monster tank plumping?

albanyaquarium · 11-11-2005, 05:01 PM

k so here's my problem, at work i have a 180 gal tank that is just packed with live rock and ALMOST NO FLOW( not my idea the bosses). we have a new 135 coming this week thats pre-drilled for a cls. it is going to be installed right next to the 180. my thought is to also plumb in the 180 as a fuge for the high flow tank. both would be roughly the same hight( no gravity feed?) good or bad?
thinking i need around 500 gph through it returned to the main? having trouble seeing the plumbing in my head on this one.

tims · 11-11-2005, 05:40 PM

hmmmm
interesating...
you could do a gravity fed system as long as one is ( refuge tank) higher then the other, but also need a way to have it drain into it, can the side be drilled to have it drain into the main display? tempered glass?

having the refuge tank below the main might be the better idea, or breaking down half the 135 into thte 180 and set up two small sumps / refuge for each.

Superman · 11-11-2005, 05:46 PM

Definitely not an ideal set up with having the tanks side by side. If it is desired to have one as the others refugium, then place one above the other.

albanyaquarium · 11-11-2005, 06:00 PM

yes i have to agree. the 180 is the one already set up but it has almost 200-300 lbs of rock in it, i mean packed to the gills(i want to take advantage of that). the boss does not want to do any thing to the tank. lucky i got him to consider running some flow from the new tank to it. so i need some great ideas to make this work as is. maybe a split/shared sump under the 135 to feed/drain both tanks?

Superman · 11-11-2005, 06:11 PM

Sounds like a beast to plumb, you will have to have the higher of the two tanks drain into the lower tank, then into the sump (at leat that is how I would do it. I would put closed loops on both tanks, the 180 with a sequence hammer head, 2 inch pipe closed loop with about 9-12 3/4" nozzles, the 135 with the same. Doing this will give you two different flow environments to place livestock in. Many more details, but don't have time to type them all, sounds like a really big project involving drilling glass and a lot of plumbing.

tims · 11-11-2005, 06:13 PM

hmmmm..
lets picture this
1. two tanks existing 180, 135g to be set up next to it
2. want to plump both togeather some how
3. ?

you cna do the shared sump but the drain for the tanks will have to be close togeather i think. the CLS on the 135 does not effect the plumping problem.

idea

if you set up a sytem that has an exteranl pump pulling water from the 180 to the 135. the 135 drains in to a large sump, this is returned to the 180. one problem i see withthis is youwillhave to have a pump that will handle the same amountof water ( pulling out of one tank and the return to the other)
just an idea..

Superman · 11-11-2005, 06:30 PM

Nearly impossible to perfectly match the two pumps tims, sounds like a flood waiting to happen. What I suggested earlier would work though, the taller of the two pumps drains into the 135, the 135 drains into the sump, water is pumped up to 180.

albanyaquarium · 11-11-2005, 06:38 PM

yeah thought of that too it's a %$% trying to match the flows on pumps though. the tanks are going to be roughly 8" apart so maybe some sort of extended overflow from the 135 to the 180, 180 to sump sump to 135??

albanyaquarium · 11-11-2005, 06:42 PM

doh hate it when i do that, i think superman is on the right track. just going to be tricky working an overflow on the 135 cause i may only have 6-8 " of hight over the 180 to do a gravity feed. not much of a flow rate at that, thinking i need around 500-600 into the 180.

autochek · 11-11-2005, 07:21 PM

I have a 90 next to my 125 and they are both connected to one sump. There is a mag 12 return pump for each tank. This way you can regulate the flow individually to each tank. Doing this made a HUGE difference in my show tank and the system is very healthy.