Water quality between “bridged” tanks

[Castro235]

Hey guys, I’ve recently gotten back into the hobby, but I’m doing things a little different.

The way I have everything set up definitely comes with many risks, and potential problems, and I am fully aware of most of them, but that is beside the point of this thread.

My question has to do with water parameters between two tanks that are connected via water bridge, and my main concern is oxygen.

Usually oxygen is very important, and I have plenty of movement at the top of the tank either by air, or from water being returned to the tank, but I have several small containers connected by water bridges I plan on using for either plants, or possibly shrimp.

The way everything is bridged, it goes from the tank, into container 1, then 2, then 3, then my “sump” back to the main tank.

There is basically no visible flow in the tanks, but the water is forced to travel along a direction, so in theory there is always fresh water, but I just don’t know if I should be concerned about oxygen and waste my time putting airstones in the tanki

For anyone interested in the setup, there is a 15 gallon tank with pvc overflows above a 10 gallon, and a 5 gallon off to the side with the three maybe 2/3 gallon containers. Eventually I will be adding my 55 over a 40, and possibly some other small tanks. Eventually I will probably do a post on the setup, but it’s extremely in progress and low budget low tech focusing on as much water volume as possible.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

As long as the water is flowing between them, I don't think oxygen should be a problem. Unless it's not flowing at much more than a drip.

 

[Castro235]

As long as the water is flowing between them, I don't think oxygen should be a problem. Unless it's not flowing at much more than a drip.

Thanks! It should be good then, the water draining from the last in the chain is definitely not a drip, but probably less than 10 gallons per hour. Considering the new water is from the rest of the system with closer to 600gph flowrate, I think the small “branch” at say 5gph of “fresh” water should be safe in theory.

At most, these micro tanks would have either a handful of cherry shrimp, or maybe amano, or some other shrimp. I hope this could be a reasonable habitat for shrimp, while avoiding the issues involved in maintaining tank parameters for <1 gallon of water, and without them competing with each other if I had cherries, amanos, and ghosts all in one tank.

 

[fishdance]

I have used bridges in the past. One of my racks had 12 tanks per tier and 4 tiers high as one system. You do need to pump water from one end to the other and use screens as heat, snails, loaches, etc will plug the bridges, even if you use two (or three) bridges for redundancy.

Slow flow is best if you have multiple tanks otherwise the water levels at first tank are just too high for the last tank. 12 tanks using 32mm PVC was the limit for me. No water quality issues. Great way to get even heating and automatic water changes.

However, drilling tanks is very easy and more reliable. I was able to put 50 tanks per tier as a comparison.

 

[Castro235]

I have used bridges in the past. One of my racks had 12 tanks per tier and 4 tiers high as one system. You do need to pump water from one end to the other and use screens as heat, snails, loaches, etc will plug the bridges, even if you use two (or three) bridges for redundancy.

Slow flow is best if you have multiple tanks otherwise the water levels at first tank are just too high for the last tank. 12 tanks using 32mm PVC was the limit for me. No water quality issues. Great way to get even heating and automatic water changes.

However, drilling tanks is very easy and more reliable. I was able to put 50 tanks per tier as a comparison.

I do plan on putting screens over the bridges once I have some critters in there, mts are on the way, and I figure if I had different shrimp in them, they would just travel through the bridges and fight anyway.

Eventually I might do some drilling, but for now I’m sticking with the overflows and bridges. Drilled sure would be nice, but I’ll have to break down the tanks to do it.

 

[fishdance]

You can add side drains without emptying out a tank but water bridges are a good way to learn about water flow too. If you use smooth U shaped bridges, you will significantly improve the flow rate over 2 elbows. Fill the pipe with sand and heat over a gas stove slowly. Youtube will have examples. Or if you want a quick U pipe, use flexible hose with coat hanger wire inside to hold the shape.