Ah yes, just like the search for the Holy Grail, the reef keepers' quest is for an in-expensive alternating pump/wave timer controller.
Guess my way to opt out of the quandary is that I don't switch my water flow, its constant other than swirling and its own randomness.
My 135 gallon reef is 6 foot long, 2 feet high, 18" wide. Right hand end of the tank is a big RIO 3100 blowing right to left along the front glass, on the left hand end of the tank is a big dual output JBJ powerhead with one nozzle pointing forward and the other pointing along the back wall. I also have my sump return blowing right to left. This basically keeps the whole tank flowing in a circular pattern with water in a constant clockwise motion.
I run a very very simple tank, no controllers, no wave timers, no motorized valves......my theory is LESS technology, MORE biology...
While scuba diving walls, or spurs and deep finger grooves in the reef, in many places the current mostly only flows in one constant direction. As long as the water column is flowing past the coral bringing fresh food and nutrients to it, I'm not sure oscillating and random water movement is needed in all cases. Sure some corals may thrive in that back and forth motion, but damn that is hard to SIMPLY replicate in a reef tank for a bullet proof failure free hardware solution.
