Wavemaker?

[apinkmanatee]

I have two hydor koralia pumps for my 65 gal fowlr. Do I need to get a smartwave pump controller for them, or will the water movement be good enough with that? Thanks!

[Rutrag]

No, you don't need the wavemaker by any means. It is essentially just a fancy timer that can turn them on and off in sync with each other. It does help to make currents a little more random in the aquarium, but is by no means a necessity.

[apinkmanatee]

Thank you for answering all my questions...I don't know what I would do without this forum!

[Squantobeatinu]

Are u suppose to shut ur wave makers off periodically or keep them on all the time

[Rutrag]

That's really up to you. Most wave makers come with a feeding function that cuts off your pumps for 5 to 10 minutes and higher end ones can be programmed to slow down the pulses at night. When I was using one, I only used the feeding function when I was doing a water change to keep the pumps from drawing air. You got to figure nature isn't likely to do any of that though.

[carey]

I have my aquarium controller doing my wavemaker job but I have the powerheads go off at night, just to give the tank a break.

[Rutrag]

That's really up to you. Most wave makers have a feed function that pauses the pumps for 5 to 10 minutes and the higher end ones can be programmed to slow the pumps at night if you wish. I only ever used the feed function on mine during water changes when the water level was low.