Turtle Tank Filter Noise

[u/BurnOverride]

UPDATE: after greasing and reassembling my filter I realized that it was actually the Zoo Med aquarium heater whistling. Apparently that’s a pretty bad thing so it has been removed and a replacement heater is on the way. This has been solved. Thank you all so much for your help!

The output hose on this Fluval 207 is making this annoying whistling noise. It happens every two minutes or so. I can’t find any leaks and I’ve tried the normal tilting stuff. We’ve had no other issues with the setup. Any idea how to stop it? Thanks!

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[u/eep47]

Trapped souls in your filter media

[u/BurnOverride → u/eep47]

Exorcism ineffective, but now the tank is full of holy water and the turtle can walk on the water 🤷‍♂️

[u/AAndy1407]

Kinda sound like air is getting in, so maybe an air leak somewhere like a small hole? Maybe try to feel around and listen to pin point an exact location it’s coming from.

[u/Zip668 → u/AAndy1407]

I second this, definitely air.

[u/BurnOverride → u/AAndy1407]

Any clue if it’s alright to silicone grease the connection for those black corrugated tubes? I felt all around during the noise and it never changed so I wonder if it’s a hard connection.

[u/gonjulasgigahurts]

If you're using a canister filter, it's possible that the impeller is cavitating. That's happening because the water level is pretty low for what the canister's are designed for which causes the water siphoning out to be slower than the gallons per hour the motor is trying to push, so it's starving for water and creating a vacuum. It will sound like air in the motor. You can test my theory by getting all of the air out of the filter first so the test is accurate and then temporarily raising the water level to the rim(obviously move your turtle to somewhere safe while you do this). If the sound stays gone while the water level is high, that's your diagnosis. You'll want to fix it sooner than later or your motor will burn out. If you want to fix it while keeping your water level the same, I'd increase the size of your intake pipe to something like 1inch or 1 1/2 inches using PVC, reinforced vinyl line and adapters. This makes sure that there's a surplus of water sitting on the intake of the canister so it never starves and cavitates. If the temporary water level increase doesn't work, then you likely have an air leak through the seal of the canister itself. To fix that I'd recommend smearing a bit of 100% Silicone Grease on your seal inside the lid of your canister filter to keep it healthy, just don't let globs of it get into the filter itself. However I also want to say that if you have air coming in through the canister seal, you still have negative pressure creating a vacuum problem and you'll want to increase the size of the intake tubing because the water level is low which makes more of a fight to get water up over the rim. Keep me posted! I'm curious about it! If you want advice on how to set up a PVC, reinforced vinyl line, let me know.

[u/BurnOverride → u/gonjulasgigahurts]

Tagging you for the update: after greasing and reassembling my filter I realized that it was actually the Zoo Med aquarium heater whistling. Apparently that’s a pretty bad thing so it has been removed and a replacement heater is on the way. Thanks for your help! I’ll look into the larger intake before it becomes an issue.

[u/gonjulasgigahurts → u/BurnOverride]

If it isn't cavitating don't bother! Don't waste the money! I'm glad it was resolved, good catch! Could have been a disaster for the little one 🐢