I’m thinking about connecting all of my tanks together and am pondering the methods.
How do some of you folks that have plumbed multiple DT + sump combos together done it?
How about community sumps?
Any thoughts advice or experiences appreciated. I haven’t done too much thought on it yet.
Which tanks? The nano and the 75 with the sumps??
I would not tie all of these together. If one has an issue then all will have an issue.
I would not tie all of these together. If one has an issue then all will have an issue.
I hear people say this all the time. You have to look at them as one tank now. Its not two tanks or three tanks any more, its one system. Ive never heard anyone tell someone not to set up a 300g tank because if the left half of the tank has a problem the right will also lOl If something is going to go wrong its going to go wrong whether its one tank or 10.
You can save a whole lot of time and money by connecting tanks. One water change, one water test ect…
[quote=“Chris_Barb, post:3, topic:1957”]
You can save a whole lot of time and money by connecting tanks. One water change, one water test ect…[/quote]
Bingo! That’s my goal, its just a lot easier for me to automate/maintain a single system than multiple ones.
I don’t want this to be a discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of tying systems together, just the methods, if possible.
It will be the 75 + sump, 55 + sump(ish) + possibly the 35 + possibly the nano which is going to modded into something special anyway.
One faulty heater, one over flowing skimmer, one malfunctioning CA reactors, one snail stuck on a ATO, one flat worm invasion, one zoa digesting bacteria, one drunk night feeding Chinese food to the tank(heard of it happening)… The risk is there.
You will see when you come to my place I have many tanks connected together, but then again I also have multiple systems. Given time and Murphy’s Law… (Poop) happens, but when it does it doesn’t take down all of my tanks.
As far as how to go about it I can offer tons of advice, but need specifics. How many tanks, what size, how far apart, photos would be helpful. I get the idea that since you didn’t post this information that you wanted to debate wither or not to connect them and not how to go about doing so, but that isn’t how you posed your question. (opps missed that last post)
I also very cautiously and religiously quarantine. I think this is the biggest point.
Start by deciding what will become your common sump. Second decide what you will use to move water where.(pumps or the drain from one going into another) Try to diagram it out or show photos and walk through an explanation.
One faulty heater, one over flowing skimmer, one malfunctioning CA reactors, one snail stuck on a ATO, one flat worm invasion, one zoa digesting bacteria, one drunk night feeding Chinese food to the tank(heard of it happening)... The risk is there.
All those things can happen on a single tank too. And the risk is there for a single tank. You can also argue that with 10 single tanks the odds are greater that you will screw something up quicker because of all the testing, chemicals added, water changes you do on each tank all the time.
If you cross the street once a day your chances of getting hit by a car are a lot less then if you cross 10x’ a day.
I bet you all that if Ian had asked “i want to add a frag tank to my tank, what do you think” everyone would have said “go for it”
This is one of those things that just keeps getting parroted all the time by people because they heard someone else say it.
Ive had a 180, 75, 29 and 50 g frag tank all plumed together for like 6 years now. None of these things have ever happened.
Anything you want to know Ian just ask :BEER
[quote=“Chris_Barb, post:7, topic:1957”]
One faulty heater, one over flowing skimmer, one malfunctioning CA reactors, one snail stuck on a ATO, one flat worm invasion, one zoa digesting bacteria, one drunk night feeding Chinese food to the tank(heard of it happening)... The risk is there.All those things can happen on a single tank too.
This is one of those things that just keeps getting parroted all the time by people because they heard someone else say it.[/quote]
And Shit happens…Why loose all those tanks vs. one (still a great loss but not total).
A frag tank is a different animal is not usually the cause of a collapse.
Parroted?? So if my opinion differs from yours but is common to what a lot of people have said that “parroted”. No that would be an opinion if you don’t like it move on to the one that says what you want to hear. No harm no foul
There are pros and cons to doing things both ways. Chris has pointed out a lot of the advantages, and i agree 100%, but i dont agree that its inheritantly better to combine systems. There are certainly advantages to leaving systems seperate, that in some circumstances, may outweigh the advantages of combining systems.
:TWOCENTS I have a 34g and a 75g that is not plumbed together. The share the same RODI, ATO, battery backup, etc but are two distinct systems. Although some may argue that ALL tanks should be kept at the same parameters, IME, there are advantages for keeping different types of corals at different parameters. My 75g is a LPS/Clam/Zoo tank with a HEAVY bioload. The nitrates stay higher than my 34g and it works very well. As a matter of fact i have had problems in the past with keeping my 75g too clean. Right now i have two flourshing tanks and i know for a fact that some of my corals will thrive in one and not the other and vice versa. As far as a LOT more work, its just not true. I spend about 15-20 minutes a week on BOTH tanks which include a small WC every other day or third day. Testing takes the same amount of time. I simply do all of the testing at once using two test tubes. It might add a whopping 3 minutes to my total test time by doing two tanks instead of one. Granted, im going through tests twice as fast but thats no big deal IMO. Also, having different tanks will allow you to experiment a little more and dial things in. You can take two frags of the same coral and see how the respond with higher or lower levels of different parameters. You would be amazed with the amount of insight you can receive with having seperate systems.
