Benefits of a Wave Maker
 

What are the benefits of a wave maker? Please share your experiences here.

I prefer the random flow modes.
Stirs up detritus to me is one of the biggest advantages.

Aside from looking cool, lots of random flow is pretty beneficial to everything in the tank. Removes waste and brings food. I usually run my mp10s on nutrient transport mode.

Is there a difference from putting two power heads facing each other or a mp10 as the 2 power heads facing each other would create random flow too.

No
Mp10s and Mp40s have different programs, you can adjust the rate and flow and pulse time as well. The can be synced together or in anti-sync. There really is no comparison between wave makers or controllable power heads to the conventional power heads.

Im sure that would work just fine, its more the controllability of the mp10s that appeals to most people. That and they are quite powerful for what they are. I only have 2 in my 75 and there is plenty of flow. But having waves is far from necessary more just a luxury. Well worth the investment though. IMO anyways.

the best thing about a wave maker is that if you have a lot of soft corals it makes them sway back and forth. :mrgreen:

Steve

Im assuming your talking controllable powerheads, which are better in every way. Although we started with the JBJ ocean pulse wavemaker, which basically just switches power on and off, you can pretty much plug any power head into it. Its a good cheap solution that works until you can step up to the full controllable ones, we noticed a difference just going to that. Of course once we jumped up to the Tunze wavemakers (which I think are better than the vortechs but im sure thats a hot topic) we noticed an even bigger difference. I strongly recommend getting into something controllable as soon as you can.

That's exactly what I thought; it's all about the visual appeal of having tentacles sway back and forth! What about SPS dominated tanks? Is there any benefit to having wavemakers for SPS?

There is benefit to every type of tank, I have personally never run SPS but im sure its a staple to have controllable power heads

Well SPS needs way more flow than a softie tank.
Vortech
Tunze
Jebaeo

Anything else is a waste of money especially those zapping Hydor crap.

+1

I go for mass water flow in a SPS tank, I don't think I could have ever achieved the flow I had in my 92 gal with wave makers, I think by the end I was up to almost 170X turnover rate.

Steve

You should give some WP40/60s a try....maybe you will change your mind ;)

I've always had Vortechs and I now have Tunzes.
Someone posted that they were having a hard time synching the WPs together. Is this true? For the price of these pumps they look pretty sweet.

Google "JEBAO TWINS LINKAGE CONTROLLER". I think this may work :) (can't post the link directly since that would violet the rule of this forum).

Hmm. It looks like that'll do the trick. Since Concept sells the pumps now maybe Denny can post something on their forum:wink: pretty sure it won't be violating any rules

Yah once they start bringing them in. :smile: Need to add a wp25 and this controller (maybe even swap the wp40 to 25 and add a 2nd one) to the tank but will have to wait; the light stripped me off my savings.

I've had a wave maker from day one of my tank of 4.5 years. I love it, especially the fact that my wave box is external

Plus 1 I liked it so much when we saw it copied his idea, have the 2 external wave boxes. Altho I love flow so I supplemented with a 3 rd wave box pump and 4 mp 40

Never enough flow I think.

in both my 97 and 400 the improved polyp extension after i added waveboxes was noticeable. i'd love to run one on my current tank but have no room.

Nope, dont like waves. Makes overflows not skimm the surface as good, makes some loud, and you have to have less water in the display. Plus with my new build as it is a smaller tank i am not putting any poweheads or anything in it. Right now i am trying to come up with my own design of an alternating closed loop. Just trying to figure out how to keep fish from getting sucked to the side of the tank as it is going to suck from one end and return to the other, then alternate every 6 hours

Steve

Alternating flow is how our corals breathe and process their wastes.
It doesn't matter if it's a wavemaker or just powerheads switching on and off.
I think the importance of water movement is underrated. I see a lot of people upgrading their lights and then blaming the lights on their corals bleaching or otherwise suffering, but I don't see a lot of mention where the water flow was up graded as well.

Wavemakers, I think, are harder on aquarium stands. It's a lot of weight shifting shifting back and forth.
I had a 320g with a wavemaker and a 1 1/2" steel tubular stand.
I could measure the flex in the stand with the wavemaker going.
Not good long term.

I think about 8 years ago I did and experiment and came to the conclusion that water flow can prevent bleaching and posted about it. I am a firm believer in the benefits of massive water flow.

Steve

A wavemaker isnt necessarily needed but I think alternating current is a must.

There is an article on RKM that talks about how flow is actually more important than lighting.

I think I run about 9000 GPH of turnover. Adding Vortech's I noticed an immediate difference in polyp extension and color. Not to mention it looked like a snowstorm when I added them and it wasn't sand, that was how much detritus regular powerheads were missing.

The tank is SPS dominant now … I could never give up my MP40's now … I just can't imagine running a tank without the anymore.

Lojack, maybe you could post a link to that article?

Right, keep in mind we're talking about flow for sps.
Lps and soft corals don't require quite as strong of flow.

Study from 2000:
(I recently posted this in another thread)

http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/212/m212p301.pdf

Advanced Aquarist articles from 2006 onward:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/9/aafeature2

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/aafeature

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature