Tunze Wavebox Rules !!!

[Chuck Spyropulos]

The Wavebox works on a very fundamental principle, water volume displacement: It adds and then subtracts a certain volume of water from the aquarium in a very small amount of time. This generates a wave that propagates across the aquarium and reflects back and reverses direction across the aquarium. The "resonance" effect occurs when the reflecting wave crest and troughs line up with the direct wave. The direct and reflected wave will add up and the resulting composite wave will have a higher crest and a lower trough. In order to sustain such a composite "resonant" wave, the wave frequency or pulse rate has to be adjusted to a specific value that is heavily dependant on the length of the tank so that the direct and reflected wave remain in-phase with each other.

I bought mine at Champion Lighting and as usual, I got my product in 3 days ! I do a lot of bussiness with Champion and they still remain to me one of the best drygood suppliers .

As far as a video, I will try to get one posted shortly. My wave resulted in about a 1 inch wave and as such, the water level of my tank had to be lowered. When I designed my overflows, I included "adjustable gates" that move up and down and that can be used to controll the water level. I just slid them down all the way and I had plenty of space between the water level and the top of the tank. The water motion generated by the Wavebox is inherently low velocity high flow since you are removing a volume of water and then replacing it. By modulating a relatively small water volume, all the water is in motion and this can be evidenced by observing polyps on the corals and tentacles on my ameones swaying back and forth.

I agree with Calciumbuf that this device is better suited to tanks with a minimum length of 4 feet. In smaller tanks, it would probably work but may not be justified since it takes up a greater percentage of the volume that may not be desired. Also, other methods, taking up less space, for smaller tank are available for increasing flow like the Tunze Streams.

Everyone is welcome to stop by and take a look. Just PM me and we can set up a day and time....but be warned....I am not responsible for people getting addicted and their resulting mandatory purchase of this device !!!! LOL!

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Forgot to mention....the magnet holders work great! You need 2 pairs of magnets either the large or small depending on the thickness of your aquarium walls. You absolutely need the magnets if you have an acrylic tank or a tank with a lip all around on the top. If you have a totally open glass tank then you do not need the magnets but I still reccomend them since it makes setup much easier.

 

[objectfire]

In the video link above, the wave frequency seems a lot faster than I would have thought would be typical on a reef. Is that an example of normal operation? The agitation is not too high for fish at night? I think I would want to hide the wave crest and trough from view to keep from getting dizzy while watching the tank Maybe it is less intense on your tank, Chuck? Will definitely have to schedule some time to see it before I set up a larger tank.

Kent

 

[objectfire]

Just saw the RC videos of a smaller tank. Looks much less intense than the fish store video, more what I would have expected. Looks really cool. Still makes me dizzy to watch the top of the wave move, though Is the movement less intense in the bottom of the tank?

Kent

 

[Jim Tansey]

That wavebox would drive me crazy, nice even flow throughout the tank but I could not stand looking at it.

Jim

 

[jmkeary]

wonder how hard it would be to make one as a DIY project?

 

[Mike A]

Chuck, where is the wavebox mounted in your tank ?
Does it take up a lot of space ?

I remember looking at these when they were first advertised. There was an mpeg out that showed a tank with patterns in the sand on the bottom that looked exactly like you would see at the beach.

mike

 

[~Flighty~]

They are so cool.

If you have the waterline covered with tank trim, you don't get the anoying seasick effect. Cover the top of the tank with your hand in the video below to see what I mean.

I do worry about the cyclical loading on the tank though. I know they say it isn't a problem, but

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Wavebox

You can control the speed of the "swaying" by selecting a longer pulse rate. The pulse rate I chose makes things sway with a period of 1 second whicjh seems really natural to me. Setting the pulse rate faster produces swaying that is reallly fast, like the video....the bottom line is that you can control it.
As far as less intense....the wave in my tank is around 1" from trough to crest, which seems less than the video....again you can control the height of the wave.

In the video link above, the wave frequency seems a lot faster than I would have thought would be typical on a reef. Is that an example of normal operation? The agitation is not too high for fish at night? I think I would want to hide the wave crest and trough from view to keep from getting dizzy while watching the tank Maybe it is less intense on your tank, Chuck? Will definitely have to schedule some time to see it before I set up a larger tank.

Kent

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Mounting

Mine is mounted in the back rear corner of my tank.

Chuck, where is the wavebox mounted in your tank ?
Does it take up a lot of space ?

I remember looking at these when they were first advertised. There was an mpeg out that showed a tank with patterns in the sand on the bottom that looked exactly like you would see at the beach.

mike

 

[Greg Hiller]

>In the video link above, the wave frequency seems a lot faster than I would have thought would be typical on a reef. Is that an example of normal operation?<

Word was I believe that they wanted to show it off a bit, so it was 'turned up' a little bit more than most people would prefer.

 

[~Flighty~]

the frequency(how fast it goes back and forth) is dependant on the length of the tank. You can't change that it is the natural frequency. You can change how high the wave is.

 

[DLCanuck]

Hey Chuck

How big is your tank?

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Size

My tank is 300 gallons or 96" long x 24 " wide x 30" deep

Hey Chuck

How big is your tank?

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Swaying

You absolutely can change the frequency. Since my tank is a long one it is possible to set up a double wave that is twice as fast as a singlet. When I turned up the pulse repetition frequncy or PRF I think I had a double wave (2 Hz) or 2 cycles per second going that had things swaying a little too fast for my taste. When I reduce the PRF, the swaying slowed to around 1 Hz or 1 cycle per second.

the frequency(how fast it goes back and forth) is dependant on the length of the tank. You can't change that it is the natural frequency. You can change how high the wave is.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Loading

Yes, this could be a potential disaster. However, my tank is acrylic and is much stronger than most glass tanks. Hopefully strong enough so that I won't get a catastrophic failure during the lifetime of the tank !!!

I do worry about the cyclical loading on the tank though. I know they say it isn't a problem, but

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

The thing that amazes me is the relatively small amount of wate that is required to cause such a dramatic effect. The wavebox is 4" x 5" x 12" or 240 cu in which equates to a volume of 1 gallon. It's interesting that displacing only 1 gallon of water in a 300 gallon tank causes such dramatic water movement.

 

[DLCanuck]

So I guess I wont have a problem with my 210-gallon tank. The thing is that you can see all three side , I?m wondering how will it affect, cause every thing in the middle and high point of the layout is about 4 inch or more from the surface and low point is about 8 inch from the surface. I guess it will work very nicely.

 

[~Flighty~]

I ment that you can't go slower than the single frequency. If people are complaining that it is too fast, doubling the frequency isn't going to fix that.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Go For It !!!!

I think the wavebox would be great in your tank. Especially if you are concerned that you need more flow or if you have dead spots (who doesn't?).
I wouldn't use the wavebox alone. Instead I would use it with Streams or other types of powerheads. I am waiting for a "Y" adapter so that I can slave the wavebox off of my Streams controller. This will allow the use of only one light sensor for night time turn off and will also allow on/off control of the wavebox in sync with one of the 7094 controller channels. This setup allows you to run 6 hours of Waves AND one 7094 channel (in my case 2 Streams) ON and then 6 hours of no waves and the opposing Streams channel ON. In this way a 6 hour tidal effect can be obtained.

If u do decide to go for it, I would appreciate any feed back...especially videos posted here. Tonight I will try to post a video of my tank.

So I guess I wont have a problem with my 210-gallon tank. The thing is that you can see all three side , I?m wondering how will it affect, cause every thing in the middle and high point of the layout is about 4 inch or more from the surface and low point is about 8 inch from the surface. I guess it will work very nicely.