Suggestions for a Wave Maker

Not all powerheads are designed to run on an on / off pattern and doing so can cause them to burn up / wear out prematurely.

As a side note, I've seen posts on other forums describing a couple of the wavemaker powerstrips as fire hazards, although I'm not aware if that particular one was one of them talked about. There's always talk about the conditions they were used under (if they got wet, were overloaded, etc.), but the people posting tend to claim there were no other circumstances that lead to the powerstrip shorting out / catching fire.

There are better ways to make random current than those powerstrips. The method talked about in the previous post is a good one. There's also a product called a SCWD that can be hooked up to a return pump from a sump or installed on a closed loop system that uses the force of the water being pumped through it to turn gears that alternately divert the flow into two separate outputs (that would be place opposite of each other). The downfall is that it reduces the output of the pump -- it is a restriction on the tubing and is using the water power to opperate. SCWDs run in the $30 - $40 range, before any required purchase of a pump, tubing, etc. I don't have one myself (yet), as I need to upgrade my pump first before I could reasonably expect to use one. But, it's on my list...