# Connecting multiple shrimp tanks,



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I can't find the thread or pics of the person who did it. It came up here a while ago and for the life of me, can't find it. I'm setting 3x10g and would like to connect them together to give me 30gal of water volume and still be able to separate golden/crs/cbs etc into 3 sections.

If I remember it's just using a few homemade U pipes between the tanks, making sure they don't move, doing 2 pipes per tank to avoid 1 plugging and just siphoning the air out of the tubes or getting them full of water before putting in place.


----------



## Gulfcoastguy (Nov 4, 2011)

Is this what you were looking for?
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/tank-journals/148380-haha-more-tanks-4-dirt-tanks-5.html


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Yes, that was the idea. Going to give it a shot and see. Figured if I block off the pipes with some sponge/mesh, shrimp can't go between, use 2 sets of pipes per tank to account for clogging, should be good.


----------



## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> Yes, that was the idea. Going to give it a shot and see. Figured if I block off the pipes with some sponge/mesh, shrimp can't go between, use 2 sets of pipes per tank to account for clogging, should be good.


Two sets should be good, three is better ;-) The problem is I'd be worried all the time about that small chance when both fail, I'll have a lot of clean up to do. 

I just did a 40G in three sections last week (I know you're against that ;-), I left 1" clearance on the bottom and have two sets of pipes connecting the 3 sections, 1 is the canister outflow (each sections gets a outflow), 1 serves the same idea as the u tubes connection all three sections. The water level is always the same in the three sections. And even if it still manages to fail, the dividers are 1' short of the top so the water can still flow to the next section. No chance to flood unless the canister pipe breaks outside of the tank, but then that can happen to anyone.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Just did a test with 2 tank and 1 pipe, water level leveled out in about 30 seconds. Should work good. Now I have to switch a 10gal with somewhere because the one in the middle is 3/8" shorter than the other 2. lol. Different brands I guess.


----------



## antiquefloorman (Oct 8, 2011)

Pictures!!! So what do you do, put filter discharge in one tank and return in another??


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

antiquefloorman said:


> Pictures!!! So what do you do, put filter discharge in one tank and return in another??


No, each tank can have its own filter. You just put a upside down U pipe in between the 2 tanks, I took a piece of airline tubing into the U and sucked until the air was out and a siphon was started. Then any changes in the 1 tank were reflected in the 2nd tank because of gravity and the siphon. I'll get some pics once I set it up and see how it works long term, and as soon as I get around to swapping out another 10gal with the one that is shorter. Driving me nuts being a tad shorter. lol.


----------



## antiquefloorman (Oct 8, 2011)

What is this accomplishing??


----------



## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

I really like the idea of the stability of water params, but of course the danger is if something happens (Ie. bad bacteria), then all the tanks have it.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

antiquefloorman said:


> What is this accomplishing??


giving 3 10gal tanks the water volume of a 30gal for param stability, etc while putting mesh on the U pipes will prevent shrimp from crossing sides, so I can have CBS, CRS, golden in 3 tanks with the stability of 30gals.

Yes, bacteria infections could be a problem but I think 30gals of water helps mitigate that as 10gal it is much more concentrated. I'm pretty up on watching my shrimp and my tanks all the time, so anyone that looked sick would be taken out right away, but I haven't had any deaths in months now and am slowing getting this hobby down. lol.


Plus I'm sick as hell today, not working, so just playing around starring at 3 empty 10gals on my shelf and remembering I've seen it done before.


----------



## moosenart (Feb 18, 2012)

Bacteria infections is what I would worry about. I would want to lose 100+ shrimp instead of 1ish.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

moosenart said:


> Bacteria infections is what I would worry about. I would want to lose 100+ shrimp instead of 1ish.


No much different that having a 30gal tank and a 100 shrimp in it, get a bacteria infection, possible same outcome.


----------



## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

Where the heck are you guy's going to get all this bad bacteria or a killer bug from that you are worried about?

I quarantine all new stuff before it gets in my tanks and don't think I have that worry.
A contaminated food source will end up everywhere anyway so isolation solves nothing there. 

Single 1" PVC will handle 265gph no problem. The 20g rack w/2 pipes is a 500gph sump pump return, I like it.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

wkndracer said:


> Where the heck are you guy's going to get all this bad bacteria or a killer bug from that you are worried about?
> 
> I quarantine all new stuff before it gets in my tanks and don't think I have that worry.
> A contaminated food source will end up everywhere anyway so isolation solves nothing there.
> ...


I'm going to do 2-3 1" pipes as I have those sitting around and the elbows for it. Not doing a sump, just want to share the water between the 3 tanks, and doing 2-3 will allow for any being clogged, although I doubt that will happen, I check all my tanks everyday for filter flow, water levels, TDS, pH, etc so I should be ok with 2, but 3 if I have the PVC and elbows here. I like the idea of having stability of the params between the 3, especially for crystals and being able to separate them.


----------



## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

If you want to drill them, here's my solution to cheap bulk head fittings. About $1.00 for the three parts. 
3/4" electrical conduit fittings and a #18 O-ring for the seal. 
Instead of an intake strainer, use a jig saw and a thin blade to cut slits in the riser tube. Or a table saw and then slip a sponge over the end.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

I thought of drilling and connecting them. Never drilled a tank before though so not sure I want to do it. lol. Nor do I have the proper glass hole saw. If I can find, I might do that. I'm in no hurry to set this up, so just playing with how i want to do it.


----------



## Gulfcoastguy (Nov 4, 2011)

There are several youtube videos on drilling tanks you can watch that are very informative on how to do it, finding the diamond bit hole saw to drill them is the money part I researched it awhile back the bits around 50 bucks. And I thought the only way for it to really work is you have to have water pumped in to the first tank the flow runs thur the tanks thur the pipes and the last tank has the water coming out back to the pump going back to the first you would at least have to have a small powerhead in the last tank pumping the water out and going back to the first in order to keep a *flow* going ..yes?


----------



## discus fever (Jun 16, 2010)

I may have missed something, but without a pump moving water between the tanks you are not really increasing your volume. Each tank will evapoarate at approx the same rate and very little water will exchange. It wouldn't take much, just a small powerhead sucking from one end tank and discharging in the opposite end tank. The other possibility is only removing water duri ng water change from one end tank and only putting fresh water in the opposite end tank. However, between wc you really won't have any water movement.


----------



## ramawo (Jun 12, 2008)

Here's my simple setup with double U pipes connect between 20g long to 25g cube.
-input ---> filters ---> UV ----> Chlller ----> output
HOB
1 x AquaClear 50 on 25g tank
1 x AquaClear 20 on 20g tank


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

discus fever said:


> I may have missed something, but without a pump moving water between the tanks you are not really increasing your volume. Each tank will evapoarate at approx the same rate and very little water will exchange. It wouldn't take much, just a small powerhead sucking from one end tank and discharging in the opposite end tank. The other possibility is only removing water duri ng water change from one end tank and only putting fresh water in the opposite end tank. However, between wc you really won't have any water movement.


I do get your point. I can see how this would work better with a sump with drain on tank 1, return on tank 3 so the water ebb's and flows via gravity to keep all 3 tanks the same. I have a small internal Fluval filter that I can plumb a airline hose on to use like a powerhead, so I'm going to try that. Put the internal filter in tank 1, pump it to tank 3, which will cause the water level in tank 1 to drop as it pumps water out which will draw water from tank 2 to increase the volume in tank 1 and so on and should then help keep the water moving between the 3 tanks at a slow rate.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yea this would be very interesting to see if you could take pictures of your set up (feel better as well!). As wknracer has it he does pump from the last tank and discharges into the first. I think this would be very hard to do efficiently as baby shrimp could always manage to make their way between tanks. I still think a best bet would be the fine netting of dividers, only silicone them on completely to avoid cracks and then filter each section separately. That way the water is still being shared but much easier to maintain?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Yea this would be very interesting to see if you could take pictures of your set up (feel better as well!). As wknracer has it he does pump from the last tank and discharges into the first. I think this would be very hard to do efficiently as baby shrimp could always manage to make their way between tanks. I still think a best bet would be the fine netting of dividers, only silicone them on completely to avoid cracks and then filter each section separately. That way the water is still being shared but much easier to maintain?


