Wavebox, good or bad?

[Aquattro]

I keep thinking of installing a wave box in my 180, but I just have an uncomfortable fear that the stress of the rocking is bad, which might result in a broken tank. Pretty sure I've seen it happen before.

For those that run them on bigger tanks, how long have they been running, and have you had any issues or concerns (tank stress, stand shifting, etc)?

[Casey8]

As I have been doing research for my tank, I have read it somewhere that the wavebox will reduce life of your tank because its stressing your silicone tank back and forth with waves. But you can reduce the waves by lowering your box or even just let the box sit at the bottom of the tank.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Casey8

As I have been doing research for my tank, I have read it somewhere that the wavebox will reduce life of your tank because its stressing your silicone tank back and forth with waves. But you can reduce the waves by lowering your box or even just let the box sit at the bottom of the tank.

Kinda my concern, right there. Reduce life by how much? Should I start buying a lot of mops and a spare 180?

[Casey8]

Every web site I have read it says will reduce about 1/3 some said 1/4 life of your tank ... whatever ... I want to get one for myself in the future anyway. Just don't make it over half inch waves, I think my tank will be OK for another 8 years. I don't want to look my fish are dancing back and forth with waves, it makes me dizzy just to look at the fish from some other people's tank.

[Mrfish55]

I ran one for 3 years on my 300 with no I'll effects but it did break down 3 times, finally gave up and replaced it with a pair of MP 40 s I did like the wave effect on the corals and there was no dead spots in the tank but for the money mine was a POS and I will not replace it.

[Aquattro]

All I'm trying to do is get a more even flow. I have 4 Tunze in the tank, but they're all at the top, and I get a lot of detritus settling on my rock work. I could turkey baste the rock every 6 hours, so figured some more random flow, not top down, might help that. I have a sequence that I can program into my Apex that will apparently give me the waves without the box, but again, I'm concerned with tank integrity.

[Mrfish55]

Big tanks are usually overbuilt, I never had any concerns about tank integrity and I have never heard of a tank failure that could be directly related to the use of a wave box, I have seen surge units in use that looked far more severe than a wave box and those tanks never had an issue as well.

[Borderjumper]

I loved mine..Without it the detritus settles on the rock tons more than it did with the wave box.. BUT as you know, for some reason the bottom of that tank cracked. The Seastar guy found nothing wrong with the tank, or the stand.

I don't know if the wave box had anything to do with it.. But in my mind it may have.

[lpsreefer]

I run two on my 6 foot tank for over a year now. No problems. Yet.

[Delphinus]

I think you can get unlucky with a tank with or without a wavebox. Honestly I think if a wb pushes things over the edge then there was a latent flaw to begin with. A 10% reduction in lifespan is a WAG at best. So 1 year out of 10 ... But who has a tank longer than 5 years anyhow n very few.

I was worried at first with my tank because I heard stories of plants leaves wiggling when left on the tank, but on my tank with 2 there was absolutely no movement to the glass from the wave.

What you do need to watch out for is the overflow height from the top of the tanks. A tank with wb should have a lower overflow.

My $0.02 anyhow.