Comline Wavebox for Inovative Marine Nuvo EXT 150

ReefHog · Jul 29, 2021

@rvitko There's so little information or videos featuring Waveboxes out there. (at least in english) I'd like your opinion on using the Comline Wavebox on my IM EXT 150. It's a lagoon style tank with a 36" x 48" footprint. The glass is 15mm with euro bracing. I'd like the genital back and forth wave action but want to keep pumps off the middle of the glass as this will be viewable from three sides. I know they work well with 48" tanks but traditionally tanks are 18" to 24" deep. How will the the 36" depth affect the effictiveness of the Wavebox? Would I be able to keep it on the side glass all the way toward the back and get a standing wave? Also, i've never used one of these before. Is the wave intensity, height, durration, etc pretty much a set thing. What I mean is there really only one sweet spot you need to find, through trial and error, for a standing wave and then those attributes pre-determined?

rvitko · Jul 29, 2021

The wave will be biggest on a long narrow tank, wave frequency is a function of tank length, 4ft is really the minimum where the wave is remotely natural, the shorter the tank is the faster and shorter the wave is. The width will reduce the wave height. For a tank this wide, it will be most effective at least 12" in from the front or back. You can reduce wave height by turning down the pump speed, you can only increase it by adding another wavebox or pump as a slave. The frequency is indeed, just the one right resonance frequency that makes a perfect wave, the outgoing pulse has to hit the returning pulse right in the center of the tank for the wave energy to build. I would expect on a tank this size a single 6214 will give a roughly 1/2" wave. Generally, if you are not sure I would suggest 2 6105's or 2 6150's and using wavemode on the pumps, this way if it doesn't work out for you or you dont like the result (keep in mind a wave will also be noisy, splash, spilling into the overflow etc and the wavebox multiplies the pumps energy being filling and emptying and this also makes noise) you can always use the pumps in a more conventional pulse mode. The only real reason for the wavebox is it saves energy, the box emptying and filling magnifies the force so one pump can do the work of 2 or more in creating a wave, you can create a wave just fine with 2 opposed pumps.