# Noisy Penguin 100-normal?



## mihaelb (Feb 11, 2009)

Hi, all

Never owned one before, so maybe it's normal? but it's quite buzzy (not rattely, though, so I think the propeller is fine). somewhat less buzzy if I put something on the grated plastic top, but still a lot noisier than my all-in-one eclipse hoods...is this normal for the model?

thanks


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## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

most hang on the back [HOB] filters house an impeller setup which draws water into the filter and then the water falls back into the tank after passing through some sort of material. these filters are not as quiet as a canister filter. I am no expert on the 'full all inclosed hoods' that some tank setups come with, but I would imagine that any HOB filters are not supposed to be able to be heard. I have had both Aquaclear, and Penguins [prefer AC] and when working properly and made properly, they are unnoticeable when running. Maybe call the place you got it, and see what they say? Hope this helps.


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

mihaelb said:


> Hi, all
> 
> Never owned one before, so maybe it's normal? but it's quite buzzy (not rattely, though, so I think the propeller is fine). somewhat less buzzy if I put something on the grated plastic top, but still a lot noisier than my all-in-one eclipse hoods...is this normal for the model?
> 
> thanks


Hi Mihaelb,

I had a very noisy 280 here is an excerpt of my rant:


overleaf said:


> The next day I call Marineland, the company that makes the Emperor 280 and ask them for some help. They say that the only moving part is the impeller and I just have to futz around with it until there is water flow and quiet operation. The lady attempts to comfort me by saying she had a gentleman call her several hours ago with the same problem that we had and after 2 hours of playing with it he called back to say it was working. I took no comfort in knowing I'd have to waste two hours of my time to get a filter to work as desired.


I returned the filter to BAs and got a new impeller, the filter then ran silent.

I had two of them, and I got the other to be just as quiet as the first by reseating the impeller+housing about 15 times. Annoying, yes.

Generally the filters quiet down a little bit once they get a bit of 'gunk' on them but don't count on that to be a significant difference. If it's too noisy I'd do something now while you can still return it.

The eclipse hoods contain the sound pretty well I'd imagine, so I doubt it would ever be as quiet as those.


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## mihaelb (Feb 11, 2009)

Just an update: 
as suggested, I took it apart and reseated it, playing with the height a bit, a few times. Small difference achieved this way.

Sometime during the second day, though, it got a lot quieter by itself...still rattely/buzzy, but....

maybe I'll rig something up that I can put the filter outside my home...like 10 meters away, underground in a bunker, and connect it to the aquarium that way


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## overleaf (Feb 1, 2009)

mihaelb said:


> maybe I'll rig something up that I can put the filter outside my home...like 10 meters away, underground in a bunker, and connect it to the aquarium that way


Make sure you have the foresight to mass produce this solution, I'm sure you'll be able to sell them 1:1 for marineland hob owners!


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