Surge

[sunfishh]

About a decade ago I use to dive here in california and during cetain times of the day there was really strong currents (surge). I am just wondering if this would be beneficial to a mostly fish tank with a few inverts and macro algae? If so I could put some power heads on timers so that they only came on during certain times of the day.

[sunfishh]

Bump. Anyone have a thought about this?

[dhoch]

A lot of people do this in their reef tanks (in fact there are a couple of companies that make surge products (not just powerheads, but think of emptying about 5 gallons of tank water into a bucket and dumping this back in... now that's surge).

As for a FO, as long as there is enough flow to keep nutrients in suspension you should be fine.

Dave

[Agu]

There's a good description of a Carlson surge device here near the bottom of the page,

Surge (http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/RCM/RCM/Aquarium/CirculationSystem.html)

Surges are good for varying currents and eliminating dead spots. They also introduce bubbles into the tank which is why a lot of people don't use them in reef tanks. The bubbles don't harm anything they're just not aesthetically pleasing. IMO it would be a great addition to a FO tank.

Here's a thread with videos of a surge set up on a reef tank,

Tighaboys Reef (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=719623)

[sunfishh]

Thanks for the input everyone :)

[Blown 346]

That is a awesome setup he has there with the tides.