Central filteration

[Mr Pleco]

Anyone on this forum use a central filtering system for their tanks. I'm getting quite a collection of tanks in my basement and would like to remove all the individual wet dry/sumps and combine into one central system.

Has anyone on the forum done this? My main concern is balancing the flow back to so many tanks.. Would I use individual pumps? that doesn't seem too practical..Anyone have any links or pictures of a return manifold ? Thought I quiz the forum , while I re invent the wheel?

 

[dawnmarie]

I've seen a number of these on this forum. This one from Chompers is pretty interesting. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...ad.php?t=36298

 

[Muske]

My LFS uses them on their salt and fresh. The tanks are drilled on the side (1") and then connect to 2" that empties into the sump. Looks to only run on two pumps. A piece of 2" runs along the top of the tanks tees off to each tank and has a ball valve on each. This I believe is because some tanks are larger than others.

 

[Toby_H]

Most overflows are designed to keep teh water level steady within a very small range regardless of the water input...

Using ball valves will help you distribute water at the desired rate... with ball valves in place there is no reason why you cannot use one pump to feed multiple tanks...


I have a rack set up with a 75 gal on bottom, a 50 gal (48 x 18 @ 12 tall) in the middle and a 50 gal (48 x 18 @ 12 tall) on top. Water is pumped from teh bottom 75 gal to the top 50 gal... falls through an overflow into the middle 50 gal... falls through an overflow into the bottom 75 gal...

This approach works wonderful for keeping water parameters, temp, etc consistent from tank to tank... but is not a good approach for mechanical filtration. Using typical surface skimming overflow pipes not much physical waste is collected by this system. HOBs and/or regular maintenance keeps physical waste in check.

At 6' head pressure my SEN 700 gph pump puts more water into the top 50 gal than the 1/2" ID PVC pipe can handle... So I put a ball valve in the pipe to the top tank to reduce the flow...