How to connect 2 tanks on the cheap.

[Skyrmir]

I've been trying to figure out the cheapest way to connect my two tanks. A 20 gallon extra tall and a regular ten gallon. Mainly to keep the water the same between the two tanks. The idea being that moving fry or a pregnant fish to one tank or the other shouldn't shock the fish, and spreading the bioload across both tanks. Lets face it, even with 30 fish in the ten gallon, it's way under capacity since the biggest fish in there dreams about being 1/2 inch long some day.

Not wanting to spend the money I'm saving to set up a 55-or 75 gallon tank, I'm trying to figure a way to build my own overflow box and return for the ones I have now. My goal for the whole setup is less than $50 and that'll have to include probably a $20-$25 power head to pump the water back to the other tank.

Any suggestions would be appriciated. At the moment I'm considering 2 liter bottles and gravel siphon tubing as materials.

 

[greenmaji]

I was thinking you were going to take some pvc and connect them with a bridge.. pump water out of one tank(like with a powerhead) and into the other forcing the water to flow through the bridge..

are you thinking about makeing one of the tanks a sump to the other then? if so a power head might not have enough head preasure for the job.. they usually cant pump uphill at all really.. a small mag pump would do the job.. but might be more expensive

 

[Skyrmir]

I looked at doing the bridge, but the only way it was going to work would be with the tops of the tanks even. Physics was just not going to let me do it without rigging up some kind of stepped tank stand thing.

That's how I ended up moving towards the overflow/sump idea. I'm not worried about extra filtration on the way, so much as simply getting the water back and forth. My HoB filters can handle the load easily enough.

So then I got to looking at overflow boxes...and the inane prices for a simple piece of plastic. It's not like the hang over boxes even have any moving parts and the cheapest one I found was $50. Of course not including the piping and return pump.

Your probably right about the power head not having enough power though. I haven't looked into the pump side of it much yet. Since the main purpose isn't filtration I was figuring anything small would work. Just enough to keep the water circulating.

 

[greenmaji]

I looked and I couldnt do much better.. $30

 

[Skuseman]

Hey Look at this site. The way this bridge works is kinda like putting a glass in water and lifting it out. as long as no air gets into the tube there should be no problem. http://www.bio-elite.com/waterbridge.htm Hope this helps.

 

[Skyrmir]

I looked at the waterbridge a while back. Would be cool to do it that way, but my 20 gallon is twice the height of the 10 gallon. Big PITA to get the water surface at the same level.

I was actually thinking about setting them side by side and using the overflow to make a water fall from the big one to the smaller. I could do it, and it'd look killer. Just cost more than it's worth to do it, be a big pain to clean and maintain. Maybe someday when I own my home instead of rent. (And I'd use bigger tanks 8) )

 

[fish_4_all]

A waterfall wouldn't be that hard to do no expensive. Use the same thing we are doing with the PVC pipe. Cut a length of pipe in half that fits your needs and use a small section of tubing that flows out of the tank onto the waterfall.

I would do it this way:
Take a 3 inch pvc cap and cut a small section out on one side that feeds that water fall. Take a 2 inch pvc pipe and cut in half. Catt the pvc pipe with silicone and gravel. silicone the end cap and pipe half together so that the pipe is below the cut out. Take a piece of tubing and heat it up so it will hold the correct U shape and cool. Place the U shape completely in the water to fill it and hold the ends. Put the ends in the cap, that should be full of water.

It is really hard to explain but make the tubing just long enough to keep water flowing but to prevent the water form overflowing in the 10 gallon if the pump to the 20 from the 10 fails.

I imagine there is a way to either build up the sides of the tank tgo suppoert a waterfall becaus eI wouldn't want to etch out a section of my 20 gallon to make a waterfall, even though that is always an option. A dremel tool with a fine sanding disk or grinder will eventually cut an overflow that could work. All depends on what you want to do.

 

[Darkness]

All you need to do is build a standpipe.