One sump for two tanks?

[kaycee123]

I want to turn my garage into a fish room. I’m building one of those DIY racks with 3 shelves. It will have the filters on the bottom rack and tanks staked 2 high. I want 2 freshwater (axolotls in one, planted tank in the other) 2 brackish (figure 8 puffer and green spotted puffer) and 2 salt water (one LPS one SPS) I’ll be using canister filters for the fresh and brackish tanks but i want sumps for the reef tanks. My question is can I or should I use one larg sump plumbed up to both tanks some how or should I get 2 slightly smaller sumps for each aquarium? I know LPS required a lot more care like dosing regularly and really clean water, but I figured if I maintain one large sump that way it definitely won’t hurt the SPS reef and they might actually thrive. ‍

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I want to turn my garage into a fish room. I’m building one of those DIY racks with 3 shelves. It will have the filters on the bottom rack and tanks staked 2 high. I want 2 freshwater (axolotls in one, planted tank in the other) 2 brackish (figure 8 puffer and green spotted puffer) and 2 salt water (one LPS one SPS) I’ll be using canister filters for the fresh and brackish tanks but i want sumps for the reef tanks. My question is can I or should I use one larg sump plumbed up to both tanks some how or should I get 2 slightly smaller sumps for each aquarium? I know LPS required a lot more care like dosing regularly and really clean water, but I figured if I maintain one large sump that way it definitely won’t hurt the SPS reef and they might actually thrive. ‍

vote use one large sump plumbed up to both tanks, but you want it oversized to handle water from both tanks when both off.

Likely both tanks should have an emergency drain pumbed in so if one drain to either pump gets clogged then there is still drain to keep from overflowing tank(s).

 

[MoshJosh]

should be fine to plum both tanks into one sump. . . but keep in mind both tanks will have the same parameters, same crashes, same illnesses etc. . . something to keep in mind

That said, if I was setting up a fish room I would probably connect 2 or more tanks to the same sump. . .

 

[Sleeping Giant]

should be ok to plumb both into one sump, like above, you should get one a bit oversized

 

[thomas_neil]

You could potentially run sumps for all tanks.

Freshwater and brackish could be filter socks/mechanical filtration, fluidized media in one of the chambers. you could leave one chamber open for add ons like media reactors, CO2 for the planted tank, ect.

This way you're only doing 3 sets of water changes instead of 5.

 

[kaycee123]

vote use one large sump plumbed up to both tanks, but you want it oversized to handle water from both tanks when both off.

Likely both tanks should have an emergency drain pumbed in so if one drain to either pump gets clogged then there is still drain to keep from overflowing tank(s).

Thanks for responding. I think that’s a good idea. I didn’t think about the tanks possibly overflowing but I’ll be sure to add emergent drain.

 

[kaycee123]

should be fine to plum both tanks into one sump. . . but keep in mind both tanks will have the same parameters, same crashes, same illnesses etc. . . something to keep in mind

That said, if I was setting up a fish room I would probably connect 2 or more tanks to the same sump. . .

I think it would definitely be cheaper to use one sump. I was thinking of buying 2 pumps, skimmers, algae scrubbers etc and was making my head spin. I did think about one tank possibly crashing or illness and it did have me worried at first. Then I just thought of it like having one large 150 gallon fully stocked tank as oppose to two 75 gallon ones. Both situations would be devastating so I’ll just have to do my best to prevent disaster.

 

[kaycee123]

should be ok to plumb both into one sump, like above, you should get one a bit oversized

id like two 75 gallon display tanks. Do you think a 55 gallon sump would be big enough?

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I have a 40 gallon and 50 gallon frag tray plumbed into one sump. It's much easier than having to maintain two separate systems. Plus, I can move corals between the 40g and frag tray without having to worry about parameters being different.

 

[kaycee123]

You could potentially run sumps for all tanks.

Freshwater and brackish could be filter socks/mechanical filtration, fluidized media in one of the chambers. you could leave one chamber open for add ons like media reactors, CO2 for the planted tank, ect.

This way you're only doing 3 sets of water changes instead of 5.

That’s A great idea! I know the maintenance will be a lot of work so anything I can do to cut down on it would be really helpful. I’m getting a Neptune apex system for the reef tanks to do some automatic dosing and water changes etc. Do you know if I can connect the apex to my other aquariums as well?

 

[kaycee123]

I have a 40 gallon and 50 gallon frag tray plumbed into one sump. It's much easier than having to maintain two separate systems. Plus, I can move corals between the 40g and frag tray without having to worry about parameters being different.

Great point about the water parameters. I may want to move some things around. How do you have the tanks plumbed together? I don’t know if I should have some sort of duel pump Kit for the return pump or split it up with pvc pipe some how. Still haven’t quite worked out how I’m gonna plumb them together.

 

[Tompickles]

Here’s my setup just to give you some ideas. It’s a 75 gallon display with two 40 breeder tanks for frags or whatever I find that looks cool. Sump is just a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. 1 return pump for all tanks

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Great point about the water parameters. I may want to move some things around. How do you have the tanks plumbed together? I don’t know if I should have some sort of duel pump Kit for the return pump or split it up with pvc pipe some how. Still haven’t quite worked out how I’m gonna plumb them together.

Here's a picture of the setup:

The 40g drains in on the left, the frag tray drains in on the right, and I use one pump to send water to both tanks.

 

[kaycee123]

Here's a picture of the setup:

The 40g drains in on the left, the frag tray drains in on the right, and I use one pump to send water to both tanks.

Oh I see, that make sense. This seems easy and I like to keep things simple. some of the setups I see just look so overly complicated. I thought plumbing 2 tanks to 1 sump would be difficult with pvc coming out from every direction lol.

 

[kaycee123]

Here’s my setup just to give you some ideas. It’s a 75 gallon display with two 40 breeder tanks for frags or whatever I find that looks cool. Sump is just a 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank. 1 return pump for all tanks

Looks great! Nice comfortable chair to sit and enjoy the tanks too. I want that in mine.

 

[Rmckoy]

It’s possible to plumb everything of the same type Together
So for fresh run all over flow to a main drain line using a manifold and one larger pump plumbed the same to each tank
The over flow height set so it will not overflow .
The size of the sump depends on the amount of water that will fall to the sump when the power is disconnected

the best way to do this is to fill everything to the max with nothing running .
This way when the power is off the sumo
Will not flood .

 

[Rmckoy]

Running multiple tanks off one filter system can be a headache to plumb and costly .