But I have 3x10gals and the shelf is big enough to fit, so that's why I decided this. Putting a course sponge/mesh over the PVC would stop the babies from getting through. I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens anyways. Doesn't work, at least I didn't do any hard mods to the tanks, just some pipes going over the rims.


----------



## discus fever (Jun 16, 2010)

For a cheap prefilter sponge I buy the aquaclear 70 filter in a three pack for $7 . Then take a sponge and cut it in half. Next take small knife and cut a circular hole 2/3 the depth of the sponge. Y ou could also get then wet and freeze them and use a sharpened length of pipe to cut your hole. This gives me 6 filters for $7.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

discus fever said:


> For a cheap prefilter sponge I buy the aquaclear 70 filter in a three pack for $7 . Then take a sponge and cut it in half. Next take small knife and cut a circular hole 2/3 the depth of the sponge. Y ou could also get then wet and freeze them and use a sharpened length of pipe to cut your hole. This gives me 6 filters for $7.


I bought the AC 300 huge sponge and cut it for prefilters on my intakes and would do the same for these. I tried the fluval prefilters but clog too fast. Been weeks since using the AC and not drop in flow. Compared to cleaning the fluvals 2-3times a week.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13, here is a pic just setup. Used 2 3/4" pvc joins per tank. Filled the middle tank only and the other two on the sides filled and are all the exact level. My internal filter is drying from gluing some tubing to it so I can put the filter in tank 1 and the hose in tank 3 to create a flow and keep all the water circulating. The gravel was a bit dirty so it's cloudy but should clear up by tomorrow. Each has an Aquaclear filter on them as well. pH and TDS are the same in all 3 tank now (my 5.8pH 120tds peat filtered tap water, lol)
One day I will be able to afford a full rack with all the same tanks, ro drip system, canisters for each, but for now it's what I had. A bag of peat, 3 tanks, some PVC, an internal filter and a dream. lol.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

What would be sweet is if you have each of the filters output to a different tank. Like 1st outputs to 2nd, 2nd into 3rd, and 3rd into 1st. But you do have the internal filter idea, not sure if that would give you enough circulation and filtration! Looks good though!


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> What would be sweet is if you have each of the filters output to a different tank. Like 1st outputs to 2nd, 2nd into 3rd, and 3rd into 1st. But you do have the internal filter idea, not sure if that would give you enough circulation and filtration! Looks good though!


The internal filter does 185gph, even if I get 100gph with it full of purigen and the tubing run, still 10x turnover. I was thinking of plumbing the internal filter in tank 2 and going to tank 1 and 3 split off. So if I get 50gph to each end tank, they are being filled and swapping water with the center tank 5x an hour and that tank is pulling water from both other tanks, it should be swapped around good. I was thinking of trying to green-ick med to see how fast it takes putting the green in tank 2 that it spreads to tank 1 and 3 and they all become the same green but I don't know the effect of the med's being in the tank on shrimp later. Would be a great way to test though, that stuff goes bright green.


----------



## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

discus fever said:


> just a small powerhead sucking from one end tank and discharging in the opposite end tank.


this is all it takes to work a water turnover throughout the system.
a single filter or heater is effective for all the tanks too with common circulation. Captured these thoughts and options for crossover pipe dividers using filter sponges or intake strainers in my threads. 
(maintaining 3 systems on similar designs for years.)


----------



## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

wkndracer said:


> this is all it takes to work a water turnover throughout the system.
> a single filter or heater is effective for all the tanks too with common circulation. Captured these thoughts and options for crossover pipe dividers using filter sponges or intake strainers in my threads.
> (maintaining 3 systems on similar designs for years.)


+1 This eliminates the deadspots while circulating flow from tanks 1 and 3... or vice versa.... which you dont have at the moment.


----------



## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

What a useful thread for me at the moment. I actually came back on here to ask a similar question.

So to get your flow, you have a filter attached to an airline hose?
What about putting a little pump at the end of one of your U pipes. Wouldn't that cause the water to flow through the other set of U pipes and cause a constant turnover?

I need to do this with 2 cubes, and am trying to figure it out myself...


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yea I heard the green ick meds are really harmful to inverts. If you wanna experiment you can just use food coloring? Not sure if that's invert safe but I can't see it not being.

For better flow you might want to stagger the location of your pipes. So have one in the back and the other in the front of the tanks. And have the output diverted as wknracer did in his thread!


----------



## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

ramawo said:


> Here's my simple setup with double U pipes connect between 20g long to 25g cube.
> -input ---> filters ---> UV ----> Chlller ----> output
> HOB
> 1 x AquaClear 50 on 25g tank
> 1 x AquaClear 20 on 20g tank


Hi ray,
What kind of transparent piping did you use for this setup?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Yea I heard the green ick meds are really harmful to inverts. If you wanna experiment you can just use food coloring? Not sure if that's invert safe but I can't see it not being.
> 
> For better flow you might want to stagger the location of your pipes. So have one in the back and the other in the front of the tanks. And have the output diverted as wknracer did in his thread!


Ya not sure if the food coloring will come out, I'll assume it's flowing good. I am going to stagger the tubes to the front and back, just going to get some binder clips or something to keep them place and going to put my internal filter into tank 2 and split the output to tank 1 and 3, that should help with flow and keep the circulation going.


----------



## ramawo (Jun 12, 2008)

> What kind of transparent piping did you use for this setup?


http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=21430

It's perfect for lazy ppl like me lol


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

ramawo said:


> http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=21430
> 
> It's perfect for lazy ppl like me lol


I may go for those eventually, nice to have clear and see the water in the tubes to know the siphon is always there but I had the pvc and elbows kicking around from making DIY turtle docks, so that's what I used.


----------



## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

I want to eventually setup a great looking shrimp rack and this seems like a cool option.

Have you thought of a constant rodi drip type method to replenish evaporation?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

FreedPenguin said:


> I want to eventually setup a great looking shrimp rack and this seems like a cool option.
> 
> Have you thought of a constant rodi drip type method to replenish evaporation?


Would be nice and maybe in the future. For now I dump some in when it gets low on my tanks. I just made 20gallons of peat filtered water to even fill these tanks, so it was all on the cheap/diy/stuff I had around.


----------



## FreedPenguin (Aug 2, 2011)

Ah. Good stuff.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Tanks are clearing up, param's are the same across all 3, filter is in and pumping water from Tank 2 to 1 and 3 circulating it all around.










I almost want to get rid of the cube on the end and add a 4th tank, it will just fit, I designed it to fit 4x10gal. lol.


----------



## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

I'd say go for the 4th' 10g and put the cube somehwere else.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Wow so those tanks are above your desk! That's pretty nice haha. Kick back and watch them for a bit when you're on a break!

Why colorful gravel in the 1st two tanks and why the buffering substrate? in the 3rd tank?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Wow so those tanks are above your desk! That's pretty nice haha. Kick back and watch them for a bit when you're on a break!
> 
> Why colorful gravel in the 1st two tanks and why the buffering substrate? in the 3rd tank?


What I had on hand. Using my peat filtered water which lets me get the pH where I want it, so don't really need the buffering. The tank with the ADA was already setup for a while. Going to probably get some other buffering substrate just because I like the color and plants grow good in it and leech it in another tank if it leeches ammonia and then top the gravel with it. Going to let these tanks sit for a while before I put anything in them, got snails to help cycle, long light cycle to get algae growing, put 2 bulbs in over top to help with the algae, biofilm, etc.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. will you consider moving the filter to the back of the tank so it's not as like.. ugly? And why clown puke gravel!!!


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm.. will you consider moving the filter to the back of the tank so it's not as like.. ugly? And why clown puke gravel!!!


Ya I'll move the filter ,was just a test and it's what I had for gravel. lol. Like I said, I'll cap it with something before I add shrimp, even just inert black gravel or something.


----------



## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...clown puke.......LOL


----------



## ramawo (Jun 12, 2008)

> Tanks are clearing up, param's are the same across all 3, filter is in and pumping water from Tank 2 to 1 and 3 circulating it all around.
> 
> This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1280x960 and weights 651KB.
> 
> I almost want to get rid of the cube on the end and add a 4th tank, it will just fit, I designed it to fit 4x10gal. lol.


Nice work !
If you have more budget allow, suggest to add filter medias between internal filter to output. It can reduce the water flow and more filtration is more benefit for shrimp tank.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

ramawo said:


> Nice work !
> If you have more budget allow, suggest to add filter medias between internal filter to output. It can reduce the water flow and more filtration is more benefit for shrimp tank.


The internal filter is full of purigen as well as each filter HOB filter has biomaterial, and purigen in it aswell.

Also going to add a small spongefilter to each tank.


----------



## ramawo (Jun 12, 2008)

> The internal filter is full of purigen as well as each filter HOB filter has biomaterial, and purigen in it aswell.
> 
> Also going to add a small spongefilter to each tank.


So, it should be ok.

Remember years ago, one of shrimp expert from Asia told me..... "Never say too much filtration for shrimp tank.... if possible.... add more as you can". This is just my little opinion. :icon_bigg


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

ramawo said:


> So, it should be ok.
> 
> Remember years ago, one of shrimp expert from Asia told me..... "Never say too much filtration for shrimp tank.... if possible.... add more as you can". This is just my little opinion. :icon_bigg


Each tank has a AC 20 plus the internal filter plus I am putting a small sponge filter in each one (once they get here from China) so should be good. Each AC will have a huge sponge block on it as a prefilter plus each pipe will have sponges on them to stop shrimp from going through and will end up acting as a filter.


----------



## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

Quick question. If I ended up doing two tanks that were different heights, would it still work, as long as a ran a little powerhead or something at the end of one of the pipes to distribute the water between the two?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

azjenny said:


> Quick question. If I ended up doing two tanks that were different heights, would it still work, as long as a ran a little powerhead or something at the end of one of the pipes to distribute the water between the two?


I don't think so, it works on the principle of keeping the water level the same in the tanks connected, so with different heights, one is going to flood unless you keep the higher tank less filled below the rim line.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

Well the tank has shrimp in it. Not on purpose. My moss in my CRS tank was going nuts all over, so I put my hand in, ripped off a softball size, shook it, shook it, shook it, and tossed it in one of the tanks last night to fix it to some lava rock this weekend for the tanks and my moss must be loaded with babies because their is 4 babies CRS in there. I'll leave them as testers, see how the peat filtered tap water does with them as well, etc. So far they are acting normal though. pH is around 6, TDS is about 180.


----------



## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

GeToChKn said:


> I don't think so, it works on the principle of keeping the water level the same in the tanks connected, so with different heights, one is going to flood unless you keep the higher tank less filled below the rim line.


Duh. Hello me not thinking before posting. Of course that would not work. Haha.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

azjenny said:


> Duh. Hello me not thinking before posting. Of course that would not work. Haha.


You can do something that wknracer did. He connected a 55G, 20G, 10G together by elevating the smaller tanks so all tanks were at an equal height. :bounce:


----------



## azjenny (Dec 2, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> You can do something that wknracer did. He connected a 55G, 20G, 10G together by elevating the smaller tanks so all tanks were at an equal height. :bounce:


Ooo, good idea. I will check out that thread more thoroughly.
That might be a solution for me. Thank you!


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

azjenny said:


> Ooo, good idea. I will check out that thread more thoroughly.
> That might be a solution for me. Thank you!


Here's wkndracer's tanks 








http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/l...-low-tech-angel-tanks-56k-23.html#post1532922


----------



## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

*aquarium daisy chains*

Bwahahaha thanks! but that's just three of 'em.

















The lower pair are linked for a common water column here too.
I do this alot LOL.










Been doin this for a few years now, linking cuts costs also combining equipment.


----------



## madness (Jul 31, 2011)

For grow-out tanks in fish breeding or for shrimp breeding you need many small tanks but it is nice to have a larger and more stable water column (for lack of a better term) so linking (or having a large shared sump) is very useful.

Fun to see people testing more stuff out and then sharing the results.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

wkndracer said:


> Bwahahaha thanks! but that's just three of 'em.
> 
> The lower pair are linked for a common water column here too.
> I do this alot LOL.
> ...


