Fish tank newbie can anyone help?

[porcelaincider]

Hi

We have recently bought a fish tank for my daughter and we are cycling the tank at the moment ready for her new fishes arrival...omg the filter is sooo loud 😖

Is there any way we could turn it off maybe on a timer for a few hours around bedtime? Or is this very cruel? I obviously don't want to kill the fish but some people have tanks / bowls with no filter at all ?

Thanks in advance

Filters are 24/7 - it's like you being locked in a cell with one pipe for air, if that's turned off, game over. The only time it should be turned off is during routine tank maintenance such as partial water changes.

Some fish may survive, for a while, without a filter but it is not a good life and it's also usually pretty short.

The filter should be considered another organism in your tank, the most important one. Keep the filter happy, the filter will keep your fish happy. It will soon be teaming with lots of good bacteria once you've cycled it, that bacteria requires water flow to remain fed and have oxygen. It starts dying as soon as the filter goes off.

What cycling process are you using?

What style and brand of filter is it? What size tank?

The quietest filter I have running is my canister filter on my 200L. The little power filter in my 25L is more of a nightmare with suckers failing to keep it in place. Drives me nuts that thing. Big filters > small cheap filters!