Plumbing multiple tanks to one sump

rooneyj889

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Hey all, I am in the planning stages of my fish room with a plan to hook all of my tanks (and by all, I mean my current 75 gallon and any future tanks i purchase) to one sump. Currently, my 75 gallon is on the first floor of my house. The fish room is in the basement so i would be plumbing through the floor and then through a wall in the basement. Currently the plan is to have my 75 gallon drain into my future tanks because all future tanks would be in the basement. Then, these tanks would drain into the sump. I know for my return I would just return all water to the 75 gallon but I have no clue how to set up the plumbing so that I can add onto it with as little work as possible. Would I have the 75 drain into these tanks and then have these tanks drain right back into the same plumbing as the 75 gallon just further on down? Also, should I set it up with some valves so that when the time comes I can just attach some piping to those valves, open them and go? I am just worried about flow and stuff like that into the other tanks. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Haven't plumbed a sump before but I am excited to do so and for the challenges.

Also, the future planned tanks are a 30-40 gallon seahorse tank hopefully by december and then a larger 200+ gallon tank around may or june of next year. Both would be right underneath my current tank in the basement, just across the wall from my sump.
 

flampton

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I can help a little and definitely say you do not want your 75 controlling the overflow rate of the other tanks. Run the return in your sump with a manifold that can go to all the tanks. Valves on each line will allow you to control the turnover in each tank.
 
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rooneyj889

rooneyj889

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I can help a little and definitely say you do not want your 75 controlling the overflow rate of the other tanks. Run the return in your sump with a manifold that can go to all the tanks. Valves on each line will allow you to control the turnover in each tank.
Okay, that makes sense and would make it easier too. so, each tank would then just drain into the sump seperately, correct. Also, what would you recommend for a return pump that could handle that kind of head pressure pumping through the floor, but also pumping to two seperate tanks.
 

flampton

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Yup each would have their own drains. Well pump selection on this system is definitely beyond me. I mean I'm guessing you'll have 12 feet of head on the 75 plus you'll be teeing off to others on a manifold, you'll def need to consult the experts
 

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Idk if I would rely on just one pump to run all tanks through a manifold. I currently have 2 tanks out of the same sump and use 2 separate pumps for them. At least if one pump goes the other will continue circ in the sump and the other tank won't be affected.

For your setup you're going to have to consider a very large sump, something that will be able to handle all of the excess water in the lines when power is cut off. Thats a lot of water when you have pipes running between floors of a house.
 

CindyKz

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I just plumbed my upstairs 75 gallon tank into my basement sump, which was already supporting a 180 gal DT, 30 gal frag tank, and 20 gal refugium. There is a thread regarding calculating the head pressure and return pump requirements here .

The short version is that I went with a separate return pump for the 75 gal. There were a lot of positives to doing it this way. Calculating the various pressures got complicated and the return pump was going to be expensive. A single return pump is a single point of failure for the whole system. I didn't have to make any changes to my existing plumbing (I have a spot left on the manifold but it isn't placed well for this purpose). Lastly, I like being able to shut off the flow to the 75 gal without shutting off the entire system.

It's only been a couple of weeks but it is working out nicely.
 

CindyKz

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first pic is of the plumbing going from the sump to the ceiling behind and over the back of the 180 gal.


20200914_191650.jpg


Plumbing coming out of the floor in the living room into the back of the 75 gal stand

20200914_191557.jpg


The 75 gal set up. I've already rescaped twice LOL. This was an upgrade from a 32 gal biocube so there are some established coral and rock mixed with dry rock that has been in the sump for a while. The doors weren't back onto the stand yet in this photo.


20200914_191544.jpg



Closer shot of plumbing into ceiling, kinda boring I guess
20200914_083510.jpg


180 gal DT a few weeks ago.


20200911_182559.jpg
 
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metzer

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i run multiple tanks off one common sump. One thing i did to account for the water in the pipe that drains back into your sump when you turn off flow is, put in check valves close to the return pump and then i added a secondary sump extension that houses my return pumps. the sump extension provided extra holding volume to account for drainage and water level rise. it will depend on how much room you have in your sump and how high you keep the water level during normal operation.
 
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rooneyj889

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Idk if I would rely on just one pump to run all tanks through a manifold. I currently have 2 tanks out of the same sump and use 2 separate pumps for them. At least if one pump goes the other will continue circ in the sump and the other tank won't be affected.

For your setup you're going to have to consider a very large sump, something that will be able to handle all of the excess water in the lines when power is cut off. Thats a lot of water when you have pipes running between floors of a house.
Yeah, i'm using a rubbermaid 150 gallon tub
 
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rooneyj889

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Idk if I would rely on just one pump to run all tanks through a manifold. I currently have 2 tanks out of the same sump and use 2 separate pumps for them. At least if one pump goes the other will continue circ in the sump and the other tank won't be affected.

For your setup you're going to have to consider a very large sump, something that will be able to handle all of the excess water in the lines when power is cut off. Thats a lot of water when you have pipes running between floors of a house.
Could I do one return to the 75 gallon and then one that feeds the 40 gallon and 200+ gallon?
 

Rjukan

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Idk, if I were you and had all that space in the sump I would run 3 pumps. Having the flow through the 40g would be tough to have the turnover rate you would want in the 200g.

I would make sure the 40g outlet is a good several inches above the water line of the 200g, and have it gravity feed into the 200g. I was doing this with my 7.5g for a time so it would basically be a pod fuge and they could take the nice ride down to the DT rather than a rough ride up through the return pump. I would plan on having a relatively low flow through that 40g and make sure the drains in the 200g are not near maxed by whatever pump you have feeding it from the sump.
 
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rooneyj889

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Idk, if I were you and had all that space in the sump I would run 3 pumps. Having the flow through the 40g would be tough to have the turnover rate you would want in the 200g.

I would make sure the 40g outlet is a good several inches above the water line of the 200g, and have it gravity feed into the 200g. I was doing this with my 7.5g for a time so it would basically be a pod fuge and they could take the nice ride down to the DT rather than a rough ride up through the return pump. I would plan on having a relatively low flow through that 40g and make sure the drains in the 200g are not near maxed by whatever pump you have feeding it from the sump.
Already planning on having a refugium separate from my sump. Just a small pump that pumps water into the fuge and then back to the sump. Why not have the 40 gallon just drain back to the sump? Already planning on using that as a seahorse tank so low flow is a must
 

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You could, but you asked about having the flow go through the 40 then on to the 200 before returning to the sump. Or that's what I thought you meant. You have many options when it comes to your setup with such a large sump.
 
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rooneyj889

rooneyj889

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You could, but you asked about having the flow go through the 40 then on to the 200 before returning to the sump. Or that's what I thought you meant. You have many options when it comes to your setup with such a large sump.
Oh, i meant just one pump that returns water to both the 40 gallon and the 200 gallon and then just have each drain into the sump seperately
 

Rjukan

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Sure with a manifold of some sort. I woukdnt bother if it was me, there isn't much benefit. I would rather have the redundancy of multiple pumps.
 

Rjmul

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I can help a little and definitely say you do not want your 75 controlling the overflow rate of the other tanks. Run the return in your sump with a manifold that can go to all the tanks. Valves on each line will allow you to control the turnover in each tank.
Ok but why not ? I'm in some planning stages of something similar. Bit late to the party here
 
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