Standing wave and is It a bad idea

[AustinBabler]

So since I went AI with my lights I loved their app and how easy it is to control my lighting I picked up an AI Nero 5 to try because well why not. I’ve been running Hydor Korelia 3g 1350’s for flow in my tank and while they definitely do the job and are pretty budget friendly they are HUGE and with my tank only being 3ft long I felt they took up more then enough space. My question though is this because I’ve seen it on a few Facebook groups I’m in and it kind of bothers me……pulse feature… everytime someone mentions making a standing wave It seems like they get the third degree from people about stressing the tank seams. Now I would like to up my surface agitation game (which was another reason for this purchase) and this pulse flow pattern seems like a good way to get it done. Is creating a standing wave going to blow my seams out on my tank? Is anyone else making a wave and the tank holding up to it well? Maybe I’m being paranoid but with what these tanks cost I don’t really want to put unnecessary stress on the glass. That’s the one thing I do like about my Korelia’s is I can point them anywhere. The Nero however is pretty much solid.

 

[jda]

Been running a Tunze wave box for at least a decade and probably more like two.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

What do you mean by a standing wave? Like what the tunze wavemaker box does?

or an actual constant surge of water on one side of the tank ala the constant sort of wave in those surf things at some pools? (I’m not sure a pulse mode on a power head could hope to do this or how it could be done without pushing water out of the tank)

Both options do put more stress than the typical gyre or reef crest power head settings. The wavemaker enough that it probably does shorten a tank seals life, but not catastrophically.

Having a constant surge like a wave constantly being pushed against one side…yeah if it’s enough to actually create a wave on the surface constantly I wouldn’t do it..

 

[AustinBabler]

Yeah kinda like a wave box. Just makes a small wave that goes across the top of the water. It’s only making it halfway across. Just enough to bounce my feeding ring up and down pretty good. That ring is like 8-10” from the power head

 

[ReefHog]

I do a slow standing wave on my 220 using two Neptune wavs. I have them set to 1.6 seconds at each end of the tank with one on inverse. I get a nice gentle back and forth sway. Mine is a rimmed tank. I would think a braced tank would be ok. Not sure I would do it with a rimless though. Those seem to be the tanks with seam failures even without standing waves.

 

[jda]

For more than a decade people have asked for actual proof of tank failures with wave pumps. There have been some anecdotes, but not yet any real proof. I think that these are plenty safe to use if the tank is built right. If the tank sucks, then it is a house of cards anyway, right?

 

[WVNed]

and then there is the slopping of water into the screen tops sometimes
I run my Vortechs in nutrient transport mode at night and it creates intermittent standing waves. I had to turn the power down to keep the water in the tank.

 

[AustinBabler]

I ended up turning the pulse mode down on the Nero 5 running at 75% for 1 second and off for 800ms was enough to make a crater in the sand bed so I dialed it back to 50%. Still more gph then my Korelia’s and I’m getting better surface agitation and just enough movement to make a noticeable impact on my “uglies” coming on the sand.