A project I've recently finished working on.
I have three tanks connected to each other with fish bridges. A ninety gallon, a 110 gallon, and a thirty-ish gallon. The fish can (and do) move from one tank to another through the bridges.
I carefully set the heaters so all of the tanks maintain the exact same temperature.
A powerhead pumps water from the far left tank to the far right tank, forcing water back through the fish bridges, thus keeping the water in the bridges from becoming anoxic and stagnant. The siphon maintains in event of a power outage with no risk of flooding.
The tops of each tank obviously had to be exactly level for this to work. I had to build my stands carefully.
Each tank has its own heater and filters, though obviously with the water constantly mixing every filter helps filter all of the water. The ninety gallon has a fluval canister and a HOB. The 110 gallon has a fluval canister and a DIY homebuilt wet/dry pot scrubbie filter with a sump, and the small tank has two HOBs. This all results in about twice as much filtration needed for the fish I have.
Some of the nice features of this set-up:
Water changes are accomplished with one water change rather than three. The water inlets for the bridges are low enough than I can do a fifty percent water change without breaking the siphon between the tanks.
Large total volume of water for increased stability. Total volume including sump and the few gallons in the bridges comes to something a bit north of 250 gallons.
The fish can move about, find new environments, territories, and mates, as well as avoid fish attempting to terroize them.
The bridges can indivudually be capped off if needed. Or a bit of screen can be ziptied to an inlet if the siphon and water mixing/filtration needs to be maintained without any fish going through.
Do the fish use it? Yes! Though more at night than in the daytime for some reason. It's fun watching them in the tubing though.
Why? Because it was a fun project, the kids think it's totally cool, and it's always interesting looking in each day and seeing who moved house.
Ok, now the pics and the video:
Here's the YouTube video: [YT]brJ_uu-keUI[/YT]
And the pictures:
I have three tanks connected to each other with fish bridges. A ninety gallon, a 110 gallon, and a thirty-ish gallon. The fish can (and do) move from one tank to another through the bridges.
I carefully set the heaters so all of the tanks maintain the exact same temperature.
A powerhead pumps water from the far left tank to the far right tank, forcing water back through the fish bridges, thus keeping the water in the bridges from becoming anoxic and stagnant. The siphon maintains in event of a power outage with no risk of flooding.
The tops of each tank obviously had to be exactly level for this to work. I had to build my stands carefully.
Each tank has its own heater and filters, though obviously with the water constantly mixing every filter helps filter all of the water. The ninety gallon has a fluval canister and a HOB. The 110 gallon has a fluval canister and a DIY homebuilt wet/dry pot scrubbie filter with a sump, and the small tank has two HOBs. This all results in about twice as much filtration needed for the fish I have.
Some of the nice features of this set-up:
Water changes are accomplished with one water change rather than three. The water inlets for the bridges are low enough than I can do a fifty percent water change without breaking the siphon between the tanks.
Large total volume of water for increased stability. Total volume including sump and the few gallons in the bridges comes to something a bit north of 250 gallons.
The fish can move about, find new environments, territories, and mates, as well as avoid fish attempting to terroize them.
The bridges can indivudually be capped off if needed. Or a bit of screen can be ziptied to an inlet if the siphon and water mixing/filtration needs to be maintained without any fish going through.
Do the fish use it? Yes! Though more at night than in the daytime for some reason. It's fun watching them in the tubing though.
Why? Because it was a fun project, the kids think it's totally cool, and it's always interesting looking in each day and seeing who moved house.
Ok, now the pics and the video:
Here's the YouTube video: [YT]brJ_uu-keUI[/YT]
And the pictures:
