Neptune Aquatics

Tunze wavemaker

islandcreation

islandcreation

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I was looking into getting a wavebox but had a question. Do these boxes tell you the amount of GPH output? If not, how do you calculate the amount of turnover in a tank? I ask cause I'd take out one of my powerheads and replace it with the wave maker. Thanks
 
Wave Boxes on their own don't move much water, they only create a small standing wave. Most use other PH's for their flow and the WB for the "motion".

FWIW "turnover" is a useless calculation, just like watts per gallon.
 
What Gresham said. Wave boxes are normally for additional flow. I wouldn't remove a pump to add a wave box.
 
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=5727.msg71689#msg71689 date=1230407112]
Wave Boxes on their own don't move much water, they only create a small standing wave. Most use other PH's for their flow and the WB for the "motion".

FWIW "turnover" is a useless calculation, just like watts per gallon.
[/quote]

Then how would one know wether or not they have the right flow? With lighting you can test for PAR so I can understand that watts rule is false. But how can one test for the correct flow? My only test would be visual movement of polyps extension. Besides watching surface agitation and making sure there are no dead spots via detritus build up.
 
We had a presentation on water movement and the guy (sorry forgot his name) basically said that corals will increase growth with increased flow, PERIOD. So, basically you try to add as much flow as possible until it starts to "hurt" the corals. For example my mushrooms would shrivel and die at the flow I have going over my SPS. One way you can measure flow is by adding bubbles to your tank and watching them. I just add an airstone before my return pump and see what happens in the tank.

BTW, I also was looking into a Tunze Wavebox and I'm instead going with an Ecotech setup. It actually adds "real"
flow to your tank and costs less than a wavebox.
 
Well the way the Tunze type of wavemake works IIRC is that it ramps up to maximum output, then slows down to near off allowing water to fill back up (I'm not sure if it actually goes all the way off). The actual flow that is being done by the thing would be an average of the speeds as a function of time. If you take a really simplistic approach where it goes 100% on, then instantly off and it's on the same time it's off, simply take the max flow of the pump that's in the thing and divide by two.

Its still a bit silly though, since if the waves are reinforcing one another you can get more energy in the water than you think.
 
Matt, it really depends on the tank to which will work better for you. The tunze wavebox is good only for longer tanks. 5 foot or longer. If your tanks is shorter the wave will not build as much and the wavebox will be pretty disappointing. Tunze makes a nano wavebox that is good for smaller tanks. I personally have 3 vortechs and a tunze nano wavebox on my tank. You should see the flow lol. Left to right wave created by 2 vortechs is about 1"+. Front to back wave created by the nano wavebox is about 1/2". Mike can attest to the water movement.
 
[quote author=iani link=topic=5727.msg71733#msg71733 date=1230441455]
Matt, it really depends on the tank to which will work better for you. The tunze wavebox is good only for longer tanks. 5 foot or longer. If your tanks is shorter the wave will not build as much and the wavebox will be pretty disappointing. Tunze makes a nano wavebox that is good for smaller tanks. I personally have 3 vortechs and a tunze nano wavebox on my tank. You should see the flow lol. Left to right wave created by 2 vortechs is about 1"+. Front to back wave created by the nano wavebox is about 1/2". Mike can attest to the water movement.
[/quote]

I have a 120 48x24x24 so I was gearing towards a nano wavebox. I can't imagine how much flow you have with 3 vortechs and a wavebox. Once the I get the wavebox I'll have two Koralia 3's, one koralia 4, and two 1" seaswirls. I'd generaly like to go with a vortech setup but getting two MP40 and using one as a slave would cost alot more than a single nano wavebox. I know thats the way to go but funds are a little low. Thanks for the input.
 
Well, I think you will be disappointed with the nano wavebox. I have a 48x30x20 tank in my tank there was a 1/2" max wave left to right with the nano wave box. One vortech did a lot better than the nano wavebox in making a wave left to right.
 
[quote author=iani link=topic=5727.msg71745#msg71745 date=1230448522]
Well, I think you will be disappointed with the nano wavebox. I have a 48x30x20 tank in my tank there was a 1/2" max wave left to right with the nano wave box. One vortech did a lot better than the nano wavebox in making a wave left to right.
[/quote]

The vortech your referring to was a MP40 right? Thanks for the heads up.
 
mp40w. It must be the wireless version as the mp40 (non-wireless) doesn't have the wave controller that will allow you to do the pulse mode needed for the wave.
 
[quote author=islandcreation link=topic=5727.msg71706#msg71706 date=1230413071]
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=5727.msg71689#msg71689 date=1230407112]
Wave Boxes on their own don't move much water, they only create a small standing wave. Most use other PH's for their flow and the WB for the "motion".

FWIW "turnover" is a useless calculation, just like watts per gallon.
[/quote]

Then how would one know wether or not they have the right flow? With lighting you can test for PAR so I can understand that watts rule is false. But how can one test for the correct flow? My only test would be visual movement of polyps extension. Besides watching surface agitation and making sure there are no dead spots via detritus build up.
[/quote]

Flow isn't like lighting where you only have a few things effecting how much light hits a tank. With flow everything in your tank effects it so what works best in your tank may not even be remotely enough for another tank. This is one reason why "turn over" is useless. How you arrange your rocks, how big they are, how porous they are, where you direct your flow, what pump you use, how many corals you have, how large they are, sand bed/no sand bed, etc... all effect how much flow is in a tank. Giving a number is rather meaningless due to all those factors. Flow is measured in cm/s. Take a bubble passing by, or debris, and count how fast it travels across a known measurement.
[quote author=Dyngoe link=topic=5727.msg71710#msg71710 date=1230421804]
We had a presentation on water movement and the guy (sorry forgot his name) basically said that corals will increase growth with increased flow, PERIOD. So, basically you try to add as much flow as possible until it starts to "hurt" the corals. For example my mushrooms would shrivel and die at the flow I have going over my SPS. One way you can measure flow is by adding bubbles to your tank and watching them. I just add an airstone before my return pump and see what happens in the tank.[/quote]

Jake Adams was his name :) He mentioned several methods to measure flow in aquaria, bubbles, debris, even oatmeal (not in a set up aquarium though :) )[. Cm per second is the most common measurement. Several people (including myself) have tried to make a cheap flow measuring device for aquaria but no one has put one out as of yet.
 
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