# Sound dampening cabinet



## Million (7 Feb 2017)

My new tank is based on a wooden cabinet. I'm customizing it for aquarium use, and am interested in doing what I can to reduce transmission of vibrations and therefore noise, primarily from the canister filter. Does anyone have experience with this? Was having a Google around and found that there are sound dampening foam pads for putting shower pumps on to deaden vibrations. I thought perhaps a thick bit of silicone might help. Or a nice raspberry jelly...


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## roadmaster (7 Feb 2017)

Foam pad for under the tank,or carpet under the filter(s) is all I do.
Eheim 2217's I use are near dead silent and can't hear em even after opening the cabinet.(run two on U.S.80 gal)
Gotta look to plant movement,or place hand on the canister to tell if they're running.
Might look to automotive sound dampener material?


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## Crusader58 (7 Feb 2017)

to eliminate resonance from my canister filter I cut a square out of the base of the cabinet, so that the canister is sitting on the floor ...worked a treat.


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## Coys (8 Feb 2017)

Either of the two ideas above sound good to me. I have my Eheim filter in a wooden cabinet and have it on a square of carpet plus a piece of polystyrene under each corner and it is now near silent; neither seemed to work sufficiently on their own. I also rest the filter tubing on a piece of polystyrene where it exits the cabinet to prevent any vibration transmission through the tubing to the cabinet.


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## zozo (9 Feb 2017)

Make sure the hoses do not touch anything or take a piece of filter sponge rapped around the tube in the hole of the cabinet where the hose runs through. If the hose touches the cabinet it becomes a resonance box, also put the canister on a mat of filter sponge.. And some pumps are just a bit noisier than others, probably bad construction design and to much play in the impeler or it shaft. Just take the whole filter ouside the cabinet and let it run freely in the room, so you get an indication how quite it is by itself like that. If i do this my pumps noise is barely noticeable, but in the cabinet i can hear it at the other end of the house when th rest is quiet..In a small confined space sound will always be amplified a bit and turn your cabinet into a loudspeaker. Especialy if canister or hose touches a hard surface, it even can make the door vibrate and make even more sound.

Sound reflects or bounces of the surface it hits. This surface can amplify or dampen the sound.. Think of, for example, you loudspeakers at home, they should always stand at least half a meter away from the wall or else the sound will hit the wall to soon and scater off.. Or go to a concert in room with concrete walls, no matter how good the sound man is, it always will sound awfull and sound scaters around like mad and can create frequenties irritating to your eardrums. Or make sound in an completely empty room, it scaters and echos, put furniture in and it sounds already beter.. Sound reflection is dampened by the furniture and eliminates that echo effect.

Anyway a very cheap solution is using those cardboard egg crates and glue this to the inside walls and ceiling of the cabinet and foam the floor. The cone shaped surface eliminates straight sound reflection and the air space behind the cardboard cones works as an isolator. Perfect for creating sound proof rooms. Or use those sound dampening foam mats, one side is flat the other has those cones to it. Glue the flat side to the cabinet walls..


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