DIY Wavebox

[pwhitby]

I was told, that if you are designing a tank for a certain size.....you get a certain grade/thickness of material. Now...if you are adding a wavebox, that needs to be increased. As to how true that actually is, I can not say.

The other issue, and this is way more important is in connection with wave height and overflows. Its possible to get a decnet sized wave on a tank, and that can cause splashing and or spills at the ends. The up and down motion can lead to a rush of water into an overflow and then a lack of flow into the overflow. If you have just a singe overflow it can cause the overflow to be a little less efficient and and can lead to an imbalance between pumped water and and overflow water out.

I really like the idea of the great water flow that can be created with these units....and for very low wattage.

 

[captbunzo]

There are a lot of issues with the use of a wavebox in a tank. Amongst them are those mentioned above, as well as issues with excessive salt creep and decreased skimmer performance. And as far as corals go, while it may look neat, they are going to do just as well with turbulence created by high-quantity and diffuse flow.

But I do agree, this looks REALLY cool and would be fun to implement. At Extreme Corals they have this really cool wavemaker setup on their 40 foot long tank. It is powered by one of the Sequence Reeflo pumps.

Another issue..... That rapid on and off of a maxijet will ABSOLUTELY kill the pump within a month or 2 or 3. They are not made to be turned on and off that rapidly. That is why most wavemaker pumps run constantly with the box simply filling and emptying in a toilet plunger fashion...

I'd love to do a nice REALLY long tank someday - say 1 foot tall by 2 foot deep and 16 foot long. Then setup a rolling wave across the length of the tank.

 

[mskohl]

okay, you guys have me sufficiently scared to use my tunze controller now.

 

[captbunzo]

Is it a controller or a surge device? Controllers are better...