honestly its not loud at all... my damn power head makes more noise... i clean it out ones a month .. just rinse the bio balls that are inside that plastic net canister thing inside the canister... rinse that and rinse inside the canister get all the debris out and its good to go..... and no problems so far. The only thing i would say sucks about it is... everytime you unplug it for a while like anytime u have to restart it... you have to like suck on it to start the whole thing up... first time i tried this(didnt know what would happen and how) i got splashed in the face...
was told to suck on it to get it going.. so i did but i never covered the tube back up and wam right in my face.