that was my point, perhaps it is the water level that is making the noise and not the filter

You can get an aquaclear, they are very quiet as well. I use 2 on my 30 gallon eventhough that is over filtration. I also use a bubbler. The quietest bubbler is the whisper bubblers you cant even tell they are on when it's right infront of you.

I am building a canister filter right now, and if you decide to go that way you can wait until I get done and I can post a detailed description of steps and pictures. It will take me about a couple of days or so to get that done. What's great about them is you can add any kind of filtration you would like. I am thinking of doing a fluidized bed filter, which consists of PVC pipe going from top to bottom and pushes water through it then back up through the sand. This will probably be the best bio filtration. But you can do pretty much any DIY setup for a canister filter.

Like make my own canister filter, I could afford a canister but the only one I can find for a 29 gallon is one that works on freshwater, not saltwater, eventually I want to go saltwater. By the way, I found and 8 gallon bio cube for 100$ after all the salt mizes and heater and fish and live rock and sand how much do you think it would be? It's either canister filter for freshwater, or a small marine tank...

$texas...



anyways... buy any affordable canister then... they're all pretty quiet...
i'm a marineland guy, and i have a couple of marineland 350 canisters... i'm looking to buy thier new c-series canister soon... hot stuff... but it's also very $texas...

I found the Rena Filstar series is a good deal for the capacity and it's silent. With a lot of plants regardless of the filter there will be less water flow. I actually like to see my plants moving in the current, but it depends on if you use co2 or not. I'd still like to pump in 2wice the co2 and have some surface agitation than have a tank that makes me feel stagnant when I look at it just to prevent co2 blow off..