Revisiting the idea of connecting two tanks

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fearlessfisch

fearlessfisch

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
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858
Location
Northern Virginia
I have been thinking about the threads that were on here a while ago, about connecting two aquariums with a bridge made of acrylic or PVC pipe. I think that is such a neat idea.

I would love to hear stories from people who have actually done this--about how the fish responded. I would like to start out with very different stocking (but compatible, obviously) in each tank and see how long it takes the fish to discover each other. It would be cool to see how they end up distributing themselves across the two tanks once they realize they have choices. Has anybody actually done this, and do you have any neat stories about how the fish responded?

I also have this idea, but I have no idea if it would be feasible or too dangerous. I have always wanted to have a male and female betta together, but I know it is a bad idea in one aquarium, because of the aggression involved with spawning.

I wonder what would happen if you kept a male betta in one large community tank and a female or females in another large community tank, but had the bridge connecting them. I wonder if that would allow them to discover each other and connect if they wanted, but also have their separate spaces to go back to afterward.

I am less interested in actual breeding than just wondering if they could live peacefully that way, given more space and freedom to come together or separate themselves like they would do in the wild.

I'm not interested only in the betta question. I would love to hear anybody's stories or speculations about bridging two tanks and what happened.
 
fearlessfisch said:
I would love to hear anybody's stories or speculations about bridging two tanks and what happened.
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Me too! I want to hear also. I wouldnt use PVC though, I would use something I could see through.... you know there will be some cool stuff going on in that tube. Not to mention, you could always do a light current from one tank, and aim it towards the tube to create a mild river effect. My brain is going crazy with that tank! :)
 
I think that is really neat, but it looks a little complicated. I've been hooked into the challenge of mini ecosystems lately. If I ever tried to connect tanks I'd probably get three 2.5 gallon tanks side by side and connect a straight pipe through the sides. I have a glass cutter, I'd just need to fit in a pipe and silicone it good. I think it would look cool on a shelf with a platy couple and some guppies swimming between three mini environments. I just have to wait till I'm done with this year and next of college so I can find a place and go completely MTS.
 
fantastic link--thanks! and he seems to say that it actually does work with the bettas! it is interesting that some fish seem to claim the bridge as territory, though. i wonder how often that would interfere with its use by the other fish.

i would love to try this. i think this is my next big project once i have the time and money to do it.
 
humm... it would be pretty cool if you could set something up like those hamster tunnels.
I remeber going to a friends house when i was little and they had probably 5 actual hamster cages, but tunnels going all over their whole wall connecting them. That would pretty cool too look at if it was a fish tank.
 
Well its a cool thought...

ya that would be sweet having fish everywhere lol but you must have a very compromising spouse
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you know aquariums used to be so expensive that no averasge joe could have one, granted they are still pretty expensive. However tube aquariums could be like the future of aquariums lol. You just have one big tank in the back of your house like in a closet and then tubes through out your house a bundle in every room or something. You would just need a lot of fish and a way to feed them. If i had a. the money and b. the time to invest in figuring out a project like that i would do it. At least figure out a way to set it up in one room.
 
THe only problem with that is the top water level of all the tanks would have to be identical... It could be messy!
Click to expand...
The water bridge would automatically keep the water level the same between tanks, if one side was lower, water would siphon over from the other side. The only problem I see with using an external filter between the tanks would be that the dirt in the first would never make it through the bridge to the filter intake in the second tank.
 
I like that idea and I've had one of my own for a while now. I was considering placing a smaller tank inside a larger one to have saltwater in the smaller tank and fresh in the larger one or vice-versa. I only know that keeping the inside tank raised and clean would be a full time job. Has anyone heard of anyone doing this? It would have to be something large in comparison like a 10 inside a 50 or maybe a 20 inside an 80. or have a fresh inside a fresh with docile fish on the inside and aggressive fish on the outside. It's just an idea.
 
In response to the last idea, it sounds like it would be similar to having a fry holder on the side of the tank, only in large scale and with larger fish. Or it would be like having a divider tank. Could be done, but it might look weird. If they are two different types of water then of course you'd need the tanks to be level so they don't mix. You could do an acidic tank inside a normal freshie tank, maybe south american cichlids in one and africans in the other. I don't know if they'd be stressed by this.
 
That fish highway is very impressive! I had been thinking of making some sort of acrylic based system like that to connect some tanks, but that is far beyond anything I imagined possible. Very cool.

I was playing around with strange tank designs a short while ago, adding parts that extend above the tank. (Click for bigger)



In the above photos I lowered the water level a bit, but it's easy to fill it completely. The biggest problem is of course supporting the weight of the water.
 
Nice, I thought of makeing something like that- a tower for my goldfish to play in. If you have smaller fish you can find the biggest (diameter) clear plastic hose available. I think they have up to two inches for cyphon hoses (nig enough for guppies and such). Cut to size and find a way to hold the hose in a circle above the tank (if it is against a wall you could hang it over a long nail). Fill with water and then stick both ends in the tank at once. This will create a circle of tubing above the tank much like a gerbil tank.
 
I thought about the clear, flexable tubing too. It's like $3 a foot when I was pricing it.

My mollies wouldn't go into a 2 inch wide tall vase I gave them, but had no problem with the 6 inch container shown above, so I abandoned the idea. Guppies and smaller fish should find it qute useable.

A 4 foot length of 2" hose filled with water would be over 10 pounds of weight so you might want to use TWO nails. :)

What I really want is some nice long 6 inch wide acrylic tubes. Heck, a 20 foot section would make an interesting aquarium all by itself.
 
Yes, it drives me crazy that it is so expensive and difficult to get clear tubing that would be right for this purpose. Clear PVC is just about prohibitive. If there were something cheaper and more lightweight...
 
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