shared filtration on small tanks.
- Thread starter kjfan1
- Start date
You could use white PVC of course, but that would make it difficult to tell if there's a bubble in there. I'd check a local plastics or piping store and see if they can get a nice clear U pipe. They're easy to install. What I do for my overflow box is fill the pipe underwater, rubberband bits of plastic bags over the ends, lift out, flip into place and remove the bags. 9 out of 10 times, there's no bubble. Then as one tank filled, the other would empty to equalize. As long as the pipe is big enough, you're fine. Heck, I might do this downstairs with my guppy tanks now. Good idea! Our power bill has been high lately. I'll just use some suction cups and a piece of clear hose, though. Maybe you can try that instead of a pipe? Since it doesn't really matter where the ends of the pipe are in the tanks as long as they're submerged, hose is fine as long as it won't kink.
I've used this concept on several appliations with great success. There are a few precautions to keep in mind but if well thought out it should work very well for you...
The basic idea is to have the filters intake on one tank and the output on the other tank... then use a U tube siphon to allow the water to balance itself out...
Use more siphon tubes or a much larger wiphon than you suspect you will need. Using flow charts will be misleading as flow charts will tel you the maximum flow rate of a siphon with a miniumum verticle drop. You will have almost no verticle drop so your siphon will functionmuch slower than the maximum flow rates.
For 100~200 gph I have used 3 U tubes made of 3/4" PVC.
The water's surface of the tank with the filter's output will be a bit higher than the water's surface of the tank with the filter's intake. The more/larger the siphon tubes the less higher it will be.
If you use open ended siphons, fish will inevitably be sucked from one tank to the other. This may or may not matter.
Putting a sponge prefilter on the 'sucking' side of the U tube siphon will prevent fish frombeing sucked through the siphon, but will also put resistence on the siphon causing it to function a bit slower. This is an option I have gone with it just means you MUST clean the prefilters regularly or you risk overflowing the tank.
But I must ask... would you be better off to simply buy an air pump and use a sponge filter in each?
The basic idea is to have the filters intake on one tank and the output on the other tank... then use a U tube siphon to allow the water to balance itself out...
Use more siphon tubes or a much larger wiphon than you suspect you will need. Using flow charts will be misleading as flow charts will tel you the maximum flow rate of a siphon with a miniumum verticle drop. You will have almost no verticle drop so your siphon will functionmuch slower than the maximum flow rates.
For 100~200 gph I have used 3 U tubes made of 3/4" PVC.
The water's surface of the tank with the filter's output will be a bit higher than the water's surface of the tank with the filter's intake. The more/larger the siphon tubes the less higher it will be.
If you use open ended siphons, fish will inevitably be sucked from one tank to the other. This may or may not matter.
Putting a sponge prefilter on the 'sucking' side of the U tube siphon will prevent fish frombeing sucked through the siphon, but will also put resistence on the siphon causing it to function a bit slower. This is an option I have gone with it just means you MUST clean the prefilters regularly or you risk overflowing the tank.
But I must ask... would you be better off to simply buy an air pump and use a sponge filter in each?
I just did it. Used a tiny RIO pump and some 1/2" hose to pump water from the fry tank into the main tank. Used an old Penguin 300 intake tube for my equalizer. Pow. Water is almost level and stays where it is. I tied a nylon sock around the pump and filled it out with a holey plastic cup to protect the fry from being sucked up. I put a normal intake cover on the pipe to keep mama in her tank but to (hopefully) let fry swim through to the safe side. Took ten minutes. All done. Now to squeeze out the filter sponges into the lava rock substrate and get rid of two larger filters with the power of one small pump. Thanks for the idea, aqain!
Still working beautifully, and the nylon sock I used is not clogging at all. Probably because it has almost fry-sized holes. It's from the asian micro-megamart in the mall and I usually go triple duty on it to get a normal mechanical filtration action. Anyway, anybody who can stick a hose onto a pump should try this.
It's two ten-gallon tanks, one is mostly bare and the other is a refugium with water lettuce and 2" lava rocks as substrate. I think I have freshwater bristle worms in there. Anyway, this looks to be a great way to automatically get fry away from greedy mama. Thanks again for the idea and my electric bill also thanks you.
It's two ten-gallon tanks, one is mostly bare and the other is a refugium with water lettuce and 2" lava rocks as substrate. I think I have freshwater bristle worms in there. Anyway, this looks to be a great way to automatically get fry away from greedy mama. Thanks again for the idea and my electric bill also thanks you.
