Tunze wave box

[randallino]

I was wondering for those of you running T. wave boxes if you run them 24/7 or with the light sensor.
Thanks,

[Jack]

When I had mine I used the light sensor. Gave the fish a chance to sleep.

[christyf5]

I run mine 24/7, I have a small blenny that likes to hide in there when its turned off. I have enough trouble making sure he isn't in there when I do tank maintenance that requires it be off. He'd be toast if I used the light sensor

[lastlight]

What the idea behind that? Is the ocean actually calmer under the surface at night? I didn't think it was?

[kien]

I don't have a wave maker but I do employ that same philosophy with my powerheads. During the day they run at 100% while at night I dial them down to 50%. The reason I do this is because I have a lot of open space under my rock work that gets a lot of flow and I found some of my fish had a hard time finding a spot to rest at night and there were territorial issues that came with that. Once I started dialing back my powerheads my fish could rest anywhere and they were happy with that. This did not seem to affect the grow or health of my corals so that's pretty much how I have operated my flow for over a year now.

In the ocean I would agree that the water movement is pretty much the same night and day. However, in the ocean the fish have a hell of a lot more hiding places that they can retreat too at night. I would imagine that these hiding places would tend to be much calmer than the open water. So if you've got enough rock work for fish to hide and rest at night then you should be okay to run your wavemaker 24/7.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by lastlight

What the idea behind that? Is the ocean actually calmer under the surface at night? I didn't think it was?

I thought it was calmer due to cooling of the air, less wind currents to produce waves and yada yada yada??

[lastlight]

Yeah that makes sense. I though the surface didn't have much effect on the water deeper below or something tho?

Kien what you said makes sense tho. The real reef is much larger and has far more depth to it which must mean calmer zones inside.

[randallino]

Thanks for the replies. I'm cutting back on the amount of light, but would like to keep at least 12 hr's of wave movement. I do have a small powerhead that runs 24/7.

[Jack]

Yes it's definatly calmer at night on the reef. There is much less wind and much less waves. Seen it while diving and snorkeling on different reefs around the world.

[Delphinus]

The only thing I found with the light sensor is that as soon as the lights are off, poof, so are the waves. I wish it had a feature where it could run at say 10% or 25% power like what Kien described. Or at least ramp itself down to 0%. Suppose there's an argument for a more programmable controller.

Hi Jack, when did you get back into a 200g tank? Awesome!