dumb question. . . could a wave maker be used to "power" an all-in-one tank?

[MoshJosh]

Hard to explain my idea, but what if instead of a pump in the AIO's pump chamber there was a wave maker? instead of a return novel or pipe there would a a whole in the chamber wall the exact diameter of the wavemakers output?

In theory most of the water the wavemaker is pushing comes from the return chamber, but most of that is being pushed into the display. . .

I am sort of assuming there would be some issues with trying to run a tank this way, maybe not enough pressure coming from the wavemaker to force a water level rise in the display i.e. no water would actually be returned. . .

Weird though, and just a hypothetical, but tell me why this would or wouldn't work?

 

[KrisReef]

The first AIO that I remember were made by TruVu. In the filter chamber, They used a “power head” submersible pump that was meant to run an under gravel filter and put a hose on the outlet and connected that to the return back into the DT. Exactly what you are describing but just a newer version of the wave maker. The original wave makers were switching units that connected to power heads to charge the direct of flow inside the tank. After that came toilet valve surge dump boxes and Sea swirls, all the latter were aimed at making more random current flow inside the DT.

The Gyre pumps are relative new comers to the flow fray, and they move water so they could work like you envision.

Should mention hang on filters are the Skilter which was a skimmer and filter aio. The return from these boxes disturbs the water surface like a gyre pump or power head but the random flow is lost in the process.