Need more tanks!

[msesfazey]

Yeah he limited me to under 55gal. I'm workin on talkin him into a 125. Either that or two more 55s which yeah. Less space. I'm sure I'll be able to convince him when I have the cash to burn on my fish babies.

[Sheldon.Winters]

I got my self.... I mean my gf a tank for her b-day. She loves it tho so everyone wins

[Alan79]

If the no more tanks thing is about space then go high instead of spreading out. With some DIY skills you could potentially have 3 tanks lined up from floor to ceiling.

The obsession grows so quickly. I had one boring tank for about 7 years with gravel on the bottom and a single comet, then i picked up the MTS pathogen from some planted tank images. Thankfully this process happened while single so expansion plans don't have to go through any red tape.

[J.Mcpeak]

I love the enthusiasm from both sides of the fence.

Get tank, deal with issues. Love tank. Deal with issues.

Fish folks is fish folks.

[Hobgob]

Mts is very contagious. If room is a factor you can do what was mentioned above with the do it yourself shelves. Many people use this method for reptiles also but that's not as much weight. You could also just try and get a room devoted to it!

[J.Mcpeak]

Originally Posted by Alan79

With some DIY skills you could potentially have 3 tanks lined up from floor to ceiling.

Draining the ground floor tank is a royal pain in the wot sit!
(No head=slow syphon) this also makes the faithful gravel vac useless.
A bare bottom set up with drilled sides and a shop size filter could cure this. (I think)

If the distribution of tanks is equalised with the top tank being closer to the ceiling, you would need some other than a bucket method of re filling the top tank but you get slightly more (negligible) syphon action on the ground floor.

If you could magic up a multi tank water change system, do it! (Assuming you have individual systems, this could be tricky) for a breeding farm, great news.

Originally Posted by Sheldon.Winters

I got my self.... I mean my gf a tank for her b-day. She loves it tho so everyone wins

(I hope for your sake that she is unable to read )

[Hobgob]

Originally Posted by J.Mcpeak

Draining the ground floor tank is a royal pain in the wot sit!
(No head=slow syphon) this also makes the faithful gravel vac useless.
A bare bottom set up with drilled sides and a shop size filter could cure this. (I think)

If the distribution of tanks is equalised with the top tank being closer to the ceiling, you would need some other than a bucket method of re filling the top tank but you get slightly more (negligible) syphon action on the ground floor.

If you could magic up a multi tank water change system, do it! (Assuming you have individual systems, this could be tricky) for a breeding farm, great news.



(I hope for your sake that she is unable to read )

Simple. Overflow each tank to one tank and pump it back like a central sump and do a water change that way. Filling the top tank would be easy if you just get a python. Filling it up couldn't be easier unless you age your water or something.

[J.Mcpeak]

Originally Posted by Hobgob

Simple. Overflow each tank to one tank and pump it back like a central sump and do a water change that way. Filling the top tank would be easy if you just get a python. Filling it up couldn't be easier unless you age your water or something.

(Assuming you had individual systems (which is my point) this is no good) yes the farm system is easy enough, same as a fish store, no real issues. It's individual systems I'm talking about. Multi tank system is useless if you want different fish.
Also the bottom tank becomes a sump full of equipment and not a fish tank, this negates the purpose of the tank.

Water . . .or something. I used tap for a while. It is flawed, it was ok for a while but in the end I got annoyed with it, or a fish did!

[Hobgob]

You could use I believe it's called a baffle pump (i belive) to put water back in the top aquarium. You can set up an drain for each tank to your house dwv system and have a pressure regulator dripping water back into each aquarium from your cold water essentially making a waterchange free aquarium. but then the gravel vac becomes hard again. Search up self changing aquarium on YouTube posted by eurajoey I believe is his name. Just set this up for each tank.

[J.Mcpeak]

Originally Posted by Hobgob

You could use I believe it's called a baffle pump (i belive) to put water back in the top aquarium. You can set up an drain for each tank to your house dwv system and have a pressure regulator dripping water back into each aquarium from your cold water essentially making a waterchange free aquarium. but then the gravel vac becomes hard again. Search up self changing aquarium on YouTube posted by eurajoey I believe is his name. Just set this up for each tank.

Miles and miles of plumbing. No! Absolutely not.
You can if you want but it isn't for me. I'll stick to the old fashioned method.
(Tap water alone isn't good enough for me)
The mix ratio using solenoid valves and circuitry would cost a considerable sum.

