Plumbing two sumps/tanks together?

[NeveSSL]

Hi all,

My wife wanted her own tank, and I'm all for it! We wanted to plumb it with my tank. I don't think my sump has enough capacity to have both tanks off at the same time, so we decided for her tank to have it's own sump. I'm still wanting them to exchange water, so my plan was to plumb an inlet and outlet on each tank under the water line and just have it always pushing a bit of water between the two. I think if I push from the main return section of my sump, evap should show up there for both tanks. The other sump currently is just going to be a 40g breeder. They're at the same level.

Am I missing anything? Is this a terrible idea for some reason I haven't thought of? Planning on strainers on ins and outs to keep critters out. I basically just want to make this so it's all one system and I don't have to buy multiple Tridents and dose multiple tanks, but without doing it all to one sump because that would have to be in the garage.

Any insight or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Brandon

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

I have joined sumps together with bulkheads in the sumps. You drill both sumps with bulkheads in the return pump section of each and then run a line between them. If you put both return pumps in 1 return chamber or use 1 return pump to supply both tanks then they will share water.

Another option is to use a dual head peristaltic pump or 2 dosing pump heads to automatically exchange the water between the 2 systems.

 

[NeveSSL]

Thank you! That is what I was thinking, but confirmation is great. Lol

Brandon

 

[Reefering1]

What size tanks? Sump? How far apart will the tanks be? Will one be higher than the other?

 

[skey44]

Maybe a good opportunity to just get one large sump?

 

[PharmrJohn]

If you decide to do this, please include a build thread to your profile. I'd like to see how it's done!

 

[Peair]

Hi all,

My wife wanted her own tank, and I'm all for it! We wanted to plumb it with my tank. I don't think my sump has enough capacity to have both tanks off at the same time, so we decided for her tank to have it's own sump. I'm still wanting them to exchange water, so my plan was to plumb an inlet and outlet on each tank under the water line and just have it always pushing a bit of water between the two. I think if I push from the main return section of my sump, evap should show up there for both tanks. The other sump currently is just going to be a 40g breeder. They're at the same level.

Am I missing anything? Is this a terrible idea for some reason I haven't thought of? Planning on strainers on ins and outs to keep critters out. I basically just want to make this so it's all one system and I don't have to buy multiple Tridents and dose multiple tanks, but without doing it all to one sump because that would have to be in the garage.

Any insight or ideas are greatly appreciated!

Brandon

I have joined two sumps together that where about 20 ft away from each other, I used ½ inch tubing running each direction, with return pumps inside both sumps, and I used Auto Aqua sensors on both sumps to stop the pumps if any water goes above my water line, I did many tests and the Auto Aqua Smart Water Level Security system works good, just remember the return pumps are on opposite sumps. I did it this way because I did not want to do any drilling.