Can a Fish Tank Interfere with a Wireless Network?

Although my wife gets really upset every time I tell her to move, if she stands between my laptop and the router hub, I have no signal.

The tank may be either absorbing the signal or reflecting it, I don't know.

Go with sue's advice.

That sounds fishy!!!!

But looking at the Ariel designs and the explanations of HAM radio gurus the width of the tank may be critical - swing the tank by a few degrees and test again.

Thanks, Sue. I should of googled it myself. The tank is on a wooden cabinet which has metal tubes capping the lower ends of the legs into which the caster wheels go. That's probably also interfering.

A wife induced communication problem, who would have thought it?

BAB

Already answered well by #1.

My 2 cents...

Home wireless RF at 2.4 GHz is near one of the water resonance frequencies used in MW ovens. While metal structures (shelve, cabinets, etc.) could either be a barrier or a reflector (the latter enhancing network performance), one would expect a large tank of water to absorb this RF signal with minimal reflections. The water in the fish tank does seem to be the cause of your problem.

A problem could be the arc noise of the fluorescent bulb. This broad spectrum white noise will lift the noise floor and degrade your signal to noise ratio.you might try a faraday cage on the bulbs on the tank tank by the use of the extra thin metal films use on windows or metal fly screen, make sure no water drips from the metal into the tank, Heavy metals = bad for fish. You could use LED lamps.

I do no think the presence of a tank of water will bother the wifi unless it is in a direct path.

It is lit by an Incandescent bulb

Simple fix:

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I knew it was going to happen. Filter all water....Filter all water....Filter all water.... government has launched nanobots to steel our wifi signals and to spy on us.......even in the shower!

pull the router out of the tank. Or get a bubbling diving man or treasure chest repeater.

Are you saying I'm "cooking" myself using the wifi?? That doesn't sound good. Is there anyway to protect from this? There are at least 5 other wifi's from neighbors that I receive on my computer!

Are you absorbing some of your WiFi signal? Certainly. Before you freak out, the energy levels you absorb are TINY! On the order of 1E-9 Watts. About 1E-12 times smaller than in a typical microwave oven. That's 1/1,000,000,000,000 of a MW oven!

You are exposed to far more radiation, toxins, pollutants, and other physical hazards from so many other daily sources that WiFi signals should not be on your "worry" list!

Geez Lyn are you on the verge of living dangerously or what??

On a serious note here folks, propagation studies here in "End-of-the-Earth", Oregon for some local hotels have, time and again, shown that water features and other decorative structures both degrade the signal AND cause some truly bizarre reflections.

The only true "solution", is to get the management personnel to "walk" with you and observe the fluctuations as they actually occur. When they see that the placement of the Access Point within a convenient concrete pillar was a nice use of a cavity but the rebar only allowed five feet of signal, they DO change their collective minds.

Do you have a signal meter or a 'Hawking' utility in your laptop??

Please advise. I know of no other solution other than the hard work of diagramming the situation. It is worth it, though!!

As always, way ta' go Sue!!

r/s, Gar

OK folks, let's get a little bit serious here!! NOBODY ever records propogation data prior to a dismal event. That said, was there an event history before the installation of the tank?? In reference to the initial query, there are wi-fi devices in many rooms. Were some more "spotty" than others?? Have all of the "move and shake" options been explored??

With all of the variables involved here, I would first do a baseline test such as: http://www.speedtest.net/ . Remember, most of this is just "geography" writ small.

Keep in touch...

r/s

Gar

Try unplugging your fish tank heater and pump. Does the Wifi signal get better? Fish tank heaters are notorious sources of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Many times when investigating a customer RFI complaint, we find the source to be a neighbor's fish tank heater.

bring electric eel into the tank, the problem will be solved..