I dont think a wavemaker is necessary in any tank.though they are really cool and benificial.id say as long as you have good flow from a powerhead and or pump your golden.you'd especially have a difficult time finding one for a 3 gallon tank without crashing waves all over your floor.I just ordered the jabeo wp10 which is made for nano tanks but the larger of the nanos.I have a 20 gallon long. Im still kind of worried it may ne too much for mine.there is also the echotech mp10 I think its there smallest I cant really speak for how powerful they are since ive never owned an echotech before. I kmow when I had my 12 gallon nano cube it came with a small pump that sat in the back, with afew modifications it was plenty of flow for it.hope this helps.sorry for grammatical errors my tablet likes to add in misspelled words plus I have fat thumbs.:thumbsup: