MULTIPLE TANKS FILTER ???

[G2-B]

I was at Petsmart recently, and noticed that those rows of tanks do not have individual filters.
On the other hand, there appear to be 4 of 5 tubes in and/or above each tank.
Does anyone know how such system works?
I doubt that the Petsmart employee on duty would be able to explain the intricacies of their system.
I have looked online, but have not seen a system that I can use.

In my aquaponics system, I drill a hole in the side of the plastic tank to insert an overflow pipe to regulate the water level in the tank, and use an adjustable inflow to regulate the through-flow. I don't think I can safely drill a hole through aquarium glass and I did not notice anything of the kind at the Petsmart. I assume there is a safer way. I've seen videos that do drill through the side, but would that be glass, or are those acrylic tanks? No explanation about that in the videos.

I would like to expand my aquaponics system with various tropical fish instead of goldfish.
For convenience that may mean multiple tanks with a common filtration / circulation system. Any suggestions on how to organize that?
Used glass aquariums are fairly cheap.

Another possibility might be airlifting the water to a common sump tank.
Problem with that is that there is no correlation between the water level in the tank and the return flow. If the two are not exactly the same, you could either empty your tank or flood it. A float valve might limit the inflow to prevent flooding.

 

[Aiken Drum]

We dont have Petsmart here in the UK, but Pets at Home which is a similar pet chain store has their display tanks set up with multiple tanks filtered from a sump similar to this diagram.


Chat GPT put the diagram together. The sump and pipework doesn't look quite right. But it gives an idea. You would have all the overflow pipework going into one end of the sump, and then a return chamber at the other end with pumps returning water to each individual display tank, with filter media in intermediate chambers.

Im sure the Petsmart employee would let you take a look at the system if you asked. Even if they couldn't explain the intricacies, it's not that complicated. You could figure it out by looking at it.

 

[Andy Sager]

I've actually designed and built many a system like this in pet stores, wholesale houses and my hatcheries. Ask away.

 

[G2-B]

Thanks for offering, Andy Sager.

My intention would be to use multiple (up to) 55-gallon aquariums with tropical fish to power an aquaponics system,with the plants above the fish tanks and sump tank(s) below for a simple gravity-powered system.

In my aquaponics system, I have 6 IBC totes connected to a single sump pump. I use 2" overflow pipes through the plastic tank wall to determine the fish tank water level. This system is self-limiting in the sense that the water level in the fish tank will never fall below that overflow pipe if something goes wrong elsewhere in the system.
I have seen videos with the same system in multi-aquarium systems with overflow pipes through a hole drilled in the tank sidewall. I'm not comfortable drilling holes in glass myself. The cost and risk of breakage are too great to my liking.
Are there alternatives?

I could use airlift, similar to the undergravel filtration system, to lift water over the edge of the tank, in combination with a return line, possibly also by air lift. Problem is that if inflow and outflow in such system are not perfectly balanced you can either empty the fish tank, or cause it to overflow.
If such system exists, what are the safety measures to prevent that?
Any other alternatives?

Can you post some pictures of your systems with some details of the relevant parts? Or if you know a website that shows those details, post a link?
TIA.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thanks for offering, Andy Sager.

My intention would be to use multiple (up to) 55-gallon aquariums with tropical fish to power an aquaponics system,with the plants above the fish tanks and sump tank(s) below for a simple gravity-powered system.

In my aquaponics system, I have 6 IBC totes connected to a single sump pump. I use 2" overflow pipes through the plastic tank wall to determine the fish tank water level. This system is self-limiting in the sense that the water level in the fish tank will never fall below that overflow pipe if something goes wrong elsewhere in the system.
I have seen videos with the same system in multi-aquarium systems with overflow pipes through a hole drilled in the tank sidewall. I'm not comfortable drilling holes in glass myself. The cost and risk of breakage are too great to my liking.
Are there alternatives?

If you use Acrylic tanks, they are easier to drill. You can also ask your local glass shop ( not box store like Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) to drill the tanks for you as long as they are not made with tempered glass. There are also hang on overflow boxes that can be used so that no drilling is necessary but you always have the possibility of something getting clogged and causing spillage. I don't worry about overflowing the tank or sump as my method of filling is based on how much water is in the sump and supply lines.

I could use airlift, similar to the undergravel filtration system, to lift water over the edge of the tank, in combination with a return line, possibly also by air lift. Problem is that if inflow and outflow in such system are not perfectly balanced you can either empty the fish tank, or cause it to overflow.
If such system exists, what are the safety measures to prevent that?
Any other alternatives?

Air driven water is a very unreliable method. Reconsider a pump of some kind.
Let me make sure I understand your final setup: You plan a 3 level system where water from the bottom level sump goes into the top level plants which will overflow into the middle level fish tanks which overflow into the bottom level sump. Is this right?

Can you post some pictures of your systems with some details of the relevant parts? Or if you know a website that shows those details, post a link?
TIA.

Sadly, I lost many pictures of past places in a house flood back in 1999, long before digital pics were even a thing. Here are some pics of my last hatchery so you can see some of the plumbing but I did not use a recirculating system in this hatchery. That said, it's easy enough to modify this set up as I did at International Fisheries in Miami and Sao Paulo, Brazil. ( Brazil was a trip as I made gravity fed water go uphill. )
And this is the basic idea of a filtering system with using a sump:
I found this pic : In this, water is drained by each tank into a drain line which would go into a central sump. ( In this setup, the bottom level is active tanks but if I understand your setup correctly, the bottom level would be the sump(s). ) The water is returned to the tanks via a central line powered by pump that is split into multiple faucets. In my setup, in pic #2 left side rack ( the one in front of the AC), the water was pumped into the top tanks which drained into the middle tanks which drained into the bottom tanks. This worked until there was a disease issue brought in by someone working for me so a master drain line was put in so that each tank drained into a 4" diameter pipe which flowed out pipes that went through my rear wall. Each tank ended up being separate systems of their own. The main drain line concept can be seen on the right side of that same picture. The pipe ( under the airline pipe) went in between the tanks in the rear of the row as they were the drain for tanks on both sides of that rack. The water line can be seen in Pic #3 coming through a hole in the wall from my well and going to the double rack and rack in front of the ac. In an old saltwater tank I had, I used the same concept as in the hand drawing for my home tank, expanding it to ten sections of 2,500 gallons of saltwater, 3 levels high with 1200 gallon sumps for each row. Needless to say, I know a few things about building systems.

 

[Andy Sager]

I found this picture which is a bit more complete. This is a 2 level tank rack with a sump on the bottom. In this, the tanks have the filters and the floss in the sump is just to catch the larger chunks that would get stirred up when the pump went on. Each tub had it's own drain to the sump in the back and refilled through airline tubing off a main line. So the water was pumped but the drains were gravity fed.

 

[G2-B]

you said: "You plan a 3 level system where water from the bottom level sump goes into the top level plants which will overflow into the middle level fish tanks which overflow into the bottom level sump. Is this right? "

CORRECT. For one-aquarium system, the sump tank can be eliminated. The sump tank is more useful to operate several tanks in parallel.

Your Pic #5. I've seen this picture in a youtube video. He drills holes through the side of the tanks for overflow pipes, which is the same system I use in my aquaponics system. He also warns against drilling in older glass. At this time, I am not comfortable drilling through glass. Failure is too expensive, even with used tanks.



Your pic #6 appears to be the same system, with plastic tubs.
Those can be drilled quite easily but tend to crack because too flimsy. (I've tried it.) But they are certainly cheaper than a glass tank if it goes wrong. The smaller containers may be relatively sturdier. I'll look into that.


Your Pic#1 does not show the "overflow" plumbing but I do see there is considerable variation in the water level in those tanks.

Your Pic#2 appears to be a vertical overflow that goes through the bottom of the tank instead of the side. That is basically the same system with the same problem: I'm not comfortable drilling in glass, but it is easy to do in plastic containers.

Your Pic#3: I cannot see the plumbing.
Your Pic#4: I cannot read the schematic, too small.

Right now, the situation is as follows:
I know how to build muli-tank systems with overflow pipes in plastic IBC totes.
Glass aquariums with tropical fish: I'm stuck because I am not comfortable drilling an overflow pipe through glass. So far, I have not seen anything that avoids making that hole.
Your pic#6 is very useful, insofar that I certainly can do that and those plastic totes are cheap and readily available. Problem is that you can't see the fish very well, which kinda beats the purpose of having them. I'll look into it though, see if I can find some in clear plastic.

Thanks.

 

[Andy Sager]

you said: "You plan a 3 level system where water from the bottom level sump goes into the top level plants which will overflow into the middle level fish tanks which overflow into the bottom level sump. Is this right? "

CORRECT. For one-aquarium system, the sump tank can be eliminated. The sump tank is more useful to operate several tanks in parallel.

Your Pic #5. I've seen this picture in a youtube video. He drills holes through the side of the tanks for overflow pipes, which is the same system I use in my aquaponics system. He also warns against drilling in older glass. At this time, I am not comfortable drilling through glass. Failure is too expensive, even with used tanks.

View attachment 392653

Yes, I got that from a YT video. I added it to show theory. 3 lines: 1 for air for all tanks, 1 for draining all tanks, 1 for filling all tanks. The same gentleman who made that video also made this one on how to make an overflow so that you don't need to drill the tanks. (

) There are also manufactured ones that can be bought if you are not comfortable making it yourself. They can be a little pricey which is why I DIY a lot of plumbing and filtering systems. As I said, once you know the theory, it's just about putting the right machines into motion.

Your pic #6 appears to be the same system, with plastic tubs.
Those can be drilled quite easily but tend to crack because too flimsy. (I've tried it.) But they are certainly cheaper than a glass tank if it goes wrong. The smaller containers may be relatively sturdier. I'll look into that.
View attachment 392654

As I said, I've included what few pics I have because I don't have many anymore of my old stuff. I use drilled tanks now so I don't have any pics using non drilled tanks. I have used a local glass shop to cut holes in my tanks if my tank manufacturer was not able to do it in a timely manner so you don't have to do the drilling. That said, you do have the option of using overflow boxes instead of drilling holes.

