Need help dialing in my wave maker…

[AnthonyA5059]

15g cube tank, going to be a soft coral reef. I have a Jebao dlw-5 790gph wave maker. I currently have it in the back glass top corner angled up and to the center and it’s at 30% its lowest setting on the sine wave mode and it’s still pushing around my sand and sending some grains into the water column. Can anyone recommend best placement and angle for my setup?

Also tips on my wave maker settings would be appreciated too. I was using random mode but found out that on the jebaos it spikes to 100% flow on this mode so I switched to sine.

 

[Mebbid]

What type of sand do you have?

My best suggestion would be to put it a little lower in the tank, with a steeper angle upwards. This will reduce the flow hitting the sand quite substantially and improve aeration. If it won't angle more, try putting a piece of composite shim under the magnet to hold it a little more upwards

 

[AnthonyA5059]

What type of sand do you have?

My best suggestion would be to put it a little lower in the tank, with a steeper angle upwards. This will reduce the flow hitting the sand quite substantially and improve aeration. If it won't angle more, try putting a piece of composite shim under the magnet to hold it a little more upwards

I have Carib sea arag alive Fiji pink. Ok let me try that thanks!

 

[Mebbid]

The fiji pink is a smaller grain size, unfortunately a lot of people have issues with it blowing around. And sorry, I meant plastic shim out of hdpe, not necessarily composite. The composite ones are frequently made with wood fibers and some can leech.

 

[exnisstech]

I have Carib sea arag alive Fiji pink. Ok let me try that thanks!

I tried figi pink once and it was too small for my tank and blew all over.

 

[Fish Fan]

The Fiji Pink sand is known to blow around, but *eventually* it mellows out as the finest grains eventually get filtered out, if you can wait that long

It's a very good idea to point a circ pump up at the surface. This increases gas exchange, and minimizes any organic slime on the surface, which itself can limit gas exchange, but....

I believe I can see that this is am IM 15 AIO cube? If so, I like to run my IM AIO's so that in the back filter area, one section cascades into the next section. Meaning, the water in the first over flow section will be higher than the second section, and water will cascade over the baffle from section one and into section two. This, I believe, goes a long way to helping with gas exchange in AIO tanks.

And, running a protein skimmer is a great way to increase gas exchange in any tank, if nothing else. I can tell you that the Innovative Marine desktop skimmers fit this tank, as does the Bubble Magus Mini-Q.

If you have a skimmer, and/or allow the water to cascade over your filter baffles, you don't need "as much" surface agitation from the circ pump, in my opinion.

I hope this is helpful; good luck!

 

[AnthonyA5059]

So I just moved the wave maker to the side of the tank and pointed it into my rock scape. Seems like the fish can relax more and I don’t see any sand moving. I’ll see how this works

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

IMO this is a common problem when there is only one powerhead, the flow goes across the tank and then up and down the glass on the opposite side, it creates a one way linear flow. Unfortunate its even harder for you because you can't angle that type of powerhead. Believe it or not, IMO the best solution is too add another powerhead on the opposite side, that way, the 2 flows meet and bounce off each other creating random flow patterns.

The flow is not bothering the fish at all, don't worry about that. My own 15 gallon softie tank - mostly mushrooms and zoa's - has 2 powerheads of 535 gph each going at 100%.

As mentioned above, new sand blows around, st some point it gets packed down and doesn't blow so easily anymore.

 

[AnthonyA5059]

IMO this is a common problem when there is only one powerhead, the flow goes across the tank and then up and down the glass on the opposite side, it creates a one way linear flow. Unfortunate its even harder for you because you can't angle that type of powerhead. Believe it or not, IMO the best solution is too add another powerhead on the opposite side, that way, the 2 flows meet and bounce off each other creating random flow patterns.

The flow is not bothering the fish at all, don't worry about that. My own 15 gallon softie tank - mostly mushrooms and zoa's - has 2 powerheads of 535 gph each going at 100%.

As mentioned above, new sand blows around, st some point it gets packed down and doesn't blow so easily anymore.

What do you think about my last reply how I have it pointed at the rocks now. That should make some random flow when it hits the rock scapes right? I woke up this morning and checked and it hasn’t moved any sand around either

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What do you think about my last reply how I have it pointed at the rocks now. That should make some random flow when it hits the rock scapes right? I woke up this morning and checked and it hasn’t moved any sand around either

If you dropped a couple of flakes of food in the tank, IMO the flow should whirl that flake around keeping it suspended in the water. If the flakes drop right to the sand then not enough flow. If the flakes all pushed to one corner then it identifies a dead flow spot. Detritus and food should stay in the water column so that your filtration can filter it out, flow should help to keep the tank clean. If the flow is directed at a rock I’m not sure it can accomplish this.