Joining two tanks end-to-end?

[MrWellington]

Hey all. I have an opportunity coming up later this year to build out a home theater in a new house. One thought was to incorporate a reef tank extending the room's entire length. Is it possible (safely) to join two framed 10'x30"x30" tanks end to end by removing respective L&R end panels?

 

[randomfishdude]

Maybe. But you would probobly have to have a little piece of wood or plastic where they meet.

 

[ryanjohn1]

Sounds really sketchy

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I would get some Clear Acrylic Tubing and build an up and over, Water Bridge between them, before doing that. Seems like you are setting yourself up for a blowout. If you decide to do that, a Welded Stainless Steel “U” over and down the sides of the Tank, Siliconed to the sides.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

I wouldn't do it. I tried to get that look in my office when I had my freshwater tanks. I had 6' tanks side by side with a piece of wood in between to hide the gap. They were not connected at all, just placed next to each other. It looked good. I kept similar aquascapes so it sort of looked continuous. The nice thing about doing it this way is you can keep incompatible fish in 2 separate tanks but still have a continuous look, sort of.

I ended up redoing the office and put a 10' tank in its place. You can see my build thread for that.

 

[biecacka]

You could drill largish holes in the end and connect them via bulkheads or something. Allowing the fish to swim back and forth etc.

corey

 

[jda]

No. The end panels are too structurally important to support the weight. If you could find somebody to make you a 20 foot tank, the sides would likely be 3x as thick as a single 10 foot tank.

Connect them with bulkheads.

 

[fishguy242]

Acrylic...12'6 total length

 

[Dave-T]

Do it with bulkheads, but do it! A 20 foot reef would be awesome!

 

[MrWellington]

I wouldn't do it. I tried to get that look in my office when I had my freshwater tanks. I had 6' tanks side by side with a piece of wood in between to hide the gap. They were not connected at all, just placed next to each other. It looked good. I kept similar aquascapes so it sort of looked continuous. The nice thing about doing it this way is you can keep incompatible fish in 2 separate tanks but still have a continuous look, sort of.

This is the much safer option, agreed. I definitely want that long, continuous look. I left a msg for customaquariums.com folks. we'll see what they recommend. I really like their build methodology.