combining tanks split level house

[thankph]

I have a weird house ( split level ). On one floor I have a 45 gallon reef tank with a rear sump. On the lower floor I have a 210 gallon tank with a 100 gallon sump. I'd love to combine the two tanks to have "one system". The 100 gallon sump in the lower level is below the 45 gallon, but there is a catch.

The issue is, because the house is a split level, the bottom of the 45 gallon tank sits below the ceiling of the lower level and the wall that separates the rooms is solid concrete. There is no way I will be able to drill through it and run a pipe. A siphon is only possible if I go above the wall and then back down to the sump. I thought about doing it with a vacuum pump or something. However, I'm afraid that if the siphon were to break, the return pump from the sump would overfill the 45 gallon tank.

Any suggestions on how to make this reliable?

I've attached a photo to help describe the setup.

 

[Hitman]

Depending on how thick the concrete is you can drill it. I’ve rented a Milwaukee concrete drill with a 3” concrete hole saw and I think I only paid like $75 for the day.

 

[Rjukan]

Are you sure it's poured concrete not cement block? Block is really easy to get through with a concrete drill bit, but I wouldn't try going through poured since it would probably have rebar in it.

 

[Subsea]

The Roman aqueducts ran hundreds of miles with syphons as one component of their engineering.

I use a symphon to connect inside 55G tank with outside 150G tank.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/remote-display-refugium-heat-sink.631421/

 

[thankph]

Are you sure it's poured concrete not cement block? Block is really easy to get through with a concrete drill bit, but I wouldn't try going through poured since it would probably have rebar in it.

Yes, it's poured.