Morgan, what I understand being said is "Use the powerheads to push water in the direction it's already moving, so you have momentum building up and working FOR you, rather than water constantly clashing against itself, wasting energy as the current push against each other." BUT, also use a wave maker/timer on 6 hour intervals, so the flow comes from the other direction, but you're only wasting momentum every six hours when you change water direction instead of every few seconds.
Imagine how much more water a pump would move pushing downstream, versus pushing up against the water. The argument is based around water momentum, and letting the corals themselves create the turbulence, since that's what they're naturally designed to do anyway.
In boats/airplanes/cars, and all sorts of transportation machines, we put a lot of effort into making them as aerodynamic (or hydrodynamic) as possible. We're trying to make them have as little interference with their environment as possible. This is also the case with fish and birds, it affords much less energy
consumption. The exact opposite is true in the design of corals. They're all about energy
absorption. I can't think of a more obtrusive shape than that of corals, and that's exactly what the article above talks about. You can have all the laminar flow you want, but it WILL NOT stay laminar. It will, as a mandatory matter of physics, become turbulent. It will hit corals. It will hit rocks. It will hit the small glass box and bounce around. Heck, it will hit its own reflections.
A while back, a rather interesting feature was put together. At first, I laughed at the whimsical silliness, but eventually took the time to read through it. It was amazing! The basic premise was that mathematicians and engineers were trying to figure out what shape would have the most possible surface area for its volume. A sphere is on the opposite side of this equation, its shape is the most efficient use of surface area to hold the same volume. As the math nerds started realizing their conclusion, it became apparent that the very shape they were looking for already existed, in corals!
http://openfordesign.msn.com/default.aspx?id=5tech1_wertheim>1=9166
Again, the design of the coral is extraordinary. In this case, they prove it to be mathematically the most effective use of physical space possible for what it's intended to do. I believe this to be true in the case of energy (water motion) absorption, as well. That's exactly what the coral is intended to do, so I want to see what happens when I let the corals do their job. Read the whole article. It's tedious, but falls together well.