2 tanks 1 sump, anybody have any experience?

[Craigb350]

Bit of a predicament!

I currently run a 5 x 2 x 12" coral table as an established system currently growing SPS n there,

Recently bought a 3 x 2 x 14" tank to run a second tank for high end zoas, montis etc, Ideally I would like to piggy back the new tank onto the same sump to make my life easier as far as maintenance goes.

The coral table has a wier overflow and the new tank uses oceanlife returns.

Question is when the power is off the sump fills up to around 3 or 4 " from the top, if I add the second tank I am worried this will overflow, so I am asking if anybody has any experience of this situation?

If so what's the best course of action,

• Change the baffles to run a lower level In the sump?
• Get a bigger sump?

My plan is just to add a second return pump to the return section of the sump, or I could tee off the return and send it to the news tank.

Any advice would be great!

Cheers

 

[Jon Fishman]

Without seeing your setup (I'd love to add a small tank as a second tank to my sump for a Mantis, but that's another day/topic!) is it possible to put the return just at the waterline? When the pump turns off, the backflow causes the sump to start to fill, but the level goes down just a little, and the return line starts sucking air, and the sump stops filling.....

I turn my return up/out of my tank when I hit "feed" on my pump, because I don't want the water level in my sump to raise and cause my skimmer to pull in a bunch of water and run-out any dark/good skim I have collected.

 

[Smarkow]

Definitely get siphon breakers for the return lines, put the breakers on unions, and maintain or replace them regularly.

Invest in two return pumps, one for each tank. This way if one dies/crashes only one of the tanks will have its water above the overflow collect in the sump, decreasing your likelihood of an overflow.

You can also consider having one display/grow tank overflow into the other display/grow tank which then overflows into the sump. This is how I have mine setup. The extra overflow oxygenates the water, an advantage for me since I do not skim.

Lastly you can setup an emergency overflow on your sump. This is probably the most work and least desirable. You will have to drill a drain hole just above the normal sump waterline or below the overflow point, and run that hole to a reliable floor drain or extra tub. In the event of a critical failure you won’t have wet floors.

 

[Craigb350]

Coral table when I first set it up,

New tank,

Ocean life overflows

 

[Craigb350]

Would be great if any of you guys are doing this out there, if they could share pics/descriptions on how they are doing it?

 

[Smarkow]

How’s the weather in the UK?
Why did you have to send our village idiot back ?

 

[Craigb350]

Definitely get siphon breakers for the return lines, put the breakers on unions, and maintain or replace them regularly.

Invest in two return pumps, one for each tank. This way if one dies/crashes only one of the tanks will have its water above the overflow collect in the sump, decreasing your likelihood of an overflow.

You can also consider having one display/grow tank overflow into the other display/grow tank which then overflows into the sump. This is how I have mine setup. The extra overflow oxygenates the water, an advantage for me since I do not skim.

Lastly you can setup an emergency overflow on your sump. This is probably the most work and least desirable. You will have to drill a drain hole just above the normal sump waterline or below the overflow point, and run that hole to a reliable floor drain or extra tub. In the event of a critical failure you won’t have wet floors.

Thanks for the reply,

Have you got any pics of how the overflow is set?

 

[Craigb350]

How’s the weather in the UK?
Why did you have to send our village idiot back ?

Raining and cold

 

[ScottR]

Most LFS I know run 3 tanks or so off of one sump. If your LFS does this, you could peak around and ask them.

 

[Craigb350]

Most LFS I know run 3 tanks or so off of one sump. If your LFS does this, you could peak around and ask them.

Why didn't I think of that haha, I bet they use massive sumps

 

[ScottR]

Why didn't I think of that haha, I bet they use massive sumps

I’m always peaking around at their sumps and I wondered the same thing that you’re asking.

So would it overflow the sump with return off? Curious to know.

 

[Craigb350]

I’m always peaking around at their sumps and I wondered the same thing that you’re asking.

So would it overflow the sump with return off? Curious to know.

Possibly, but I the bigger the sump you run the more volume it can take

 

[Smarkow]

Yep. Display at the top (210) with refugium at the bottom (75). But on the left, and not well shown, is an elevated 30 gallon tall tank on wood risers so that its water level is below the display but above the fuge.

So water flows from display through a ghost overflow on the left and down to the elevated 30g tall (yellow) then overflows into the fuge (green) and takes an s curve for the return (red). CaRx goes into the beginning part of the fuge so that excess CO2 is used up before the return. ATO goes through a calc reactor (blue) right before the return, which neutralizes any surviving CO2 and ensures stony corals get a high pH flow.

