I need/want a wave maker

[Sophie"s mom]

Good afternoon everyone! So as the title states, I want a wave maker. I am just now getting my toes wet in SPS, I have 2. They are in the middle of my tank both in height and width. I will take a pic when I get home. But I currently have 3 power heads in my tank which is a 90 gallon. One aimed at surface for agitation, one in lower back corner , and one in upper corner other side of tank. So I get good flow all around but feel I need more where my 2 acros are. So I am thinking wave maker. I am looking for suggestions on make and size.

 

[bluemon]

Can't go wrong with MP40's. Had it for a decade, only broke once, and that just required a wet side replacement.

Although these days many will suggest Jebaos which are MP40 clones, and worth looking at despite the ethical controvery of chinese companies copying Ecotech.

 

[ShanePike]

Three powerheads plus the return pump in a 90g seems like it could be a lot of flow. Do you know what your current flow rate is?

For SPS, you want somewhere in the 50X range. Allowing for rock, sand, etc. I'd guess your 90g is probably around 75g in actual water volume. 50 x 75 would be a flow rate of 3,750 GPH.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Three powerheads plus the return pump in a 90g seems like it could be a lot of flow. Do you know what your current flow rate is?

For SPS, you want somewhere in the 50X range. Allowing for rock, sand, etc. I'd guess your 90g is probably around 75g in actual water volume. 50 x 75 would be a flow rate of 3,750 GPH.

Yes that probably is about the rate I am in. My problem is that where I have the 2 acros at is surrounded by a lot so I don’t feel they get enough. I could be wrong but I see good growth on them at a surprisingly quick rate, so I feel they are happy with their location, but I rarely see very much polyp extension, so it has me concerned. Maybe I am over thinking things since they definitely grow.

 

[kevgib67]

Yes that probably is about the rate I am in. My problem is that where I have the 2 acros at is surrounded by a lot so I don’t feel they get enough. I could be wrong but I see good growth on them at a surprisingly quick rate, so I feel they are happy with their location, but I rarely see very much polyp extension, so it has me concerned. Maybe I am over thinking things since they definitely grow.

I have been running a Hygger for over three years, easy to program and silent not to mention affordable. Give little Sophie a treat and a pat on the head for me.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I have been running a Hygger for over three years, easy to program and silent not to mention affordable. Give little Sophie a treat and a pat on the head for me.

Aww, thank you Kevin I will do that! Sophie is a treat machine! And yes I have looked at this exact wave maker.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I have been running a Hygger for over three years, easy to program and silent not to mention affordable. Give little Sophie a treat and a pat on the head for me.

Hey Kevin, I definitely value your opinion. So here are 3 pics I just took. One just taken naturally so you can see the blue light, one with a filter and one a close up of the 2 acro’s. The left is a PC RAINBOW the right is a Gatorade that I just got a week ago. If you look at the base of the Gatorade you can see the new growth already in just a week where it is growing out over the frag plug. The PC rainbow , the 2 tips at the top used to be over a 1/2” but new flesh has rapidly grown over in just 2 months to where now less than 1\8” is left to cover what was once dead skeleton. So it appears to me they are growing good, and happy. So am I overthinking things about polyp extension? I rarely see polyps fully out and about. This is what has led me to thinking about a wave maker.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hey Kevin, I definitely value your opinion. So here are 3 pics I just took. One just taken naturally so you can see the blue light, one with a filter and one a close up of the 2 acro’s. The left is a PC RAINBOW the right is a Gatorade that I just got a week ago. If you look at the base of the Gatorade you can see the new growth already in just a week where it is growing out over the frag plug. The PC rainbow , the 2 tips at the top used to be over a 1/2” but new flesh has rapidly grown over in just 2 months to where now less than 1\8” is left to cover what was once dead skeleton. So it appears to me they are growing good, and happy. So am I overthinking things about polyp extension? I rarely see polyps fully out and about. This is what has led me to thinking about a wave maker.

 

[kevgib67]

They certainly look happy and healthy and are encrusting nicely. Unfortunately I’m not the guy to ask for an opinion on sps, I have only had birdsnest and monti caps. If you look at my tank I’m would be a better choice for softy and lps opinions. Sorry, but I do love what I see, beautiful!

 

[Sophie"s mom]

They certainly look happy and healthy and are encrusting nicely. Unfortunately I’m not the guy to ask for an opinion on sps, I have only had birdsnest and monti caps. If you look at my tank I’m would be a better choice for softy and lps opinions. Sorry, but I do love what I see, beautiful!

Okay, well hopefully someone with SPS knowledge will come in and comment! Thank you!

 

[kevgib67]

Okay, well hopefully someone with SPS knowledge will come in and comment! Thank you!

There are a lot of stick heads on here that I’m sure will chime in. I can picture a tank in my head that is beautiful and sps only but I can’t put a name to it. I’ll put on my thinking cap and if I can think of it I’ll be back to tag them.

