Connecting tanks with same water parameters

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Perk

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 3, 2008
Messages
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Hey guys, I have several tanks that I kind of want to connect together. Reason is, it's a hassle to change the water for each tank when all the tanks have the same water parameters. It's taking way too long to finish.

Anyway, I have a really ugly 46 gallon tank that I want to use as a main water tank. Meaning, when I change the water, I change only the water in the 46 gallon and as a result this water change is reflected in all tanks.

I drew a diagram. I'm not sure how high the tanks will be, but I know that the 46 gallon will be sitting on the floor.

Should I buy a pump with 200 gph from the 20 gallon to the 46 gallon and a 460 gph for the return? Or, if I use a powerhead to pump water down to the 46 gallon and a 460 gph pump for return, how would I make sure the rate at which the water returns does not overrun the water being pumped into the 46 gallon? I've no idea how to pump the 5 gallon to the 46 and back... Any ideas on this part?

I know there are risks involved in such a setup, the worst being overflow and draining of water. What do you guys recommend? Is this plan fine with some safeguards or is there some other design I should look at? I'm not willing to drill holes into my tanks, so anything that involves that is not cool. :)
 

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my initial thought was to have a siphon connecting the 20 to the 46 and another from the 46 to the 5... with a canister filter pulling water from the 5 and returning it to the 20....... but for the siphon idea to work i believe the water levels would have to be the same for all the tanks...

when you start playing with pumping water from one tank to another.... if ONE single pump fails or does not operate to the exact specs you will have a HUGE mess on your hands.....

but then again.. LFS's do this all the time... one filter and a single water supply for an entire display of small tanks...
 
Oh, let me clarify what I mean then.

So, I want a way where I can transfer saltwater from my 20 gallon tanks to my 46 gallon tank and back. I was thinking of buying some pumps to accomplish this task, but I am unsure what type of pump to buy. One solution is to buy a 460 gph pump as the return line to the 20 gallon and use a powerhead to pump water down from the 20 gallon to the 46 gallon. The problem with this is I'm not sure if the flowrate will sync. If the powerhead pumps water at a slower rate than the 460 gph pump, then a spill will happen. I was hoping to get some input on what route would be best (powerhead + pump or just pumps).


The reason for all this is because it's a hassle to replace the water in my tanks. My tanks have the same water parameters, so the idea is to link them together so that I'll have to change only one of the tanks and then have that change reflected in all the other tanks by use of the pumps. When I need to change water, all I'll need to do is change the water in the 46 gallon tank. Once that's done, I'll turn on my pumps and the circulation will flow, pumping the new water from the 46 tank to the 20 gallon tank, thereby providing new water to the 20 gallons. Alternatively, if you guys have other solutions, let me know! :)
 
use a overflow from your 20 gallon to the 46 and a pump from thr 46 to the 20.. what fitration are you using cause going through all this hassle why not just make the 46 gallon a sump and have your filtration and all of that there.
 
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