Thoughts on alternating flow in the tank

A few weeks ago there was the product post about the Hydor Smartwave coming to the market. How many people use something similar to this in their tanks? I know normal tidal effects in reefs cause this type of motion (I've dived in enough surge to know!) but is this common in the hobby?

The second topic is what functions do you consider important on this type of controller. (aka range of times, "feeding mode", "night mode", ect). I may follow this up with a DIY post if there is interest because the needed components to build a device like this are about $10 and very simple to build.

 

This type of flow is very important, and I think the only thing limiting it from being common is price. The most important feature is that the flow direction and rates change periodically.

 

I would be very interested in a DIY project. Please keep this updated as to what you do! I would love to know

 

I run a wave timer and 5 koralia's, my tank loves this vrs. my old 1200's.

On the ends I use #5's (1600 GPH) in the center I use #4's (460GPH?), then dead center I use a #3 (320GPH?) w/o the difusser. Koralia's spread the water out instead of a straight line flow pattern- much better design.

This really moves a lot of water, my return is dual (1400 GPH), and any skimmer water comes right up and spreads very quickly.

If I have them all runing at the at very close timming it creates waves in the tank- the fish love it but my softies dont like this so much.

 

im running k2s on a controller with wave effects or the versus program.. every 20 seconds the powerheads change and then in night mode they change to 40 seconds each..

my tank enjoys this alot.. fish are more active it seems and my sps has super long PE since the switch..

 

Thanks for the replies. I'll hopefully be building a mk1 controller tomorrow. This will give variable timing from 15 seconds to 6 minutes. After some initial test I'll create a DIY post with information, schematics and refinements. As before, letting me know what sort of wave action you all use and what features you actually employ will help guide me in what I need to focus on for the DIY.
Cheers

 

Looking forward to this.

 

I have this being done with Z-Wave modules communicating with my home automation system.. Keep us posted, though..

 

So school decided to kick my ass this week so the DIY build is delayed.

Do the Z-wave modules require a special control software or is it really $25 for a wireless relay you can link to anything.