13-14 hours a day?


I'm sure it would cause a lot of stress for the fish, but perhaps some vibration dampening material placed under the tank would help offset some of that.


Anyone have any comments or ideas on trying this?

[JimD]

Nope, vibration dampeners or whatever wont do a thing to keep the sound waves from getting to the fish, especialy in the 20hz range which is typical in a club environment. Sound waves are very powerfull and will transmit through the glass and saturate the tank. Put yurself in that situation, would you want to be pounded by the "bass" from hell all day? I would imagine though, in time, the fish would become acustom to it, who knows.

[LoneStar]

Well if you have the bass cranked pretty lound, you wouldn't need a wavemaker ;)

[Reef69]

Id do it only if it was an in-wall tank where it can be apart from all the smoke. All that smoke can affect your tank in so omany ways, it would be a sure crash.

[NaCl_H2O]

So, you giving up on school and opening a bar :D I'll come clean the tank :)

I am sure it has been done before, my guess is that they would adjust, just not sure how much they would like it? Guess it depends on the type of music you play in the bar ;)

[Gator]

a bar downtown had a bunch of salywater tanks, and i dont thi k they had any problems, but it probally would bother the fish some unless they liked that kind of music

[Chris]

Not giving up at all Steve.. in fact next semester i'm taking even more classes. :D

Evenings i'm working at a bar.. they have a pretty ugly setup right now... considering taking it on for a little extra $. :)

Back to the subject, you don't suppose the noise level would cause enough stress to prohibit the fish from staying healthy do ya? This is a factor I don't think i've ever really seen anyone talk about in the hobby. :unsure

The smoke won't be much of an issue.. the tank is built into the wall in an enclosure with a lot of space around it.. if need be, I can close it off completely from the bar area.

[::pete::]

Id go for ... there are 1000's of clubs around that do it ... noit here, but around the states and world.

[NaCl_H2O]

If the tank is in the wall, what if you put a sheet of plexiglass in front with say a 1/2" air gap space between the pexiglass and the tank - I think that would cut down on the sound waves penetrating a great deal. Can anyone confirm that??

[hobogato]

im not so sure how much of the viabration from soundwaves the fish can actually detect anyway. they have lateral lines to feel pressure changes in the water like water movement from something else swimming, but no ears. the might feel some of the soundwaves in the water, but think most of the stuff in the news about military sonar and sound devices harming wildlife deals with under water mammals, not fish.

[Gator]

i think it will be fine i donated a fish to to this club and it grew and lived fine

[::pete::]

i think it will be fine i donated a fish to to this club and it grew and lived fine

:lol [/quote]

[Richard]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030210075908.htm

[NaCl_H2O]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030210075908.htm

Loss of hearing can leave fish very vulnerable to predators or with a loss of ability to find mates.

So, they will be just like all the other guys & gals in the bar :lol
... Sorry, I just couldn't resist - back on topic, sorry Chris :blush

[hobogato]

learn something new every day. knew they had a tympanic bone, but thought their "ears" weren't really very functional. on the upside, most aquarium fish don't have to worry about predation since people (if they are smart) don't put a predator and prey fish together, and they are most likely not going to be breeding anyway. :huh

[::pete::]

Do you hear the train coming when you put your ear on the track or do you feel it?

[JimD]

The question was will vibration dampening material offset the effect of the sound, the answer is no.

[Richard]

I didn't mean you shouldn't do it. I was just searching because I didn't think fish could "hear" the way we do and found that article.

[::pete::]

It was a good find !!! ;)

[hobogato]

definitely an interesting find! like i said, learn something new every day. thats what makes this hobby and life in general fun!

[brewercm]

I think the plexiglass in front of it and the tank in the wall would be the way to go, it would also stop the stray flying beer bottle from crashing into the tank and busting it open.

[LoneStar]

You must hang out at some rowdy places then....

[brewercm]

Used to at times, but all it takes is one drunk.

[scuba_steveo]

What bar???

I know Austin has a bunch of bars with some pretty cool aquariums in them that seem to do fine. I think their is one guy that services most of them. The nicest tank in a bar I have seen is at Saba in Austin. I talked to the manager there about it before but that was over a year ago. He told me that they spent alot on maintenance. You might try giving them a call and getting the name of the guy that takes care of it.

[Instar]

Try getting a stethoscope and putting it against the glass of your tank and see what your pumps already sound like. Louder than we think in there already and some powerful pumps really have a high decible noise in the water. Even the one in the sump can be heard through the water return. As noisy as some tanks are already, I'm not really all that sure bar music would be that noticable unless the speakers were right beside the tank.

[matt]

Wow Larry, have you really done that with a stethoscope? If anyone saw you they'd think you were pretty out there.....

Chris, glad to see you're seeking gainful employment while continuing your education!

[mathias]

I get my fish used to my music on the ride home from the store...

[Thunderkat]

The thing about sound is it hates to go to mediums with different densities and sound prefers mediums with high density. When sonar from a ship goes active and pings a submarine the sound does not bounce off the hull of the ship it bounces off of the air in the ship. Sound that goes through the air and hits a fish tank will not penetrate as much. Sound that originates in water tends to transmit very well, that is why whales can talk to each other even if they are miles and miles apart. I would imagine that the noise in a club would not affect a tank as much as you would think. If the bass was loud enough and the tank close enough then yeah the sound will enter the water readily. What I would think would make the largest difference is sound that is aborbed by the stand from the floor to the tank, a rubber mat would do wonders for dampening the sound from the floor/stand to the tank.

[jroescher]

I would guess that would be like putting your head underwater in the hot tub or spa. You can hear the pump real loud because it's in the water, but nothing from outside the water.