2 tanks, 2 canisters, shared water...possible?

[Lillyan]

I know it's kind of pointless, but, could you do it?
Two tanks, whatever size, surface height of the water is the same in both tanks. I was thinking of doing this to my two 40breeders.
Use one heater rated for 90-100g.
Any issues you guys see might come up?
One filter failing would seem like the biggest thing to watch for.

 

[prober]

Yes you could do it but what happens when one filter clogs up faster than the other? Then it would not be pumping water back to the other tank as fast as water was entering the tank it was on and you would have a flood.

Not to mention sharing diseases and parasites. Doesn't sound like a good plan to me.

 

[Lillyan]

I only have one canister filter, so it really was just a random thought/question.

 

[Chrisinator]

And if disease spreads, it'll spread to both tanks.

 

[Bgolfer88]

interesting idea. honestly its kinda just like a refugium. The one's at petsmart run like 120 tanks and while they aren't always completely healthy as long as you keep good water quality it might not be the worst of ideas. Bigger systems tend to be more stable.

 

[dbosman]

If one filter fails, one tank empties and the other one over flows.

 

[sorberj]

May want to add a connection directly between the two tanks to solve the overflow problem. This can be accomplished by a hose between the two that is filled with water (no air in it) so that it will serve to level out the two of one filter fails.

The only other thing I can think of is that if the room temperature is significantly lower than the tank temp you could have the tank without a heater end up being a bit cooler since the water will not have a direct heat imput and will act like a "cooling pond"

 

[wrek]

May want to add a connection directly between the two tanks to solve the overflow problem. This can be accomplished by a hose between the two that is filled with water (no air in it) so that it will serve to level out the two of one filter fails.

The only other thing I can think of is that if the room temperature is significantly lower than the tank temp you could have the tank without a heater end up being a bit cooler since the water will not have a direct heat imput and will act like a "cooling pond"

In addition to just putting a hose between the two filters, you could then plumb them with the IN from Tank 1 going to the filter 1, OUT from filter 1 to IN on filter 2, OUT on filter 2 to tank 2. Basically plumb the filters in-line with each other. Draw from one tank, put clean water in the other tank with the syphon hose just running from one tank to the other to keep water balanced.
If that syphon hose gets clogged you're going to be absolutely screwed though... might want 2-3 hoses

As for sharing parasites, etc., meh. Most hobbiests don't keep separate nets, testing gear, and such anyway so there's the likelyhood of sharing anyway. When something pops up in one of my tanks, I treat them all.

 

[rocker92]

one thing ive wondered is the pumps in the filters themselves..... i dont think those pumps pump exactly 100.00 GPH. one would think that there would be a little variance between pump to pump. so one motor might pump 100.09 and another pump 100.18. it wouldnt be much of a differance, but it would be enough to cause problems.

 

[drdud]

I agree with Rocker. Unless you have some sort of water leveling system between the two tanks I would really be afraid of water balance/leveling issue. I think the cons far outweigh the pros. Not really sure what the biggest pro is except trying to purchase a single oversized heater rather than two. Plus, many go with two smaller heaters to provide heater redundancy for better reliability.