opinions on the SCWD—Squid—Wavemaker

[oceanview85]

does an one have one of these. does it work well i am going to put a water pump that flows about 1017 gph. well hit me up if you have one.

[MissT]

SCWD's are an inexpensive alternative to like an Ocean's Motion and some of the other current directors out there. They are relatively simple in construction, which means less stuff to break and are a great little addition if you are just looking to get some variance in water movement. The only real downside would be that they are not programmable. The water only comes out the left side, then right alternatively, so if you have 2 of them, it's only 1, 3 then 2, 4 rather than like the Ocean's Motion which can be 1, 3 & 2, 4 OR 1, 4, 2, 3 and other sequential patterns. All in all though, the SCWD's are good bang for buck.

[JimD]

Ive been using SCWD's for years, I really like them, they work well for me. The trick is to use some type of pre-filter to reduce the ammount of debris that would normaly enter the unit and clog it up, I use round sponge filters and they seem to work well.

[GeoB]

I used two of them on a 75. They worked fine once I gave up the idea of having an end to end back and forth motion across the four foot length of the tank. Since the switching rate increases with flow, I found that they only pushed water about a distance of 2 feet or so whether I was using a pump at the high end of their gph range or the low end. Also, using 1" flex plumbing between the pump and the squids and between the squids and the outlets really helped offset the flow loss that these are notorious for. Send me a pm if you would be interested in a couple of used ones.

[KyleV]

I use one from my return which is about the same GPH and it works great.

[cpreefguy]

I have not used one, but for the price (and countless great reviews) you cant really go wrong trying one out

[txstateunivreefer]

i had one and enjoyed it as well

[Ross]

Ive used several and there awesome

[tomanero]

My new 110g w/ two SQWD's running off a Sequence Dart.
I ran the hoses one to each side so sometimes I get flow from two returns on one side, then alternating sides.
Hoping it will be random enough (and enough flow with the Mag 5 sump/fuge return added.
Water added Monday for testing.
Will see how it goes.
Here's a pic of the back of the tank.

[Joseph]

Mine lasted about a year before it stoped switching