Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It is adjustable and comes with air stones, back flow valves and connectors, which makes it the best deal at this price point. It is whisper quiet on low, and has a noticeable hum in a silent room when running on high. I'm running the filtration in my 15 gallon tank with this pump set on "medium" and it's nearly silent... much quieter than my previous powerhead. It also has vibration dampening (soft rubber), sound isolating (pointy) feet. Here's how to make it even *more* quiet: BUY MORE CAPACITY If you need quiet, I buy an adjustable pump at a twice the capacity you need, then turning it down to half capacity. The harder the pump has to work, the louder it will be. A bigger pump set to a low setting is actually quieter than a similar design small pump, pumping the same amount of air on "high". DOUBLE THE HOSE You can increase airflow on a lower setting buy doubling the hose; here's how. If you only need one hose, you can pair the outputs with the included "T" connector to double air flow while keeping it on medium power--an almost silent setup. Just make sure to use both back flow valves *between* the "T" and the output on each hose, rather than using only one after the junction. This is because each back flow valve is a choke-point (i.e. the smallest point through which the air must flow). Having two valves keeps resistance low which increases the total amount of air moving through your hose. The easier it is for your pump to push the amount of air that you need, the quieter your pump will be. COVER IT UP If you've followed my advice and bought an adjustable higher capacity pump, you shouldn't have any problems with it overheating if you wrap it in soundproofing material (i.e. a washcloth). Get as fancy as you want here; just make sure it's not getting hot. NO TOUCHY No "hard" part of this device should have contact with any other "hard" item... especially air stones on glass! If anything hard is pushing air and touches anything else hard--especially the tank glass--it will act just like a "woofer" in projecting vibration as sound. Try this experiment: dangle an active air stone in the water against the glass... now close to the glass... now in the middle of the tank. Notice how it quickly goes from LOUD to indistinguishable once it's more than an inch away from the glass? You can use this same experiment on other parts and objects within the tank to see if they carry sound. Any air attached to these objects should be carefully done with sound dampening material: like rubber or silicone suction cups. The more space, the better.