It may seem complicated, but one return has been running this setup for 3 years with no issues. I think the key to safety is redundancy, so the ghost overflow from the display has 3 drains on bean animal for silence, while the 30g tall has 2x redundant elbows. Because the 30g tall on the left has a small surface area and its steady state is to have the waterline at the elbow drains, the fuge on the bottom only needs to accommodate maybe 10-20 extra gallons in the event of a power outage. I keep a spare return pump on hand.

This is the closest pic I have of the elbows. They are screwed onto the bulkheads rather than glued so I can take them off for easy cleaning.

The 30 gallon tall on the left has variously held media reactors, a cryptic zone, xenia fuge, frag racks, my heaters, etc. These days I mostly threaten to put the cats into it when they are bad.

 

[Craigb350]

Yep. Display at the top (210) with refugium at the bottom (75). But on the left, and not well shown, is an elevated 30 gallon tall tank on wood risers so that its water level is below the display but above the fuge.

So water flows from display through a ghost overflow on the left and down to the elevated 30g tall (yellow) then overflows into the fuge (green) and takes an s curve for the return (red). CaRx goes into the beginning part of the fuge so that excess CO2 is used up before the return. ATO goes through a calc reactor (blue) right before the return, which neutralizes any surviving CO2 and ensures stony corals get a high pH flow.

It may seem complicated, but one return has been running this setup for 3 years with no issues. I think the key to safety is redundancy, so the ghost overflow from the display has 3 drains on bean animal for silence, while the 30g tall has 2x redundant elbows. Because the 30g tall on the left has a small surface area and its steady state is to have the waterline at the elbow drains, the fuge on the bottom only needs to accommodate maybe 10-20 extra gallons in the event of a power outage. I keep a spare return pump on hand.

This is the closest pic I have of the elbows. They are screwed onto the bulkheads rather than glued so I can take them off for easy cleaning.

The 30 gallon tall on the left has variously held media reactors, a cryptic zone, xenia fuge, frag racks, my heaters, etc. These days I mostly threaten to put the cats into it when they are bad.

WOW does seem complicated, I think I get the jist of it LOL!

Its given me a few options to think about, as said above I am interested to know how LFS run multiple tanks off one sump.

Also looking into the option of a large vat for both systems as these tanks are in my man cave/ garage.

 

[Smarkow]

WOW does seem complicated, I think I get the jist of it LOL!

Its given me a few options to think about, as said above I am interested to know how LFS run multiple tanks off one sump.

Also looking into the option of a large vat for both systems as these tanks are in my man cave/ garage.

You have a ton of options
I promise it is actually very simple. My three big goals were to have a large water volume (give me a high fish load), large footprint for the fuge (since I refuse to skim), and large ATO (because I am lazy). Once you have your goals in mind there are tons of ways to do this hobby. The only tank I ever really disliked was my first one (I was dumb, and on a very tight budget, and that is a bad combo).
Good luck.
Do you have any corals in the already established shallow tank? Would love to see a top down shot!

 

[Craigb350]

You have a ton of options
I promise it is actually very simple. My three big goals were to have a large water volume (give me a high fish load), large footprint for the fuge (since I refuse to skim), and large ATO (because I am lazy). Once you have your goals in mind there are tons of ways to do this hobby. The only tank I ever really disliked was my first one (I was dumb, and on a very tight budget, and that is a bad combo).
Good luck.
Do you have any corals in the already established shallow tank? Would love to see a top down shot!

I do have somewhere its difficult to take a shot with the t5 reflection

 

[Smarkow]

Stupid light, keeping corals alive while we want eye candy :mad:

 

[Craigb350]

The longer I think about it, increasing the volume of the sump wont fix the problem, it just means the entire system volume will go up with the same problem,

I think I need to change the baffles in the sump so when the pumps are running there is less water volume in the sump allowing more space for water when the pumps are off, the second tank has the oceanlife so I don't think I will see that much back siphon from the tank.

The coral table on the other hand with the wier I know the drain pipe is higher than the return outlet, so I think either I need to raise the outlet so to limit the water back siphoning through the return pump, or my other option is to fit a non return valve on the return.

Any thaughts?

 

[Smarkow]

The longer I think about it, increasing the volume of the sump wont fix the problem, it just means the entire system volume will go up with the same problem,

I think I need to change the baffles in the sump so when the pumps are running there is less water volume in the sump allowing more space for water when the pumps are off, the second tank has the oceanlife so I don't think I will see that much back siphon from the tank.

Increasing the sump size will decrease your chances of an overflow if you increase the footprint of the sump or increase the height of the sump walls. If you just get a bigger sump but fill it to the same proportions then yeah, changing baffles is a better option. Sometimes you just need a good excuse to build a new sump, I swear that's where 50% of my joy in this hobby is - tear it down and build something different.

Then again, if I had a brand new tank that I'm dreaming of filling with montis and zoas then spending money on a sump is low priority.
Do brits call montipora mountbattenpora? They should

 

[Craigb350]

nope lol