Dumb question about connecting two tanks

[rebelyeller89]

Ok, I have my 5 gallon that is going to be a pico reef here in a bit. Then I had a brain storm to do a build with an empty 10 gallon I found. Is there a way to connect the two, without drilling, so that it's two tanks with a shared water capacity of 15 gallons?

 

[xtra51]

This would require much work without draining. I would guess you would put an over flow on the 5 gallon and then have a pump in the 10 pumping it back up to the five.

 

[rebelyeller89]

Yeah, I guess that is what you would do. I just thought it would be cool.
How would one go about doing an overflow?

 

[rebelyeller89]

Ok, I've been doing some searching, and I found this
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18358
Would this work with a side by side set up, or would I need to raise one of the tanks?
Basically, would the siphon be enough to force the water up over the side of the other tank?

 

[Gpsdrew]

The source of the siphon (where water is being sucked in) needs to higher than the end where water comes out. If the 10 gallon is substantially taller than the 5 than it may work if you put the overflow box on the 10 but the siphon would be weak if it doesn't go down far enough and it could stop. Then the pump would just drain the tank onto your floor. You could raise it and it would definately work but if you don't want to do that you will just need a pump in both tanks.

 

[rebelyeller89]

That's what I was thinking, just wanted someone to confirm it. I don't want to do the whole double pump thing cause there's too much risk of one failing.
I'm kinda getting the feeling that it's more work than its worth. Now that I've got the idea for the overflow box, I may just use the ten for a sump and turn my 20 gallon salty

 

[xtra51]

That eshops is way to big for this setup, you would have to get a mini overflow or something. one tanks needs to be lower than the other for this to work. I really advise you to drill these tanks.

 

[rebelyeller89]

Yeah I'm not gonna try it with these two.

 

[xtra51]

Yeah I'm not gonna try it with these two.

Sounds good! Sorry it didn't work out