plumbing two tanks together

[sachabballi reef]

we are trying to figure out the best way to plumb together two tanks sitting side by side. The first is a 92G corner with sump and the second is a 72G with sump. The corner always poses a problem as there is not much room to move in the stand and because the corner faces the wall its hard to access through the back.

 

Does anyone have good ideas on how to connect the two tanks? I would like to use one sump for equipment and the other as a fuge.

 

thanks!!!

[L8 2 RISE]

Best way would to just make one sump/fuge, get a return pump that's twice the size as the two you have now, smack a T and some ball valves on the return valve and have the return pump feed both tanks that way and then have them both overflow back into that same sump.

[sachabballi reef]

i was afraid that was going to be the answer....neither stand can take a sump that large and there is no room for a sump between them either....I know...Im difficult

[Chad]

The way that I do it is by plumbing it as a "flow-through" system. Basically, the return pump flows to the refugium (which is physically set slightly higher than the DT, 1-2 inches is all that is needed), which is connected to the DT with a drilled overflow or a siphon, and the DT then overflows to the sump.

 

Another way to do it is like Sam said by running both systems independently with a single sump (just make sure it is large enough to work for both tanks).

 

Good luck! Either way, you are going to need a large enough sump to handle overflow from both tanks.

[L8 2 RISE]

If you need both sumps then what you can do is raise one of the sumps so it's higher than the other. Have water overflow from the tanks down into the raised sump, have the raised sump flow into the other sump, then have the large return pump (that I spoke of in my previous post) in the lower sump, have the return come up into a T with ball valves, have one line go to one tank, the other line go to the other, and voi la. If you need both sumps, this is the only way, and the best way, that I can think of.

[Coral Hind]

The way that I do it is by plumbing it as a "flow-through" system. Basically, the return pump flows to the refugium (which is physically set slightly higher than the DT, 1-2 inches is all that is needed), which is connected to the DT with a drilled overflow or a siphon, and the DT then overflows to the sump.

 

This is exactly how I had my 75g and 125g tied together.

[sachabballi reef]

thanks everyone....

should be an interesting weekend coming up LOL

[treesprite]

 

You need to leave enough back siphon room in the sump for both tanks, for times when the pump shuts off (like in a power outage).

Edited September 15, 2010 by treesprite