Second Tank, Should I? (Plumbing sense-check needed!)

[psumms]

So nearly three years in, still loving the hobby so thinking of an expansion! My red bubble tip anemones have now outgrown their dedicated bommie and starting to wander, which has caused some irritation and loss to my SPS - I'm at the point where they've outgrown my Red Sea Peninsula 650. My female tomato clown is also now a monster! - Have spoken to my local store about a trade-in, but I love my BTA's and their mated egg-laying clown tenants. So... thinking about moving them to a new Red Sea Reefer XL 200, but plumbing this to my main system. I run an Abyzz A200 return with plenty of power to run the extra volume and not intending to add any additional fish stock so thinking my Reef Octopus Elite 200 skimmer and other kit shouldn't have any issues with the extra water volume + no need for another Apex etc. The sump should deal fine with the extra overhead as I don't think the drain down on the 200 will add more than 1/2".

Been thinking this through for a couple of months, can't think of any major issues doing this. Anything I've missed, not thought of? Does anyone have any experience running a smaller Red Sea alongside a larger unit? I re-plumbed my main tank when I first installed it so quite happy in that department, thinking I'd run the XL 200 from a manifold on the Abyzz return and returns to my roller mat, about 5ft of flexible pipe each.

 

[Dolphins18]

So nearly three years in, still loving the hobby so thinking of an expansion! My red bubble tip anemones have now outgrown their dedicated bommie and starting to wander, which has caused some irritation and loss to my SPS - I'm at the point where they've outgrown my Red Sea Peninsula 650. My female tomato clown is also now a monster! - Have spoken to my local store about a trade-in, but I love my BTA's and their mated egg-laying clown tenants. So... thinking about moving them to a new Red Sea Reefer XL 200, but plumbing this to my main system. I run an Abyzz A200 return with plenty of power to run the extra volume and not intending to add any additional fish stock so thinking my Reef Octopus Elite 200 skimmer and other kit shouldn't have any issues with the extra water volume + no need for another Apex etc. The sump should deal fine with the extra overhead as I don't think the drain down on the 200 will add more than 1/2".

Been thinking this through for a couple of months, can't think of any major issues doing this. Anything I've missed, not thought of? Does anyone have any experience running a smaller Red Sea alongside a larger unit? I re-plumbed my main tank when I first installed it so quite happy in that department, thinking I'd run the XL 200 from a manifold on the Abyzz return and returns to my roller mat, about 5ft of flexible pipe each.

Should not be a problem at all. If worried about the sump overfilling just use a check valve on the return to prevent siphon below overflow.

 

[psumms]

Should not be a problem at all. If worried about the sump overfilling just use a check valve on the return to prevent siphon below overflow.

What do people generally think about check valves? I was once told to avoid as the clog too easy and the most common point of plumbing failure.