I was wonder if it's possible to connect to separate tanks together side by side so they share the same water, filters, ect. I found a 30 gallon while driving around yesterday and I'm going to upgrade my juvenile common snapping turtle to it and then convert his 20 tall into a heavily planted aquarium with guppies and other livebearers. I figure all the waste that the turtle produces would be great for the plants and the plants would help a ton with keeping his aquarium clean, plus the extra gallons of water would be great for both tanks. I figure my best bet would be an over flow and a pump. Anyone try something like this before or have any ideas? Thanks
Connecting To Seperate Tanks?
- Thread starter Brewster320
- Start date
The simplest way would be what Arowan posted which is to connect the two tanks with a syphen tube over the top sides, but this assumes that both tanks are the same hight. Sounds like you have two different tanks so you might need to raise one tank up so that the tops of the tanks are even.
Then all you need to do is fill a large u-tube with water, plug one end and while keeping the other end submerged put the plugged end over the side of the tank and into the other tank. Then unplug the end and the two tanks are now connected.
Put the intake in one tank and the return in the other. As water is pulled from one tank and returned to the other it will flow through the u-tube keeping the water levels in both tanks the same.
You could do this with one tank over the other making a sump out of the tank below but this way seems much safer because there is no question about what happens when the power fails. As long as the u-tube is submerged on both ends the water level will be equal in both tanks.
Then all you need to do is fill a large u-tube with water, plug one end and while keeping the other end submerged put the plugged end over the side of the tank and into the other tank. Then unplug the end and the two tanks are now connected.
Put the intake in one tank and the return in the other. As water is pulled from one tank and returned to the other it will flow through the u-tube keeping the water levels in both tanks the same.
You could do this with one tank over the other making a sump out of the tank below but this way seems much safer because there is no question about what happens when the power fails. As long as the u-tube is submerged on both ends the water level will be equal in both tanks.
I have two tanks setup like this a 300g and a 100g. They both share the same sump. The 100g sits lower then the 300. The 100g gets fed by gravity and return water just drains back to the sump. How I get it to flow into the 100 the 300 has two drains in the overflow to the sump. One of the drains I routed to the 100g for its inlet. I stuck a 3/4" piece of pvc pipe into the bulk head on the other drain inside the overflow making the water inside the overflow rise up higher then the inlet to the 100g so it begins to drain into the 100g. Both tanks also have 2 canister filters. If I need to run them separately which I have from time to time the 100g has its own canister filters. The amount of pressure the water gets fed into the 100g depends on how much higher I set the riser pipe in the overflow. I have had to adjust that a couple times till I got it just right so the drain keeps up with the inlet.
Well I can make the 30gal's water level equal with the 20's because the turtle won't have it all the way to the top because I need room for him to bask and he would get out if I get. He is an excellent escape artist.prober;4910605; said:
But thanks guys! Now I'll start cleaning out the 30 and getting it ready.
So I've finally gotten around to doing this but I have a problem. How large should of a Utube I should use. It needs to be able to siphon atleast 250 gph, preferably more( just incase). Any imput would be valued!
Brewster320;5028367; said:
lol a 1inch tube could handle 250gph. I would go larger for insurance... dont want it getting clogged!