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Is there such a thing as a perfect flow solution? In my humble opinion... no.
I spent the better part of a year trying to figure out the best way to create the flow I wanted in my tank. I planned and rejected many closed loop ideas that included OM devices of various sorts. I also tried, a simple closed loop, maximods, tunze streams and nanos, sometimes on timers. I can't say I was happy with any of these. After having seen SuaSati's tank though with his wavebox, I knew I wanted to have the same sort of wave action in my tank. Watching your corals just sway left and right in the water is just mesmerizing and it seems so natural...
Here's a brief overview of the flow options I tried and discarded and why:
Closed loops I threw out because they are basically a relic of the past. They are the most inefficient method of moving water in your tank. Why? Because they use more energy and generate more heat to move the same amount of water as an equally rated powerhead. The advantage of course is that you get a cleaner look, which is a big plus. However, the only reliable way to get variable flow on them is an OM device, and you can't make a wave pattern with them. Maintenence is also a bit unwieldy and plumbing a closed loop for most tanks is a nightmare.
As for Tunzes, I hated how large the tunze streams were. I loved the flow I got with them, but they were aesthetically very unappealing and the stream was a bit too narrow as any coral in its path would suffer. The tunze nanos were much more attractive, but the construction of them was poor. Some of them were noisy, some of them would break easily. I had to return 2 of my nano streams for new ones. Fortunately, tunze has a great warranty service. Now I could of gone with the tunzes and gotten a controller for them... but even with a controller I wouldn't get the kind of flow I was looking for. What I wanted was some wave action. So Yah I could of went with a tunze wavebox... but you still need powerheads with a wavebox.
Maximod maxijets. I used these for quite a while, and found that they would break down with regularity and required new nylon washers every other month or so to work smoothly and quietly. They work very poorly on timers, as the constant turning on/off breaks them down even faster. They are the poor man's tunze, but with the tunze nanos and koralias out now they seem irrelevant.
Ecotech Vortechs. This is currently what I have in my system. They are neat devices where the motor portion stays outside of the tank. As such, you get very little heat transfer to your tank. They are DC powered so you can manually adjust the flow from 100 gph to 3000 gph. You can also purchase an optional battery pack made by IceCap that will power the pumps for 30 hours in case of power failure. The best part though are the wireless drivers. This enables the pumps to talk to each other wirelessly without the use of a central controller. The new drivers have many options for the type of flow you want in your tank... I chose to put one pump on each end of my 5' tank and have the slave pump set to anti-synch so that it would pulse opposite of the master pump. By adjusting the rate of the pulsing you get wave action in the tank.
Anyways, without further ado here are a few links to some really POOR quality vids. Note that I haven't tuned the vortechs in completely in these vids. At the time that I took these vids, I was still experimenting. The single wave I get now is much cleaner. I've also been able to get double standing waves to some degree. The pumps are outputting only at ~50% power in the vids. At 100% the water starts to slosh around too much! They are on pulse mode ~2.2 seconds with the slave pump on anti-synch from the master.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSCx9yE6qJs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSCx9yE6qJs</a>
[IMG]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19pWr6rBnHk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19pWr6rBnHk</a>
I spent the better part of a year trying to figure out the best way to create the flow I wanted in my tank. I planned and rejected many closed loop ideas that included OM devices of various sorts. I also tried, a simple closed loop, maximods, tunze streams and nanos, sometimes on timers. I can't say I was happy with any of these. After having seen SuaSati's tank though with his wavebox, I knew I wanted to have the same sort of wave action in my tank. Watching your corals just sway left and right in the water is just mesmerizing and it seems so natural...
Here's a brief overview of the flow options I tried and discarded and why:
Closed loops I threw out because they are basically a relic of the past. They are the most inefficient method of moving water in your tank. Why? Because they use more energy and generate more heat to move the same amount of water as an equally rated powerhead. The advantage of course is that you get a cleaner look, which is a big plus. However, the only reliable way to get variable flow on them is an OM device, and you can't make a wave pattern with them. Maintenence is also a bit unwieldy and plumbing a closed loop for most tanks is a nightmare.
As for Tunzes, I hated how large the tunze streams were. I loved the flow I got with them, but they were aesthetically very unappealing and the stream was a bit too narrow as any coral in its path would suffer. The tunze nanos were much more attractive, but the construction of them was poor. Some of them were noisy, some of them would break easily. I had to return 2 of my nano streams for new ones. Fortunately, tunze has a great warranty service. Now I could of gone with the tunzes and gotten a controller for them... but even with a controller I wouldn't get the kind of flow I was looking for. What I wanted was some wave action. So Yah I could of went with a tunze wavebox... but you still need powerheads with a wavebox.
Maximod maxijets. I used these for quite a while, and found that they would break down with regularity and required new nylon washers every other month or so to work smoothly and quietly. They work very poorly on timers, as the constant turning on/off breaks them down even faster. They are the poor man's tunze, but with the tunze nanos and koralias out now they seem irrelevant.
Ecotech Vortechs. This is currently what I have in my system. They are neat devices where the motor portion stays outside of the tank. As such, you get very little heat transfer to your tank. They are DC powered so you can manually adjust the flow from 100 gph to 3000 gph. You can also purchase an optional battery pack made by IceCap that will power the pumps for 30 hours in case of power failure. The best part though are the wireless drivers. This enables the pumps to talk to each other wirelessly without the use of a central controller. The new drivers have many options for the type of flow you want in your tank... I chose to put one pump on each end of my 5' tank and have the slave pump set to anti-synch so that it would pulse opposite of the master pump. By adjusting the rate of the pulsing you get wave action in the tank.
Anyways, without further ado here are a few links to some really POOR quality vids. Note that I haven't tuned the vortechs in completely in these vids. At the time that I took these vids, I was still experimenting. The single wave I get now is much cleaner. I've also been able to get double standing waves to some degree. The pumps are outputting only at ~50% power in the vids. At 100% the water starts to slosh around too much! They are on pulse mode ~2.2 seconds with the slave pump on anti-synch from the master.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSCx9yE6qJs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSCx9yE6qJs</a>
[IMG]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19pWr6rBnHk">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19pWr6rBnHk</a>
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