wave maker advice

[crutch2]

need some advice on water movement i have an 8 foot tank wich is about 260gall i plan to get a tunze wavemaker do i have to have powerheads as well as i would just like to have the wavemaker i have read that it moves the whole tank volume so i shouldnt need power heads aswell ?

[BangkokMatt]

It all depends on what corals you want to keep. A Tunze is not going to give you anywhere near enough flow for sps for example. What do you plan on keeping ?

[crutch2]

ok i am going for a bit of everything, if the wave device does one wave a minute 60 an hour my tank is 1000 ltrs 60000ltrs an hour isnt that heaps more than 20 times wich is recomended when a pump may have an output of say 5000 ltrs per hr eg

[cdbias2]

People are doing 50x + turn over with chaotic random flow for SPS. 20x turnover is better suited for FOWLR and softies.

[crutch2]

ok missing the point its not about the corals, its about water movement is more the question i am tryining to understand the dynamics of moving the whole volume of the tank rather than moving differnt parts of the water volume does this make sense or am i confusing myself more any veiws on this

[BangkokMatt]

The Tunze Wave box should not really be considered for flow. This needs to be taken from powerheads and your return. The Tunze simply creates a wave motion. If you did take it into account for flow then its impact will be minimal. For example - if the box holds 3 litres of water and expells once a minute then the flow it produces per hour will be 3 x 60 = 180 litres per hour. Thats not even 1x your system.
(I don't actually know how much water they hold - if you do, that is how you work out the flow rate)

[ljosh]

I use the wavebox in my 125 Gallon. It does a good job at keeping stuff in suspension by when running by itself. Particulates kind of float moving a bit with each wave. Definately needs powerheads for the complete package. It can be hooked up with the the multi controller to other tunze pumps as well so they all work in unison.

In my tank the waves are constant and it definately moves all the water. The sand eventually ends up mostly in one corner of the tank. I am not sure if it would be as pronounced in a larger tank. They can also be joined together side by side or cross tank from each other for a greater effect. The second add on wavebox extension to do this cheaper.

[crutch2]

thanks guys i now have a better understanding of its rate of flow and of its water movement still want get one but will have to get tunze pumps to match