how to filter, and water change multiple tanks.

J

jenazen69

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Jun 19, 2004
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I am new to this site, and relatively new at fish care. I started in april with a 29 gallon tank. Three weeks later I added another 29 gallon tank. I have recently purchased a 10 gallon tank to use as a plant grow tank/ fry grow out tank. I will be adding another tank that is 55 gallon, and another that is at least 29 gallon (being given to me by a coworker, it sits higher than 3 feet from the floor, but dosn't know the size). I was wondering if there is a way to get one filter, and hook up several tanks to it. If so what do you recomend. I would like to add CO2 to these tanks as well, as I will be trying to make all tanks into planted tanks. I will be keeping one tank to grow plants in to stock the others, and until I figure out how to get enough light in the tanks and CO2 and everything figured out .I figured I can get good growth in one tank and move them into the other tanks. Is this a good idea?
I also would like to find a way to automate water changes, and CO2 injection. If any of you have suggestions on how to do this with the cheapest most reliable methods I would appreciate any feedback. I currently keep swordtails,guppy's, cory's, neons, betta's, a redtailed shark, a whitetailed shark, a rainbow shark, tiger barbs, green tiger barbs, pristella maxilarius,and a pleco.
 
In 2 months you've gone from having no tanks to having a 10 gallon, 3-29gallon, and a 55 gallon?

How much have you read up on fish keeping? Do you know about cycling and all that?

What about Quarantine tanks? With you stocking this many tanks you are bound to bring home at least one fish disease if not several. Combine that with all the tanks sharing filtration and you could have a massive and horrible die off in every tank.

Maybe you should hold off on the new 55 gallon and 29 gallon and wait to set them up until you have read up a great deal on this and other sites?

It could save you hundreds of dollars and many days of frustration and confusion.

Just friendly advice.

BTW, welcome to AC.
 
Start with light

For plants you need to get the lighting figured out first, not later. It makes all the difference as to what plants you can keep and whether you even need CO2.

Meanwhile, I doubt you could get one filter to handle all those tanks, even if you drilled some to overflow ito the next. Too much flow loss and a nightmare in balancing the water when the power failed.

If you are short on funds, know that the old air driven sponges work just fine. Ditto the little box filters that run on air. Otherwise, AquaClear filters are inexpensive and work well.

If you have screw in bulbs, look into screw in compact flourescents for the 10 gallon. The 29 gallons are harder to light and may require a 55 watt CF (or even double 55 watts) which is a whole new purchase of ~$100 each.

The easiest tank to light is the 55 gallon with the 4' length. If you can get 2 or 3 40 watt lights over that you have a good start.

You will need to research to see if you want high light or low light, soil or engineered gravel. Those will dictate your plants.
 
I started with 29 gallon, and overstocked with incompatable fish. I got the second tank to put the fish I wanted to keep who were incompatable. I do know about cycling, and have no intention of adding any fish until these tanks are cycled. I will have a quarantine tank as soon as the 10 gallon is set up and cycled. I have expanded my tanks more from choice than for any other reason. I am not sure about weather or not I will filter all the tanks will one filter. the two that are currently set up have individual filters. I was looking for imput on weather or not to filter all tanks will a large external filter, or idividual filters for each tank. I have a tank with livebearers, and plan on allowing the fry to grow which is one of the reasons I need to set up at least 2 new tanks. one for a hospital tank, and one for the fry. I have also had problems getting plants to grow well, and am planning on a plant nusery tank so that I can get the hang of taking care of planted tanks. I would like to eventualy have all tanks fully if not heavily planted. I am currently stocked to my limit, and would like to get more fish, so I realy do need to set up a new regulare tank as well. I have looked into what plants I want, and what I can currently grow. I am trying to get the lighting taken care of. I know how hard it is to get 3-4 wpg in a 29 gallon tank. I don't intend to just set these up and have that be the end of it. I understand that I need to get better lighting, and I am working on that already. After seeing both of your responses, I think I will definately stick to individual filters. I have picked up a lot of information since april. I belong to another forum, and have spent almost all day every day while at work or home checking though the posts looking for more information on the fish I am carring for. Most of the plants I want require gravel substrata and low to medium light requirements, however a few of the plants I want need hi light requirements, and a substrata with fertilization.
 
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Ah yes...

The obsessive type.... reads for hours a day, collects tanks rapidly

Sounds familiar!

Anona,
keeping fish for less than 24 months, 6 active tanks, 6 more dry in attic
 
lighting the 29

I have a single 55 watt CF on my 29, retrofitted into the exiting strip. The AHSupply retrofit is great and can grow any of the moderate light plants. It is a bit dim at the edges as the bulb is 22 inches and the tank is 30.

A dual 55 would solve that problem but give you a faster tank, which I think is a mistake for starting out. Right near 2 wpg gives you a better chance to learn about plants and such without being overtaken with algae if you mess up.

After the "training wheels" are off, you may want to go "faster" or maybe not. Frankly, I find over 3.5 wpg to be a pain to keep up on the ferts, things run out too fast.


I started with screw-ins on the 10 gallon, then retrofitted the 29. Later set up a 20 with dual NO flourescents, then retrofitted a 55 on it, then moved it all into an odd sized 59 with a custom hood 4x55.

All tanks are 100% Flourite, though I am now experimenting with a plant grow tank with soil in the workroom by the garage.

I also manage a planted tank at an elementary school that is full of guppies. You may find that if you plant a tank well, with good lights and some CO2, the live bearers will take care of themselves, the gupppies sure do! That tank has a 36" triple tube All-Glass strip and it is wonderfull. Those 9325K bulbs are super!
 
since I have 2 29 gallon tanks right next to eachother I plan on putting a shop light over both hopefully I will be able to figure out how to get the whattage required to get 3-4 wpg. I will have to figure out a reflector for it, and what bulb are best for aquarium plant growth.
 
A lot of multi-tank hobbyists (including me) do use central filtration systems. But these are not the stuff of board discussions, although a number are detailed on the web - generally in fish rooms - these are highly customized assemblies.

Absolutly rigid QT rules are required to successfully operate central systems, and more than a little DIY engineering skill.

Planted tanks other than moderate to low light setups (as anonaperson suggested initially) are completely unsuited to centralized systems. If you plan on more than 2-2.5WPG, they should be stand-alone tanks or you will create more problems than you solve.
 
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