New and have question on wavemakers

[mes2370]

Hi,

My girlfriend has had a sw fish tank for years, but we are starting our first reef tank. We don't have any corals or anything in yet (we do have a clownfish from another tank in there) and are looking into getting a wavemaker.

We saw some powerstrips from Coralife that have a wavemaker function (has 8 outlets: 2 lunar, 2 actinic, 3 daylight, 1 constant power according to the description, but not sure if would be a good way to go. Was looking at it because we thought it would be nice to control the lighting as well as the two powerheads to alternate between the two.

With this type of powerstrip do you need just one set of outlets to do the wavemaker function or do you need to use two sets of outlets leaving just one set for lighting?

Thanks for any advice.

[Lynnmw1208]

there is a new one coming out made by koralia called smart wave. You can hook up to 100watts per plug so essentially you can have multiple pumps turning on and off for variable flow. I would wait for that to come out

I have heard some horror stories about the coralife timers; they sometimes catch on fire....

[BIG_KAHUNA]

Drop the money on Vortech. I finally made the jump and couldn't be happier. keeps heat out the tank as well. just 1 MP20 makes a monster wave in my 57G

[yeloowtang]

not sure about the one you're mentioning,i tried a different brand of
power strip for waves and it worked for 10 mins probably just not lucky..
then i got a reef keeper lite and just now upgraded to the elite..

so for a little more $ you could go with a reef keeper lite and two pc4 power bars..
that would give you 8 controlable sockets that you can do with as you wish..
use 4 of them for light day/actinic1/actinic2 if you can seperate and moon lights..

then you still have 4 left
heater,pumps ect ect ..and it also comes with a itemp probe ..
later on you can add two more pc4s or a sl1 for ph monitor..

a new package is at a reasonable price and you can find great deals in the for sale section

steff

[pmrossetti1]

Wait a couple weeks for the Hydor Smart Wave.

[mes2370]

Thanks for the replies. Still not too familiar with all of this so we will have to do some looking into what everyone is writing about.

We have two Koralia powerheads that we would like to plug into something to alternate the flow. This is the one we were looking at http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Power...0520472&sr=8-8

Although I don't know if that is the correct picture. The one I saw at the store where we are buying some of our equipment with this description had 2 blue, 2 grey (I think), 3 yellow, and one white outlet.

Just not sure if it is worth it or if I would need to use two sets of outlets (like the one powerhead in a blue socket and the other in a yellow socket to get it to work as a wavemaker. Or are there other options besides what has already been mentioned that we should look at.

[yeloowtang]

here's the one i tried,i wasn't lucky but seems others are !!
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.co...m?pcatid=12061

this would be a inexpensive way to controle your power heads and you can use simple timers for the lights.

just make sure your koralis are the new generation (evolution) becuase the old k1 to k4 didn't do well om timers,,most of the time the start backwards but the new ones are fine..

steff

[scarface70706]

save your money and buy a ecotech mp40

[cjrudy]

Wait for the Smartwave

[Just2Many]

+1 Wait it will be cheaper.

[hollister]

Wave makers are for experianced reefers and should be used cautiously . Dont use as main water movement device. Use is mainly cosmetic. U still want good steady water movement for your tanks health...