Water movement, what is best for our reef

[Deanos]

Aaah...the wonders of Microsoft Paint. This is as basic as I could draw it I get random movement in my 65g LPS dominated tank as the return flow alternates left to right.

 

[cali_reef]

Motion is always better then flow no? Laminer flow is BAD, at least that's my understanding. I'm not a Tunze havin' SPS guy so maybe it's different but for everything else I know random turbulant or surge is what you want. Laminer can be damaging plus leads to dead spots. Having a giant whirlpool is not what you would want in a reef. True?

Yes, you are correct. But all these powerheads pretty much creates whirlpools, unless you use Tunzes with a 7095 controller set up to simulate tide effects. It is very difficult to simulate wave and tide surges in a reef tank with powerheads or even a surge tank setup, I have tried and so far the wave box is the best I have played with.