 

[kevgib67]

@bubbgee seems to have a very good knowledge of pe extension and flow.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

@bubbgee seems to have a very good knowledge of pe extension and flow.

Awesome and thank you! Hopefully they will come in and help me out. I never really wanted SPS DUE to their difficulties but a friend gave me these so I thought “ what the heck “ and now that I see clearly good growth in both, it makes me feel more at ease with SPS. But my knowledge of them is slim to none

 

[bubbgee]

Hi folks.

I learned how to visualize flow from Than from this Tidal Gardens video. This helped me with setting up the torch garden and eventually the sps tank. I don’t use mp40s (I’d rather spend that money on the lights). As sps grows out into colonies, you’ll end up buying more powerful or additional powerheads to circulate water around the tank. My observation so far is that sps prefer gyres as it’s indirect flow and a sheet of water flow atop the tank. Two gyres that are opposite will crash into each other and flow down and around colonies which leads to longer PE, provided your parameters are set up correctly and the corals are acclimated.



Most of my PE happens at night (I run down to look at the tank two hours after lights out excited to see it). I feed pythoplankton, CRT concoction and benereefs at times. I also dose KZ acro flow and KZ Coral Vitalizer which probably helps as well.

Here’s some of my sps directly under my gyre and experiencing flow.



There are many ways to achieve flow and probably employ a different strategy than mine, but the important thing is to be able to visualize how it looks like in the tank with the air stone technique. Seeing how the flow circulates in the tank was probably the best thing I did for my sps.

Hope that helps. I only learned how to keep sps the past six months from zero knowledge if that helps. Flow for sps is easier than torches too.

 

[bubbgee]

Here’s my PC rainbow under white light for reference. The other side of it is more yellow. It’s purple/red because of intense lighting. But the PE is always out fluffy.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hi folks.

I learned how to visualize flow from Than from this Tidal Gardens video. This helped me with setting up the torch garden and eventually the sps tank. I don’t use mp40s (I’d rather spend that money on the lights). As sps grows out into colonies, you’ll end up buying more powerful or additional powerheads to circulate water around the tank. My observation so far is that sps prefer gyres as it’s indirect flow and a sheet of water flow atop the tank. Two gyres that are opposite will crash into each other and flow down and around colonies which leads to longer PE, provided your parameters are set up correctly and the corals are acclimated.



Most of my PE happens at night (I run down to look at the tank two hours after lights out excited to see it). I feed pythoplankton, CRT concoction and benereefs at times. I also dose KZ acro flow and KZ Coral Vitalizer which probably helps as well.

Here’s some of my sps directly under my gyre and experiencing flow.



There are many ways to achieve flow and probably employ a different strategy than mine, but the important thing is to be able to visualize how it looks like in the tank with the air stone technique. Seeing how the flow circulates in the tank was probably the best thing I did for my sps.

Hope that helps. I only learned how to keep sps the past six months from zero knowledge if that helps. Flow for sps is easier than torches too.

I have read that a lot of SPS do tend to open up at night rather than during the day. Maybe mine are fine and I need to check them out after dark? Do you have a specific brand of gyre that you prefer?

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Here’s my PC rainbow under white light for reference. The other side of it is more yellow. It’s purple/red because of intense lighting. But the PE is always out fluffy.

Wow, that looks amazing

 

[bubbgee]

I have read that a lot of SPS do tend to open up at night rather than during the day. Maybe mine are fine and I need to check them out after dark? Do you have a specific brand of gyre that you prefer?

No specific gyre. It was a hygger in my case because I want to easily return it to Amazon if it didn’t work out, since I wasn’t sure if it’ll give me the results I was looking for. But if I had the budget, I’d go for the icecap ones with the hydros controller, the Orbits from AI or maxspect ones.

Yeah check them out in the dark. I do this nightly to check on sps health and any bugs. Most of the information you’ll need that isn’t apparent, sometimes happen at night instead of daytime.

 

[bubbgee]

@bubbgee seems to have a very good knowledge of pe extension and flow.

You know @kevgib67, I am currently using the gyre you’re recommending lol

It’s cheap. It works and puts out an amazing sheet of water. I got it since I didn’t want to have a huge hassle if the gyre didn’t work out and I will end up resorting to a powerhead and want to easily return to Amazon. I am happy with that one.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Good afternoon everyone! So as the title states, I want a wave maker. I am just now getting my toes wet in SPS, I have 2. They are in the middle of my tank both in height and width. I will take a pic when I get home. But I currently have 3 power heads in my tank which is a 90 gallon. One aimed at surface for agitation, one in lower back corner , and one in upper corner other side of tank. So I get good flow all around but feel I need more where my 2 acros are. So I am thinking wave maker. I am looking for suggestions on make and size.

Hey everyone, So to continue on this thread, I am now looking at the Jebao MCP 120. Does anyone here have any experience with these? It almost seems too strong for my tank which is a 90 gallon.