Yea I'm gonna take a leaf out of your book 100% when I get my own house


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

For diwu13: Non-clown puke gravel now. Well I just capped the other stuff with black small grain gravel. So far pH is around 6.7 from peat filtered water, all 3 tanks are exact same ph/tds, so circulation is going well. Been using the one tank for all my lower grades, have about 40 juvi's in there right now. Only see 1 dead one, which from 40 or so babies, you're not going to get 100% rate from birth to adult no matter how good your tank is. 

I found about 6 babies in the first tank when I pulled moss from my crystal tank and threw it in there and found about 5 PFR babies when I took a lava rock covered in moss and put it in there. Babies everywhere. lol. Anyways, here's an updated pic. Tubes have holes drilled in them and sponges covering, internal filter in the first tank pumps to the 3rd tank to keep the flow going. Anyways, here's a pic of all 3 and 1 pic of the tank with the juvi's in it.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

What did you mean by "the tubes have holes drilled in them"? You drilled additional holes in the PVC for better flow?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> What did you mean by "the tubes have holes drilled in them"? You drilled additional holes in the PVC for better flow?


Yes, just a couple around the base of them. I'm going to get better sponges or cover with mesh and drill holes up more to make sure they never get blocked.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

So did some rework on, lost the sponges and drilled the tubes out a bunch with about 100 holes each tube (800 holes all together, my arm is sore, lol).

I had some good quality plastic animal grade screening my roomie got from work and zip tied that around each one. I stuffed some aquaclear course foam in the bottom of each one, so no shrimp or babies can get through.

Now in order to do the U tubes, you have to be able to get a tube in them and suck out the air from the tube, so what I did was drill a big hole, cut the screen and put a zip tie on loose so I can slide the ziptie down, put the airtube in, suck out the air, and slide the ziptie back up. Really once they are in there, you don't have to do this but if they get clogged up, I can remove them and rinse them out and suck the air back out again.

ziptie slid down, hole for air tube available.









ziptie up, hole covered









Lastly, I connected the 7.5gal cube sitting there as well so the total water volume is 37.5gal now.

All 4 tanks connected.


----------



## ryantube (Jan 8, 2012)

Then how would you use 1 huge canister to connect multiples UGF to its input and then return the output to those tanks?

Saving $ on buying multiple canisters and light fixtures.


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

ryantube said:


> Then how would you use 1 huge canister to connect multiples UGF to its input and then return the output to those tanks?
> 
> Saving $ on buying multiple canisters and light fixtures.


Not sure how to do it for that. I have a Aquaclear HOB's on each tank and have/will have small sponge filters in each tank as well. Tank 1 has a Fluval internal filter full of Purigen that has tubing connected to it, so it pumps water from the first tank to Tank 4 thus forcing circulation of the water from the tanks.


----------



## ryantube (Jan 8, 2012)

GeToChKn said:


> Not sure how to do it for that. I have a Aquaclear HOB's on each tank and have/will have small sponge filters in each tank as well. Tank 1 has a Fluval internal filter full of Purigen that has tubing connected to it, so it pumps water from the first tank to Tank 4 thus forcing circulation of the water from the tanks.


Just started a thread with a flow chart. I guess you can divide the output to multiple smaller branches leach to each tank to reduce the return flow. Then the bridges are not necessary anymore


----------



## discus fever (Jun 16, 2010)

azjenny said:


> Quick question. If I ended up doing two tanks that were different heights, would it still work, as long as a ran a little powerhead or something at the end of one of the pipes to distribute the water between the two?


This can be made to work, you just need to modify your overflow. They should look like one of these. Ignore the one on the far right. That is just a filler.







.


----------



## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Getochkn, your screen seems a little wide spaced. Are you worried about babies getting through?


----------



## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Getochkn, your screen seems a little wide spaced. Are you worried about babies getting through?



It looks bigger than it is. A day old baby MIGHT be able to get through but I doubt it. It's small mesh. Even so, I don't mind if a baby gets through, I would find it before it got to breeding age in the other tanks. It's about keeping goldens separate from crs and low grade crs from high grades or whatever ones I choose to keep in the 4 tanks. If I get some OEBT at some point, I can keep them apart and not worry about tibee's.


----------

