Wavebox water movement aproximation

[mmmmsushi]

I don't have a wave box and my math is probably completely wrong, but here goes. Anyone correct me where I'm wrong.

If I had a 200gal tank. And the Wavebox moved the entire volume every 2 seconds(freq??)


30 waves/minute * 60 minutes/hour= 1800 waves/hour

1 wave = 200 gal

(200 gal *1800 waves)/hour = 360,000 gallons per hour

wow? Can this be correct?

 

[rvitko]

Not quite, you need to figure out the volume of the wave, which is easy to roughly figure, if you have a 120, the tank is 24" high. Every inch of water in the aquarium is 5 gals of water, so, a wave of 1" height is 5 gals, but the wave crest is half the tanks length, making it 2.5 gals. So we take 2.5 * the frequency which couldn't be longer than 1.5 seconds. Let us assume it is about 1 sec. 60 waves a minute, 60 minutes in an hour so 2.5 * 60 *60 or 9000 gph. That is a rough estimate for a 120. In your tank it is probably about 15,000 gph.

 

[mmmmsushi]

That makes sense. I guess that really doesn't matter much though.

I feel like the actual effectivness is greater than that though. No area of the tank is in any way stagnant any two seconds in a row. I guess the water flow calc isn't that helpful. Go along with me on this one. Let me live in my little fantasy world where the wave box runs on fairy dust and moves water with the power of Neptune himself.

 

[rvitko]

Well, 15000gph for 55w of power is still bordering on fantasy.