Opinions please.

[Spaz059]

I am going to be setting up a 180 gallon reef setup, here in the next couple weeks, but am getting mixed reviews as to what I read. I'm looking for some personal experience with wavemakers what works for you? I do eventually wish to keep SPS in this tank.

I was looking at the Tunze since most of the reviews that I read about the Vortechs is that the have a faulty wet as well as the magnets fail. In my opinion for 400+ dollars not worth it for issues such as these.

So what type of wavemaker unit do you use and what has worked well for you?? Or what type of wavemaker unit would work best for this system it is a 4x2x2 acrylic aquarium.

 

[Northstar24]

Are you sure its a 180 with a footprint of 4x2x2? I have a standard footprint 180 and it is 6x2x2.

In any case, I have a single Vortech MP40 on my tank (funds didnt allow me to buy both at once) and the flow it generates is pretty damn amazing. I also have a Mini Polario 7M on the back wall of my tank to keep the water moving behind all the live rock. I do intend on adding a second MP40 to the tank - likely when I get my taxes back this year. I have had the MP40 for about 6 months now, and I have not had any issues with it.

Koralia has a wavemaker that hit the market not too long ago, I believe it is called the smartwave. It is a relatively inexpensive controller for the koralia powerheads that has gotten some good reviews.

I do not personally have experience with tunze, but have always heard that tunze makes a quality product. When I looked for wavemakers for my 6 foot tank though, Tunze and Vortech were basically the same price, I wouldnt have been saving any money with the Tunze. There were also flow studies done that sugguest that Tunze overrates the amount of flow their powerheads produce

 

[Spaz059]

Yeah I totally made a size mistake it is a 180 that is 6x2x2

 

[Spaz059]

Also I have the koralia smart wave on my current 46 bow front. It does not do well as a wave maker, it is either both side on for x amount of time (15sec 30sec 1min 15min) nice device for eliminating dead spots in the tank but not sufficient if you wish to actually have a wave in the tank. Good bonus to it, is it supports up to 100 watts of power heads so you can have about 8 total four on each side, but just not practical.