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Setting up one skimmer to work two tanks


MODreefer

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I’m new to the hobby and I have acquired a Super Reef Octopus XP-8000ext skimmer. Can anyone explain/diagram what I would need to get this setup to work with both a 180gal and 120gal tank together? Thx

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Use a sump (below the level of each display tank) and put the skimmer there.

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2 hours ago, gouramimo said:

Skimmer is too large to put beneath the DT. It’s also an external skimmer.

Ah, I see. Yes, it's large indeed. I've got a similarly sized skimmer (dual recirc pumps on a cylindrical, not cone, body with similar volume as yours) customized for me by Avast from an old Grey Seas Aquatics product that one of the Avast founders built years ago. Mine runs in-sump in a fish room. Even though my tank is in-wall, the skimmer is too tall to run under the tank itself and is in a sump set off to the side of the tank, on the floor. Yours could also run in-sump with a feed pump or externally, on a stand or countertop with a feed pump and gravity flow back to a sump. Plumbing-wise, you could use a feed pump or save power (and heat) and gravity feed the skimmer directly from your tank overflow. If your overflow rate is too much for the skimmer volume, then you could split the flow if a gravity-fed approach is desired. In both cases, you're looking at putting the skimmer elsewhere since it can't fit under the tank. Do you have the ability to set up a fish room or some other external space on the other side of a wall?

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Quick question: Do both of your displays run through the same sump? If so, in the scenario described in my last post, you may be able to run the/an overflow from one tank (the 120, for example) through the skimmer and gravity feed the sump. Eventually, all of the water will run through the skimmer and the water will all be processed.

 

One additional thought: If there's any possibility that the (externally configured) skimmer plumbing might get clogged or the skimmer overflows, you may want to consider putting the whole skimmer in a tray of some sort with emergency plumbing draining to the sump just in case it overflows.

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abda8685ca21b59a868e3e0fcc57a916.jpg

I will have the tanks behind the blue tape. I have two sumps. However, if I put the skimmer in one of them, I won’t be able to put the sump under the tank. I could buy an acrylic box just for the skimmer

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Two tanks and two sumps - if you're not planning on tying the two systems together, then you probably shouldn't try to run them both through one skimmer as that would, in effect, tie them together (with shared water, common sump levels, etc.). If you do tie the two separate sumps together, I'd advise a passive shunt between the two and doing so with a large diameter pipe to avoid risk of the shunt clogging. (John Coppolino does this behind the scenes on his mega-system in Leesburg.)

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  • 1 month later...

That is a really big skimmer and without a doubt a beast! But I am not sure that your system would even come close to having enough bio-load for the skimmer to be effective with what you stated you have planned. A quick search has indicated that the XP-8000ext is rated for a 800 gallon heavy bio-load system up to 1200 gallon if the bio-load is light. That's almost 3X the total water volume you have indicated for your planned (both tanks combined) system.

I hate to say it but my suggestion would be to consider other options and forgo the use of the skimmer.  

Edited by tom39
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Agreed. Posted it for sale. Picked up a smaller skimmer for the second tank. Waiting for new electrical lines to be wired. Then the tanks will begin the cycle process.

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