One tank perhaps, not for those who suffer from mts.
The principle is simple, I understand it and could easily build it. The cost to achieve functionality is beyond the scope of an average working mans wages.

Almost all systems are different. So that's many lines and manifolds each with a computer control and computing system with I/O valves and various switch points and pumps, cut offs emergency overflows etc etc. Really the idea past a mental sketch is silly. To actually produce such a system where the tank water parameters are different would be a feat of engineering worthy of front page news.

[Alan79]

The stack of tanks system does bring some issues. WC is made much more difficult if gravity doesn't have the chance to be helpful. Assuming that all the tanks are running on the same basic top up water you can just use a return pump and bucket for filling. For the floor tanks you could also use a small maxi flow filter that can be modified to attach a water polisher attached to some aquarium line (urajoey also has a vid about water polishers i think). Using this as a replacement gravel vac would work as well.

Something i have not tried is to buy a cheap brake bleeding kit. One of the ones with a hand pump could possibly be used to do spot gravel vacs. My fish tend to deposit the bulk of their excrement in one quarter of the tank so it might work for me. I have never owned a brake bleeding kit so i may be wrong about the potential as a gravity free gravel vac. Maybe i'll buy one and experiment one day.

A third option would be to host a dual refugium on the top level. Return pump in each low tiered tank and a gravity fed return from the refugium.

Now if the water is all able to be filtered in one hit the options are limitless. MY LFS keeps bettas in jars, but the jars have 2 air hoses. One drains a small amount of overflow water to a sump filter while the return line is situated above and just drips water from a holding tank at the top. I hate seeing the fish in small jars but at least they get their water filtered.

I think the trick with all things aquarium is to keep it simple so WC is not a BIG chore.

[Hobgob]

It only cost 12 bucks for a hydroponic drip system comes with everything you need. Then you just need a charcoal filter to remove your chlorine and other filter you may want and you good. 12 bucks each tank and one filter? If that's to much money I don't see how you can buy your fish to stock your tanks.

There are many ways to do it efficiently look at some breeder set ups.

[treemanone2003]

Originally Posted by Hobgob

It only cost 12 bucks for a hydroponic drip system comes with everything you need. Then you just need a charcoal filter to remove your chlorine and other filter you may want and you good. 12 bucks each tank and one filter? If that's to much money I don't see how you can buy your fish to stock your tanks.

There are many ways to do it efficiently look at some breeder set ups.

This is a good method. BUT, I'd rather spend my money on my fish and get my hands wet first. The problem with automation is it can fail. Usually at the worst possible time. IMO, that's what separates the "old school of hard knocks experienced" from the "new school I Googled something" expert newbies.

We can ague that all day as it is, but in the end, that newbie rookie that spent three months on the web net has learned less than I have forgotten. Just my humble thoughts. Everybody has their own way and that's cool.

[J.Mcpeak]

The cheapest way to suck water out of a bottom tank is a drill pump. You attach it to a cordless drill. They work, they work good.
You could use this method to get water in/out of the top tank. It is still manual.
You need silly filters or in tank types as you lose room for externals... There isn't much room to get your hands in any tank, unless they are not very high, so a complete DIY unit from the start.

By my experience, the space under the mid level tank is good for external filters and general stores. Plus you get a nice view of both tanks.

A rack of tanks running one type of water is easily done, look at the reef world!
Everybody is at it! Sump(bottom)/display(middle)/refugium(top)
old skool, tried and tested. They change water at sump level for evaporation, possibly even actual water changes too (all water loss occurs at the bottom pump area). Assuming the system is wired up this way? Most stores do a similar thing.

Say you want soft acid on the bottom, hard neutral in the middle and brackish up top? Automate that cheaply? One system for all water top ups? That quickly gets pricey. You can't cheaply build the water mixer/distributor device, if you did you'd be cutting corners on component price. If all of my fish were in the care of a machine, I wouldn't be putting cheap parts into the unit.


12 bucks is nothing, even in pounds sterling or whatever. I have dechlorinated water already, mixing it up is the issue, and then distribution at the correct parameters per tank, while removing X amount of water from different sized tanks. You'd have more plumbing than fish tanks! It would be like a reactor plant or something, miles and miles of pipe and mixing vats, pumps and switches! Whew, no thank you. Bucket and hose, I already own!