Wave Maker Positioning

[Flyangler33]

Hey All,

As I continue on this journey with the new tank, 1 thing I noticed is the placement of wave makers. Seems to be more toward the top of the tank in a lot of tanks. Curious on what is the best way to play/test flow out without really having any wavy corals in the tank yet? Its an IM Fusion 2 pro 50 Gallon AIO tank I have 2 vortech mp10's trying to figure out the best place to position them for a mixed reef ultimate goal. Pics attached so you can see the scape as well.

 

[Jekyl]

1/3 of the way down on either side. Enough flow for surface agitation, no sand blowing around and no dead spots. Harder to achieve with MP because you can't change directions.

 

[Flyangler33]

1/3 of the way down on either side. Enough flow for surface agitation, no sand blowing around and no dead spots. Harder to achieve with MP because you can't change directions.

Would you position them offset as well like one more towards the front and one towards the back?

 

[Jekyl]

Would you position them offset as well like one more towards the front and one towards the back?

I would avoid a whirlpool and look for turbulence if that helps.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I like to place mine high so they are less of an eyesore. Also gets better surface agitation. I position mine one against the other so the flow bounces off each other for random flow patterns.

 

[tuscani]

Mine in the back 1/3 way down

 

[JNalley]

As others have said, for traditional pumps like your Vortech's, about 1/3 down, I tend to put mine a bit more towards the back so detritus behind the rocks gets taken care of, and a lower-flow environment is achieved toward the front for any corals that don't want a ton of flow while the top and back of the tank get a bunch of flow for Acros. Have the pumps in anti-sync (one is ramping up while the other is ramping down) but directly opposed to one another so that the collision of water creates randomized currents. But now that I've switched over to Gyres, they are about 1" beneath the surface on either side of the tank dead center...