Wavemaker Phobia

[Luis]

Hello,

 

ive always thought about adding a wave maker into my 42gallon planted tank with my 8 tiger barbs, red tail shark, kribensis and 3 yoyos.

ive never done it because I’m scared they’ll swim into it and become a fish horror movie.

Could someone tell me if it’s extremely rare or if I should know something in specific that I don’t know about wavemakers and aquariums. 
 

should I add the wave maker and shouldn’t cause any issues?
 

thanks for anyone’s time

[gardenman]

When you say a wave maker, are you talking about just a circulating pump/powerhead, or a real wave maker? A real wave maker is typically two or more pumps operated by a controller that cycle back and forth creating waves in the aquarium. Wave makers are more typically used in reef tanks to simulate nature where you have waves breaking over the shallow reefs. with the constant back and forth waterflow. Many/most freshwater fish come from slow moving streams, ponds, and rivers where waves are less of a natural occurrence, You could just end up stressing out a freshwater fish by putting in a wave maker. Freshwater fish, when they have any current at all, it's typically in one direction for hours at a time and not a constant back and forth as a reef fish experiences and what you get with a wave maker. 

The exception would be something like Hillstream loaches. They thrive in a high current, but once again, more of a current and less of a wave. I saw a really neat Hillstream loach setup once where they'd siliconed in a false bottom open on either end and had a Gyre pump under the false bottom pulling water in from one side and expelling it out the other side under the false bottom. They had sponges preventing the fish from getting pulled into the intake (and serving as a Matten filter) and screening preventing the loaches from swimming into the outlet. They'd lined to bottom with stone and pea gravel and had some carefully placed caves. Their Hillstream loaches were in heaven. It was a brilliant recreation of their natural habitat. The plants in the tank were largely growing sideways due to the current and I'm not sure how happy they were, but the fish were happy. Fish like Hillstream loaches don't typically even find the current changing direction. Water coming down a hillside seldom turns around and goes back up it. They don't mind a unidirectional current. It's how they evolved. 

A wave maker in a freshwater tank is likely just going to stress your fish out and achieve nothing positive. Most freshwater fish never encounter continuous waves (unlike reef fish) and would not be equipped to handle it. Now if you're talking about a single powerhead to just create current/circulation in the tank, that can be fine as long as it's not overly powerful. A single powerhead can even be beneficial in helping to keep detritus moving so your filter can better remove it. They come with all types of openings from quite large (dangerous for smaller fish) to quite fine (more easily clogged by plant debris and what not.) 

[AdamTill]

I’m personally not a huge fan of the flow pumps (assuming you just want flow, not wave action per the neat post above) with the semi open, directional cages. Having otos in a lot of tanks, and seeing how curious fish die easily in those sorts of devices, makes me cautious.

That said, I do use fixed pumps with foam intake guards. Two in my most recent 29. One runs all the time near the surface, the other just during the day at tank mid level.

I just use a zip tie and chunk of Aquaclear foam for now, with the goal of something less ugly later. That said, this works well (much better than the surface skimmer I used previously).

Edited January 6, 2021 by AdamTill

[Luis]

Thanks so much for the detailed replies.

My intention for the single power head was to love the detritus better towards the filter. However I think I’ll just put a sponge filter at the other end of the main filters output to collect any extra bits 🙏