Co-tanks or sumps to increase system volume

[Trapper]

Howdy folks,

This is a post about how one might make a big virtual fishtank from
several smaller ones.

What I am thinking about doing is getting a total wet volume which is
substantially larger than the (single) tank in which I expect to keep
fish.

To a certain extent, running a w/d filter does this. System volume =
tank volume + sump volume. From what I can tell, though, this will
only add a few gallons. Fine, but not quite the scale I'd like.

What I'd really like to do is keep another 30-55 gallons of aquarium
water in a remote "sump" (for lack of a better term) circulating
leisurely to/from my main 90-125 gal tank. The sump will likely be a
bare glass aquarium, no fish or plants.

The trick is that I'd like to do this in a way which cannot possibly
flood either the main tank or the supplemental tank in the event of
pump and/or siphon failure. Further, I won't have drilled tanks.

I'm happy to hear your ideas on this subject.

--Trapper

[NetMax]

"Trapper" > wrote in message
om...
> Howdy folks,
>
> This is a post about how one might make a big virtual fishtank from
> several smaller ones.
>
> What I am thinking about doing is getting a total wet volume which is
> substantially larger than the (single) tank in which I expect to keep
> fish.
>
> To a certain extent, running a w/d filter does this. System volume =
> tank volume + sump volume. From what I can tell, though, this will
> only add a few gallons. Fine, but not quite the scale I'd like.
>
> What I'd really like to do is keep another 30-55 gallons of aquarium
> water in a remote "sump" (for lack of a better term) circulating
> leisurely to/from my main 90-125 gal tank. The sump will likely be a
> bare glass aquarium, no fish or plants.
>
> The trick is that I'd like to do this in a way which cannot possibly
> flood either the main tank or the supplemental tank in the event of
> pump and/or siphon failure. Further, I won't have drilled tanks.
>
> I'm happy to hear your ideas on this subject.
>
> --Trapper

I have a pet project I'm working on. It involves 3 tanks, a 120g (main), a
60g segmented into three 20g and an open 55g (plant tank). The 120g holds
my 'display fish' which will be a low fish-load. Above the 120g is the
triple 20g which houses the live food farms (for the fish). Above this tank
is my 55g which is my filter system (live plants, aquatic & terrestrial).
The objective is to see what level of autonomy this system can achieve (I
will only provide heat, light and a little maintenance). To answer your
question (with my usual long windedness ;~), I don't see any method of
transferring the water reliably other than to have the top tanks drilled,
and the bottom tank's powerhead at a fixed depth, so the upper tanks cannot
be overfilled. If you really do not want to drill the tanks, then a
possible alternative is to have a hang-on box which is drilled, and
over-engineering the intakes to prevent clogging. There exists other
systems which use siphon pipes turned into loops with airholes which are
self-levelling. I've seen the designs but I have no practical experience
with them. If you are interested, I can look to see if I can post some
links when I'm at my home computer.
--
www.NetMax.tk