Plumbing two tanks one system

rooneyj889 · Sep 24, 2020

Hey guys, I am currently running a 75 gallon tank on just a canister filter on my first floor. I am planning on adding a fish room in my basement pretty soon and putting a sump down there for the 75 gallon and any other tanks I get in the future. I do not plan on getting rid of the 75 gallon, only adding tanks to that system - so i will be using a 150 gal rubbermaid tub as my sump, as well as a 40 breeder or a 55 as my fuge. Plan is to have the water go into the fuge and then gravity drain from the fuge to the sump. Problem is, fuge would be before any mechanical filtration so I do not know if that will cause any problems with detritus, etc. Additionally, was hoping to use the fuge to host copepods with the plan of eventually adding a mandarin dragonet so idk if that will work. Also, how would you guys recommend plumbing with the purpose of adding any future tanks. Since any new tanks would be in the basement, where the fish room is located, the plan was to have the water drain from the 75 into the 1 or two tanks in the basement and then drain from there to the fuge. Additionally, would only have one return pump pumping water into the 75. Could I do it so that the 75 drains into the new tank and then that tank just drains into the same plumbing just further down? I just want to future proof the plumbing so that it makes it as easy as possible when I do set up tanks in the basement in the future

BlennyTime · Sep 25, 2020

The problem with having the fuge before the mechanical filtration is that pods will get sucked up by that filtration.

You could certainly have one tank drain into another, keeping in mind that it will either have to be below so it can gravity drain or have a pump.

If you want to combine drain lines, make sure the main line is large enough to handle the combined volume.

You could do the plumbing now and add ball valves, that you can open and plum in to when you are ready.

Good luck!!

rooneyj889 · Sep 25, 2020

BlennyTime said:
The problem with having the fuge before the mechanical filtration is that pods will get sucked up by that filtration.

You could certainly have one tank drain into another, keeping in mind that it will either have to be below so it can gravity drain or have a pump.

If you want to combine drain lines, make sure the main line is large enough to handle the combined volume.

You could do the plumbing now and add ball valves, that you can open and plum in to when you are ready.

Good luck!!

Could I do it so that it drains into the sump and then the sump gravity drains into the fuge and then use and external return pump to pump the water from the fuge to the main display?

Scubasteve11 · Sep 25, 2020

rooneyj889 said:
Could I do it so that it drains into the sump and then the sump gravity drains into the fuge and then use and external return pump to pump the water from the fuge to the main display?

Display gravity fed to sump, sump gravity fed to fuge, fuge returns water to display will work.

Another option would be to have a separate pump for the fuge. Small pump in the sump to feed water to fuge. Fuge is gravity fed back to sump.

frank10 · Sep 25, 2020

I had a similar setup - I had my return pump feed refugium and display, both gravity drained into sump. Drain from fuge did not go through mechanical filtration.

rooneyj889 · Sep 25, 2020

frank10 said:
I had a similar setup - I had my return pump feed refugium and display, both gravity drained into sump. Drain from fuge did not go through mechanical filtration.

So would your fuge drain back into the sump but not through mechanical filtration?

Dom · Sep 25, 2020

I just finished rebuilding a few tanks into one sump. And I anticipate adding more tanks to the sump moving forward.

Your post is the same question I asked when I was planning.

My suggestion would be to leave plenty of extra room for adding equipment to the sump. I have separate return pumps for each tank, so extra room was paramount.