Go with the flow

with the 2 koralia 2 (k2), 1 koralia 1 (k1) and a Maxi Jet 1200 (mj1200) as well as the outflow from my skimmer and canister i'm rockin' about 42x turnover (although i wonder how much flow i'm losing by blasting the front of the glass). i'm trying to move into some branching SPS corals which i know do better under an alternating/turbulence flow. i've tried running the K2s on timers but the knocking at start up is killing me. my next bright idea is to buy this thing a wavemaker ( Aquarium Systems Natural Wave Wavemaker ) with a few mj900 or mj600 with the SureFlow mods.

i've been reading reviews on MD and it seems that a lot of people are having trouble with vibration/noise or polarity reversing. i know Pack runs MJ mods and i was hoping the lot of you could bestow upon me the collective wisdom of 3reef. advice? reflection? experience? what you got?

 

As far as I knew the MJs were some of the only pumps that didn't have polarity problems.

 

oh really? i heard that some people need to add a "stopper" like a nail or something to make sure the prop doesn't spin the wrong way. i suppose i'll understand it when i get my mod kit sometime next week and get a chance to play with it.

i don't remember where it was an i'm too lazy to hunt for it, but i know someone asked Packleader about this somewhere... i'm going with the wavemaker from MD simply because it's the first thing i found that seems to be cost-effective. does anyone have any better ideas? i thought about a couple of Sea Swirls but think that some maxi mods would be easier to direct and place

 

i figured i'd give this a bump now that a few more people are online. does anyone have some hands on experience with the MJ mod or thoughts on my halfbaked plan?

 

I have the MJ mods and I constantly have problems with the polarity at start up. I was on marine depots website and the description of the sure flo mod says "Please Note: Not designed for use with wave-making devices."
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yeah, i saw that. but then they see the wavemaker with three MJs. what do you do for your polarity? just turn it off and start it again?

 

sometimes, it will take a minute or 2 and then correct itself, other times I have to stick my finger in it...stop the prop, then it will work right. IMO, the mj's will work just fine on a wavemaker...the problem is when you add the sure flo mod kit.....so you have to choose, more flow or random flow???

 

ahhh. i guess the reason i wanted to do the mod is that i don't really like the narrow stream the MJ makes and the mod seems to make a nice broad current. i suppose i can get tricky and fashion some kind of diffuser to spread out the flow. i wonder if i can get a locline fitting that's small enough to fit...

 

I gotta say, I also love the broad current that the mods put out. So I have chosen to NOT go with a wavemaker. I use the glass (for boucing the flow) and the PH's pointing towards each other to cause random current in the tank. Seems to work pretty good. Just have the annoying polarity issues after feeding time...I can live with that until I upgrade the PH's.

 

thanks for your input. i messaged Pack because ive got a stray braincell telling me he has them too (MJ mods, not braincells....). this whole issue comes from having a tank that's only 22 inches long and 30 inches tall, worst tank for flow ever. finding the right light was a pain too