My final point. If your keeping the same type of tanks(i.e, all SPS, all LPS, etc) then combining would not be a bad idea if you can do it. Why not just get a larger tank if this is the case? Its a lot cheaper to buy one big tank rather than have mutiple smaller tanks. The advantages of keeping seperate smaller tanks is to keep different types of tank which kind of becomes a moot point if you combine systems. IMO/IME, there are advantages and disadvantages to doing it both ways. There are very few absolutes in life, and even fewer in this hobby and this isnt one of them IMO.
well, you could house non reef safe animals in a system with larger volume of water and same parameters as your reef on another side of the room… regardless of why, or whats not a good idea… the man asked “how”. not “if”.
[quote=“IanH, post:4, topic:1957”]
[quote=“Chris_Barb, post:3, topic:1957”]
You can save a whole lot of time and money by connecting tanks. One water change, one water test ect…[/quote]
I don’t want this to be a discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of tying systems together, just the methods, if possible.[/quote]
i think maybe sometimes opinions are forced onto people who never asked the questions that are being answered. and the question he asked is never discussed!
ian, let me know how u end up doing it… this may be something i might try myself. sure it’s just a lot of plumbing and a pump. my biggest problem is that the 3 tanks r in separate rooms… returning the water from the sump back to the tanks wouldnt be a problem. its gravity feeding the water TO the sump…
Hey man, relax a little bit!
Its not like the thread was a hijack, every thread was on topic. If every single thread has to be a precise response to a precise question these forums would get very boring very fast. When experiences are asked for, and someone advises for it/against it based on experience i dont see the problem.
As far as the “how”, its not exactly challenging. You simply need one common point which is ideally a large sump. The stock tanks work great and is what Jason, Andy, and I did when we conected Andy’s tanks and plumbed everything to the basement. None of the concepts change. Its no different than having one tank and one sump. Make sure that your sump can hold ALL the water in ALL the tanks in case of a power outage. Instead of having one pump return to one tank you simply have one pump returning to all tanks. Get a pump thats capable of pushing the numbers you need for the specific scenario. Build a manifold which allows you to dial in the return of each tank, and if needed, you can build a bubble tower in the sump for the returns. If you want a fuge build a return off the manifold and place the fuge above the sump. Gravity feed back into the sump. Skim…in the sump. Heat…the sump. Dose…the sump. Etc, etc. The only tricky part about it is running the plumbing. I would HIGHLY suggest using spa flex. Very easy to work with, no fittings needed to get around obstacles, quiter, and just better overall. The only drawbrack is that its a little pricey.
not upset at all. just SEEMS that sometimes some of the questions that r asked turn into a big slam on whoever for doing whatever. the guys simply wants to plumb his tanks together for whatever reason and wanted to know the best way to do it… thats all i was saying
Actually he said:
[quote=“IanH, post:1, topic:1957”]
I’m thinking about connecting all of my tanks together and am pondering the methods.
How do some of you folks that have plumbed multiple DT + sump combos together done it?
How about community sumps?
Any thoughts advice or experiences appreciated. I haven’t done too much thought on it yet.[/quote]
So the conversation that followed is relevant but I digress
[hr]
If you were to show us where the tanks are located and where the sump/sumps would be then we could give a more detailed plumbing guide
Here is an old one I did for Craig
Couple questions
What would you be hooking up?
Sump size?
What equipment do you already have?
Gravity feed or forced by pump?
What else did I miss?
I always thought these were awesome plumb jobs
For anyone following along, the 2nd and 3rd pic that Al posted is a pic of a manifold. Very cheap and useful and allows you to replace mutiple pumps with one pump.
Years ago, there was a guy in Chicago that set up a cascading system of tanks to mimic the 5 reef zones. the idea was flow based on lowest nutrient tank, sps, to progressiveiy higher nutrient zones. tidal, top reef, logoon top slope, deep slope, not in that particular order. all with different lighting and sandbeds and rock and stuff to simulate their conditions and appropriate sea life. then the last dirtiest one dumped to the fuge, mangrove swamp, dsb, skimmer and sump to clean it up before returning to the low nutrient tank at the top, to cascade down again. sounded pretty good. he had the basement filled with the tanks, in a semi circle so that you could sit in the center and watch the whole thing go down.
Kinda like SUROUND REEF!
hey shawn, the top lines that r connected to the d/t in the last pic… what purpose does the upsidedown trap type hookup serve??
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u get the idea… lol
Me guess would be that they are returns for a close loop or possibly open returns. As far as the “traps” goes, they seem to go above the water level so my guess would be that they were built as some sort of anti-siphon if they are not CL returns although i doubt they would prevent a siphon.
Actually, from what I can tell I dont belive that pics #2 and #3 actually work as a manifold. In a manifold, all pipes are supposed to get the same pressure. To do this, the pipe that all of the other one come off of has to be looped, so that pressure is the same in all parts of the pipe. As it is set up in that picture, the lines right above the water in pipe will have the greatest pressure, while the ones on the outside will have the lowest pressure. Not a big deal if you feel like fiddling around with a bunch of ball valves, but if you actually want to have equal pressure in all pipes you need to connect the pipe back to its self.
If anyone actually cares about the difference, I can explain better with a picture and some physics, but if nobody cares I’ll just shut up 
nope, your absolutely right!! the only thing is that its rare that you would need equal pressure from all ports so its easier to build them in a linear fashion with ballvalves to adjust to the needs of each individual application. for example, my manifold has 3 “drip feeds”, my return feed, and my frag tank feed. all with different pressures.