Loaches Online Forum

Hi All,

This might be silly question but my husband has installed a sony dolby sound home theatre in our lounge room where our monster 6 x 4 foot tank is. One speaker is a distance of about 1 metre away from the corner of the tank and the other is about 6 metres away. My question is could the noise/frequency or reverb levels of the speakers have a negative effect on the tank at all? I would be worried it may cause cracking (although obviously the tank is extremely well made and think glass etc) or worse, cause it to spontaneously explode?

I've tested it our briefly on the volume level we intend on having it on and the fish look none the wiser (family of 11 Clown Loaches, Congos, Neons, Cardinals, Lemons, Pristellas, Black Skirts, Red Serpaes, Yoyo's, Peppermint and Clown Plecos, 1 Angelfish and some bronze Corydoras). They were calmly going about their business without a worry in the world.

Am I being super paranoid? Does anyone else have home theatres in the vicinity of large aquariums?

I think I found the answer after a bit of research but I'll post here incase anyone wonders in the future

Mythbusters actually did I segment about it, and even with sound from fighter jet they couldn't break glass.

Apparently the silicone may expand and the glass may flex in very very loud extremes, but music or sound from a home theatre speaker won't crack the glass. I also read that the water acts like a buffer, dampening the noise somewhat and ensuring the structural integrity of the tank

The only hesitation Is that some breed of fish can feel the noises in their lateral lines, but I guess if you perform a test first i.e.; the fish don't look distressed or are running to their hiding spots then all should be fine .Especially if its only going to be a couple of hours a day.

When I was young, I had my stereo speakers on the same shelf as several of my smaller aquariums and fairly near my larger tanks as well. The only effect I ever noticed was that my fish seemed to like my music almost as much as I did, especially the oscars. (yes, I played it loud. I was a kid!)

We have a decent home theater setup in the same room as our tank now, and it doesn't seem to have any effect on the tank or the fish whatsoever.

I suspect that the only way you'd have a problem is if you placed a tank directly onto a high-power subwoofer, which seems like an unlikely course of action.

Hope this helps.