How many Display Tank Aquariums can you plumb to one sump?

[reefsaver]

Can 2 or 3 Display tanks plumbed to the same sump technically making them an all in one system. I guess a big concern for anyone doing this is flooding in a power outage but I suppose then you do your research on what kind of sump you need or are going to make. so when the water drains it doesn't overfill it.
Just as an example, say you have a 10 gallon sump how many 5 gallon aquariums could you add to the plumbing of it. Does the system get more and more stable because the water volume constantly increases? Or will there eventually be too much bioload for the sump to handle and you will start seeing nutrient spikes?

 

[dank reefer]

All depends on how big your sump is. Just keep in mind that the sump will have to be able to hold the water from your tanks if in case you have a power outage.

 

[ScottB]

Can 2 or 3 Display tanks plumbed to the same sump technically making them an all in one system. I guess a big concern for anyone doing this is flooding in a power outage but I suppose then you do your research on what kind of sump you need or are going to make. so when the water drains it doesn't overfill it.
Just as an example, say you have a 10 gallon sump how many 5 gallon aquariums could you add to the plumbing of it. Does the system get more and more stable because the water volume constantly increases? Or will there eventually be too much bioload for the sump to handle and you will start seeing nutrient spikes?

Theoretically you can add as many tanks as you want as long as the sump is large enough to handle the backflow when the pumps are off.

There are a few variables that you may be able to adjust, like:

a) Height of the return nozzle. The lower it is in the display, the more water it will syphon. Don't rely on a check valve.
b) Level of the water in the sump. The lower you keep the default level, the more back syphon volume you can support.
c) And of course, size of the sump relative to the volume of the displays.

 

[Gtinnel]

If you are running equipment in your sump (skimmer, reactors, uv, etc) you will eventually be limited by not being able to fit big enough equipment to handle to bio load. Although I suspect the ability to contain the extra water from the display tanks would be the limiting factor.

It would make me nervous to know that if I had an issue in my tank I potentially end up with an issue in all of my tanks.

 

[reefsaver]

If you are running equipment in your sump (skimmer, reactors, uv, etc) you will eventually be limited by not being able to fit big enough equipment to handle to bio load. Although I suspect the ability to contain the extra water from the display tanks would be the limiting factor.

It would make me nervous to know that if I had an issue in my tank I potentially end up with an issue in all of my tanks.

I have a little bit of a space issue, I was thinking of setting up a small tank with a decent sized sump underneath and then filling some spaces in my room with tanks and plumbing them to the sump. I do have a standalone system at the moment but I have fallen in love with the hobby and really just want to experiment and learn. I've been in lockdown 5 times and still am. This stuff really helps keep me sane, if you added it up I've probably spent months in isolation.
I really want to build a shallow water reef, a terrarium with a small shrimp area. Just really want to turn my room into a forest lol.

 

[Biokabe]

Theoretically you could have as many tanks plumbed to a single sump as you wanted, but as others have said the limiting factor will be how much water volume you can accommodate in your sump. When sizing a sump, you need to account for the "power off" situation to prevent spills - in other words, if all power fails to your tanks, does your sump have enough volume to contain the water that flows down into your sump from your tanks. The second issue is that your systems will cross-contaminate each other, so if something goes wrong in one tank, it'll carry over to all tanks. Finally, the third issue will just be all the pipes and plumbing going to all your different tanks. =) But if you're alright with that, then the sky's the limit.

 

[CHASDB]

One thing I learned when I tied my sons tank into my system. If you are using 1 pump to provide flow to both display tanks and the heights of the return are at different heights. The higher tank will back flow to the lower tank before the siphon breaks. This may end up being much more water into the sump when just looking at each display, looking at the return nozzle compared to the overflow box teeth. I originally had a check valve above the return pump but added check valves at both returns as well. Disaster averted.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Many good points already covered. Just to underscore— poison one tank, poison them all. Ich in one, Ich in all, etc.