Dual sump setup.

[Jedi1199]

My 55g is a non-drilled tank. I am unwilling to test drill it so I am limited to HoB equipment. I recently read a thread where the poster found a nice HoB overflow box for his own 55.

From that thread I purchased one of those units for myself. Also got a 10g tank to use for a refugium.

Problem I have is that I also want a place to put a better skimmer than the HoB model I have now. My stand will only allow a 10g standard tank inside. I got the best smallest footprint skimmer I could find and it still will not fit in a 10g tank and leave enough room for an effective refugium Grrrrr... So, I am going to go with dual 10g tanks so I can have one on each side of the stand.

Been doing some reading on this and watched a few videos of how others have approached this same issue. What I have come up with is that a simple "water bridge" between the 2 tanks will allow for balance of water level. This will also allow me to add an ATO to this tank and relieve me the hassle of topping off by hand every few days.

Basically both of the tanks will be its own system. individual drains and returns, but the water bridge will allow me to balance the water level evenly between the 2 tanks so an ATO will work.

 

[takitaj]

You could try an external recirculating model. Then you can get the correct size for your tank and put it wherever you want. It's a more costly option, of course.

 

[Yodeling]

This seems overly complicated and I would question reliability of such setup. External overflows work ok (I ran one myself for several years) but they need some babysitting. As air accumulates inside, they can stop working. If I understand your plan, you want to run 2 external overflows AND an external tube between the two smaller tanks. IMHO you're asking for trouble with this kind of setup.

Personally, I would look for other options. Either the right size sump (I know it might not be easy for 55 because it's so narrow), or maybe a different HOB skimmer option. Just my opinion.