2 Tank 1 sump ....how would you do it?

[CoralPlast]

Hi all,

At the moment i have 1x 35g and 1x 8g shallow frag tank to a single 14g sump. 2 return pump and 2 drain in the same sump


I am upgrading the frag tank to a 20g shallow and the sump to a 17g sump.

I am wondering what are the downside to use one return pump only and plumb the 2 tank in line. The return send water in the bigger (and higher) one, the water drain to the shallow and then from the shallow drain back to the sump.

Only downside I see at the moment is that if i clean the bigger tank, dirt will go to the shallow before going to the sump (and is a fairly big downside). But on the better note i use only one return pump.

What you guys think?

 

[Fish Fan]

One thought is that if your one pump fails, then both your tanks will be affected.

I'm planning to run two tanks off the same sump, but both tanks will be the same height, and I have two return pumps.

I'm interested in seeing what others think here.

Best of luck with your setup!

 

[Nate Chalk]

You mean like my build thread

 

[CoralPlast]

One thought is that if your one pump fails, then both your tanks will be affected.

I'm planning to run two tanks off the same sump, but both tanks will be the same height, and I have two return pumps.

I'm interested in seeing what others think here.

Best of luck with your setup!

that is another good point actually

You mean like my build thread

Maybe, sincerely i don't know, i've gone thru few pages but can't go thry 170 pages of post :) .... if you used 1 pump only, did you have found any downside?

 

[UncommonSense]

I used to run a wet:dry filter I’d converted into a rubble refuge with algae scrubber above my DT!

Water pumped from sump to refugium, then cascaded from refugium into the display, before overflowing from display to sump!

The primary downside to this plumbing arrangement is the high well height required from your return pump!

 

[DarthRaiderBob]

Another problem would be anyy disease or iss7es in one tank would be in both tanks.
Edit: I was considering doing this exact thing with a 40b and using it as a refugium. But in retrospect I think I'll use a 29 gallon tank I also have e for the fuge and use the 40b as a qt/frag tank with an aio drop in setup when I cam afford it.

 

[Nate Chalk]

that is another good point actually


Maybe, sincerely i don't know, i've gone thru few pages but can't go thry 170 pages of post :) .... if you used 1 pump only, did you have found any downside?

Use 2 pumps. Calculate your back flow based on how far each tank will drain.

 

[MoeStachio]

Hi all,

At the moment i have 1x 35g and 1x 8g shallow frag tank to a single 14g sump. 2 return pump and 2 drain in the same sump


I am upgrading the frag tank to a 20g shallow and the sump to a 17g sump.

I am wondering what are the downside to use one return pump only and plumb the 2 tank in line. The return send water in the bigger (and higher) one, the water drain to the shallow and then from the shallow drain back to the sump.

Only downside I see at the moment is that if i clean the bigger tank, dirt will go to the shallow before going to the sump (and is a fairly big downside). But on the better note i use only one return pump.

What you guys think?

It's pretty simple to build a manifold from each overflow (depending on the locations of the tanks ofc)

On each side have an elbow that goes to each overflow.

Pipe each to a Tee in the center (don't forget to grade the pipes) with the 3rd opening facing down (should be larger) feeding into the sump.

This of course could split again to feed separate sides or areas if you wish.

Then it's just a matter of having two return pumps to feed each tank separately.


DOWNSIDE: this can lead to cross contamination of disease/algae etc.

 

[UncommonSense]

It seems like nobody’s added that you do want a check valve on the outlet of each pump in a dual pump configuration…

— this prevents one pump from just pushing water back out the other pump in the event of a single pump failure…

Also consider plugging each pump into a different gfci/electrical circuit; this keeps one pump running if a GFCI or breaker trips!

 

[PPBlimpy]

i effectively did this with my last system, exactly what you are fearing happened.

125G display with 2 overflows, one overflow went into my 20g long frag tank and that overflowed into the sump. second overflow went straight to the sump.

I did not think about the effects of no mechanical filtration between the 125g and the 20g. Was the dirtiest frag tank. could not for the life of me keep it clean but I had no way of adding filtration to it. had to ad a powerhead to keep crap suspended in the water column which made it hard to have little frags eveywhere. wound up just being a separate tank to hold naughty fish etc.
will not do that again

 

[UncommonSense]

i effectively did this with my last system, exactly what you are fearing happened.

125G display with 2 overflows, one overflow went into my 20g long frag tank and that overflowed into the sump. second overflow went straight to the sump.

I did not think about the effects of no mechanical filtration between the 125g and the 20g. Was the dirtiest frag tank. could not for the life of me keep it clean but I had no way of adding filtration to it. had to ad a powerhead to keep crap suspended in the water column which mad eit hard to have little frags eveywhere. would up just being a separate tank to hold naughty fish etc.

I think the way to do it would be frag tank > DT > sump, using only a portion of the return pumps flow!

 

[pledosophy]

Hi all,

At the moment i have 1x 35g and 1x 8g shallow frag tank to a single 14g sump. 2 return pump and 2 drain in the same sump


I am upgrading the frag tank to a 20g shallow and the sump to a 17g sump.

I am wondering what are the downside to use one return pump only and plumb the 2 tank in line. The return send water in the bigger (and higher) one, the water drain to the shallow and then from the shallow drain back to the sump.

Only downside I see at the moment is that if i clean the bigger tank, dirt will go to the shallow before going to the sump (and is a fairly big downside). But on the better note i use only one return pump.

What you guys think?

It used to be a pretty common setup with the upper tank being the refugium. It works. Make sure you have a backup drain on the second tank.

 

[PPBlimpy]

I think the way to do it would be frag tank > DT > sump, using only a portion of the return pumps flow!

I agree with this. or just keep them separate overflows, T off the return pump and valve to each one. still a single pump but split. then both have mechanical filtration when it hits the sump.

i generally run two return pumps anyways incase one fails.

 

[UncommonSense]

I agree with this. or just keep them separate overflows, T off the return pump and valve to each one. still a single pump but split. then both have mechanical filtration when it hits the sump.

i generally run two return pumps anyways incase one fails.

I found that manifolding water to both DT and a vertically higher tank can get a bit finicky with the valving…

In my case, all of the water my sump return pump moved was pumped through a double lit rain style ATS, before it cascaded into the refuge, and drained to the DT! — 100% filtration contact on every turnover!

 

[foamboy]

I would stick with 2 pumps and drain each back to the sump for the cleanest tanks. Otherwise the filth from the first will end up in the second which may not pass through to the sump.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I have 2 tanks and 2 sumps all inter connected. I needed more overflow space for a tank that will be replacing this lowboy. But I simply have a return pump dedicated to tank #2. Tank #2, in your case, would just overflow into the sump like normal. The big thing you need to understand is when a power failure happens, can both tanks discharge into your sump and not overflow. I was within 1.5”, mathematically. Considering Murphy is a real person, I added a second remote sump which had many many additional benefits. I had this second sump built oversized too. The additional water volume is always helpful.

 

[CoralPlast]

Thanks all, i have ended up to go for 2 tank 2 pump 1 sump. Sump is big enough to collect overflow from both tank in case of power cut and also big enough to let me add in a extra frag space.