Linear water flow and odd acro growth patterns?

[Son Of Skyline]

Has anyone experienced odd acropora growth patterns with linear water flow across the colonies? I've been tearing my hair out trying to get good flow patterns across my sps at the edges of my tank, especially those sitting near or under my ph's. My wavemaker takes care of alternating flow through the middle section of the tank but it seems that only the powerheads on the opposite sides of the corals on the edges provide any flow to them (ph's on left side blows water across right side corals and vice versa). My wavemaker is on an alternating 20sec cycle right then left, so it looks like the corals on the sides get 20sec of good flow in one direction, then 20sec of very little water movement. I've messed around pointing ph's in all different directions, different cycles, longer cycles, rearranged rockwork, had left and right ph's working at the same time..etc. I've thought about a closed loop/Sea Swirl system but my budget doesn't allow it at this time. I'm about to give up and just accept it and allow linear water movement across these small colonies.

Any info on experience with linear water movement across sps would be appreciated. Thanks!