Your Pic#1 does not show the "overflow" plumbing but I do see there is considerable variation in the water level in those tanks.

Your Pic#2 appears to be a vertical overflow that goes through the bottom of the tank instead of the side. That is basically the same system with the same problem: I'm not comfortable drilling in glass, but it is easy to do in plastic containers.

Your Pic#3: I cannot see the plumbing.
Your Pic#4: I cannot read the schematic, too small.

Right now, the situation is as follows:
I know how to build muli-tank systems with overflow pipes in plastic IBC totes.
Glass aquariums with tropical fish: I'm stuck because I am not comfortable drilling an overflow pipe through glass. So far, I have not seen anything that avoids making that hole.

That's why you use the overflow boxes. No need to drill tanks. This is an overflow box: It hangs on the tank. The water comes in through the black box that sits inside the tank, the tube is gravity fed siphon to the box outside the tank where a hose is connected to the nipple underneath the box that you would run into either a drain line or directly into the sump.

Your pic#6 is very useful, insofar that I certainly can do that and those plastic totes are cheap and readily available. Problem is that you can't see the fish very well, which kinda beats the purpose of having them. I'll look into it though, see if I can find some in clear plastic.

Yes, this pic was just to show a full functioning 3 tier setup similar to the one in the video. This was a little guppy breeding rack so seeing in ( or more importantly them not seeing out) was why we used those plastic tubs because they were cheap.

Thanks.

So now that I'm clear on what you are trying to do, how many tanks are you talking you want in one system? Keep in mind that the more tanks you have in a system, the larger the sump needs to be because there will be more water in the lines to and from the tanks. What precautions are you taking to avoid disease spread from tank to tank within a system? What are you planning on using for the sump ( tanks, barrels, plastic tubs, etc) ? Do you agree on using a pump to push water instead of an air driven system? I can better draw out what this would look like if I know these things.

 

[G2-B]

Ah, NOW we're talking.
Once I looked at the overflow video, several other designs started showing up. Plenty to think about. I'll still have to look at the overflow box, but that will have to be another day.
Yes, 100% agree that a pump is better than airlift system, much easier to finetune.


Pic #1
Thanks for offering, but I don't need to have the system plumbing drawn.
The only problem I had was the no-drill overflow for glass tanks and I have several solutions for that thanks to your input. I am already doing the rest in my existing aquaponics system: blue barrels for growing beds, filters and sump tanks; 6 IBC totes for goldfish. Purely hobby. Only flowers so far. I still have to grow my fist lettuce, although I am growing about 150 palm trees to border my property.



Pic#2
I want to use the other half of the greenhouse for a smaller-scale system with tropical fish. I've just started putting in (used) wheeled heavy-duty shelving and you can see my first spare 55gl glass aquarium on the left.
It will take me at least a week to put all 10 shelves together and new system build will probably have to wait until after the winter. I'll need to upgrade the electricity before I add any aquarium heaters. I'm still working with extension cords and that cannot continue.


I have plenty blue barrels to use as gravel filters and sump tanks.
I already use 2 as overflow guppy breeding tanks.
Pic#3
Top = planted gravel filter.
Left = 'sump' collector of all outflow lines of the 5 OBC totes on this side with outlet into sump tanks on the other side of the greenhouse.
Bottom = guppy breeding tank. (heated, not connected to the system)
Right = currently filled with water as a heatsink.




I do appreciate your suggestions and your assistance!
G. C.

 

[Andy Sager]

Ah, NOW we're talking.
Once I looked at the overflow video, several other designs started showing up. Plenty to think about. I'll still have to look at the overflow box, but that will have to be another day.
Yes, 100% agree that a pump is better than airlift system, much easier to finetune.


Pic #1
Thanks for offering, but I don't need to have the system plumbing drawn.
The only problem I had was the no-drill overflow for glass tanks and I have several solutions for that thanks to your input. I am already doing the rest in my existing aquaponics system: blue barrels for growing beds, filters and sump tanks; 6 IBC totes for goldfish. Purely hobby. Only flowers so far. I still have to grow my fist lettuce, although I am growing about 150 palm trees to border my property.

View attachment 392664

Pic#2
I want to use the other half of the greenhouse for a smaller-scale system with tropical fish. I've just started putting in (used) wheeled heavy-duty shelving and you can see my first spare 55gl glass aquarium on the left.
It will take me at least a week to put all 10 shelves together and new system build will probably have to wait until after the winter. I'll need to upgrade the electricity before I add any aquarium heaters. I'm still working with extension cords and that cannot continue.
View attachment 392665

I have plenty blue barrels to use as gravel filters and sump tanks.
I already use 2 as overflow guppy breeding tanks.
Pic#3
Top = planted gravel filter.
Left = 'sump' collector of all outflow lines of the 5 OBC totes on this side with outlet into sump tanks on the other side of the greenhouse.
Bottom = guppy breeding tank. (heated, not connected to the system)
Right = currently filled with water as a heatsink.


View attachment 392666

I do appreciate your suggestions and your assistance!
G. C.

No problem. Glad to help