Merits and Drawbacks of a standing wave?

[JNalley]

Just curious what everyone's thoughts are on a standing wave in the aquarium? I've tried a bunch of different turbulent patterns to mix up the flow throughout the tank, but nothing ever gave me that satisfying back and forth sway, so I dialed my wavemakers in to create a standing wave and so far I think I like it, but I'm curious if there are any drawbacks or benefits I will see other than what I am able to observe with such a short run time.

 

[LuizW13]

I've seen a few threads for this topic before and the general consensus is that a back and forth wave puts additional stress on the silicon seams of the tank.

 

[JNalley]

I've seen a few threads for this topic before and the general consensus is that a back and forth wave puts additional stress on the silicon seams of the tank.

yeh, I knew that one already, probably should have mentioned it, and I could totally see that being a problem in a 300 Gallon tank with the weight of the water going back and forth, but on this little 32.5 Gallon tank, I'm at least hoping it's not enough volume to pop a seam.

 

[LuizW13]

yeh, I knew that one already, probably should have mentioned it, and I could totally see that being a problem in a 300 Gallon tank with the weight of the water going back and forth, but on this little 32.5 Gallon tank, I'm at least hoping it's not enough volume to pop a seam.

Yeah same, currently I can quite make a back and forth motion just one mp10 in a 50g lagoon- and trying to sync my mp10 with the other aqamai is annoying lol. But I do want a back and forth motion eventually; maybe in a few months i'll fork over the money for another vortech and do it.

 

[JNalley]

Yeah same, currently I can quite make a back and forth motion just one mp10 in a 50g lagoon- and trying to sync my mp10 with the other aqamai is annoying lol. But I do want a back and forth motion eventually; maybe in a few months i'll fork over the money for another vortech and do it.

a little off-topic, but I can't quite wrap my head around the money for a Vortech... It's an odd trade-off... No wires in the tank, but I've completely lost my ability to direct the flow where I want and am at the mercy of flow being completely perpendicular to the surface it's attached to at all times for the rest of eternity...

 

[ATXreefer]

I watched a video on Youtube a while back (may have been from a tank manufacturer, can't remember) and they said the standing wave will decrease the life of the tank from roughly 15 years to 10 years or at least somewhere in that ballpark. If you're going to keep your tank for less than 10 years, you'll probably be ok!

 

[ZoWhat]

Me personally... I think a standing wave among LPS is not beneficial and actually irritates them.... causing them to be less fleshy

My zoas and Alan's respind negatively to medium flow

For SPS, I think it's beneficial

For mixed.... conflict of interest btwn LPS and SPS

 

[LuizW13]

a little off-topic, but I can't quite wrap my head around the money for a Vortech... It's an odd trade-off... No wires in the tank, but I've completely lost my ability to direct the flow where I want and am at the mercy of flow being completely perpendicular to the surface it's attached to at all times for the rest of eternity...

Man, I'll take the no wires in my tank over a slight angle of a powerhead any day. I have an mp10 and an aqamai kps on my 50, and a hydor in my 25 and every time I see those wires, I cringe a little. ;Inpain

 

[ATXreefer]

Start watching at 5:45

 

[JNalley]

Me personally... I think a standing wave among LPS is not beneficial and actually irritates them.... causing them to be less fleshy

For SPS, I think it's beneficial

For mixed.... conflict of interest btwn LPS and SPS

Hmm, thanks, I'll have to keep an eye out on my LPS and see how they fair with it... If they start to retract I'll change it back

 

[JNalley]

Start watching at 5:45

Yeah, I've watched that, that's when I got interested in the idea but was deterred by the 1/2 life of the tank. The thing is, the more I got to thinking about it, a 300 Gallon tank might have a little bit more silicone holding it together, but not by a factor of 10 (so my 32.5 does not have 1/10 the silicone holding it together) Which means strength will be inversely proportional to the size of the tank, as the size of the tank goes up, the weaker at the seams it becomes. At least that's the theory my brain has concocted for me to justify trying it out all of a sudden.

 

[LuizW13]

That Tunze wave box is so cool, but you'd need something like 200g tank for that thing to disappear.

 

[JNalley]

That Tunze wave box is so cool, but you'd need something like 200g tank for that thing to disappear.

the longer I run this hobby, the more appealing a 3D Background becomes, so you can hide things like overflows, waveboxes, returns, powerheads, and wires... I think I'm going to try to build one for my next tank and see how it goes

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Yeah, I've watched that, that's when I got interested in the idea but was deterred by the 1/2 life of the tank. The thing is, the more I got to thinking about it, a 300 Gallon tank might have a little bit more silicone holding it together, but not by a factor of 10 (so my 32.5 does not have 1/10 the silicone holding it together) Which means strength will be inversely proportional to the size of the tank, as the size of the tank goes up, the weaker at the seams it becomes. At least that's the theory my brain has concocted for me to justify trying it out all of a sudden.

Contact patch plays a big role in seam strength too, a 300g will be made with thicker glass than a 32g

 

[JNalley]

Contact patch plays a big role in seam strength too, a 300g will be made with thicker glass than a 32g

for sure, but again, it's not by a factor of 10, right? Glass thickness for my tank is 1/4", glass thickness for 300 Gallon is normally 5/8", so just over double. A 300-gallon tank is around 24" tall, my tank is 15" tall, so let's say twice again. That's a factor of 4, so it uses about 4x the silicone my tank does. I would imagine that this is why you don't generally see 50,000 gallon all glass tanks, because as the tank gets larger, the less effective silicone is at holding the seams together and you need different construction methods. Or do I have something wrong somewhere? I'm more than willing to learn, but short of building 2 tanks myself, I have no way of knowing exactly how much silicone each uses...