I was going to make my 2.5G a pico but now I want to make a 10G my SW and have the 2.5 as a refuge. But how does one do it? would I need to have a powerhead or something I know its prob easy to do but I just dont see it 
Marine plumbing
- Thread starter SHK_ATK
- Start date
It depends on how you do it.
I currently have my setup ghetto rigged, as I am going to put more time into it later.
It has the fuge sitting up above the DT, with a powerhead pumping water into the fuge and running back out into the DT through a funnel/waterfall type thing.
You could also drill your 10g and make an overflow into the fuge, pumping back up to the 10g. Granted, I would still make the 2.5 a pico, connect it to a 10g fuge with the other 10g connected to that fuge as well.
Granted, I am still a noob at this whole plumbing business, so you should for sure wait for someone with more knowledge, Im just trying to give you some direction from what I did
I currently have my setup ghetto rigged, as I am going to put more time into it later.
It has the fuge sitting up above the DT, with a powerhead pumping water into the fuge and running back out into the DT through a funnel/waterfall type thing.
You could also drill your 10g and make an overflow into the fuge, pumping back up to the 10g. Granted, I would still make the 2.5 a pico, connect it to a 10g fuge with the other 10g connected to that fuge as well.
Granted, I am still a noob at this whole plumbing business, so you should for sure wait for someone with more knowledge, Im just trying to give you some direction from what I did
If you make the top of the tanks level, you can run two pipes between them. One is the siphon to return water, and the other has a powerhead hooked to it to push the water over. I had a setup like this for 2 months no problems. Only broke it down because I am upgrading to a 90gal with sump below.
If you make the top of the tanks level, you can run two pipes between them. One is the siphon to return water, and the other has a powerhead hooked to it to push the water over. I had a setup like this for 2 months no problems. Only broke it down because I am upgrading to a 90gal with sump below.
sweet set up mine will be level can you take more pics of the plumbing I will prob use your set up since I have all the stuff to make it.
i also use the same method for my refugium... and it's quite a good tank there... and i see a car there too ^^
my truck is awesome..and that is the only reason (and the best part) we got the tank..it's got some zoos in the bed as well
Heres a pic below of the plumbing pieces. I used 3/4" PVC pipe and a MaxiJet 600. On the powerhead I cut down a prefilter from a magdrive to keep the macroalgae from being sucked into the main tank. One thing I noticed and I don't think this has to do with pipe size, but more with gravity is that when the power head is off the water between the tanks is even, but when I turn the refuge powerhead on the water in the refuge is lower (shown in above post).
To make life easy dry fit all the pieces and mark a line across the joint. Then you can glue it together and know exactly how you had the pieces aligned.
The only downfall to this system is if the water falls below the pipe outlets into the tank you will break siphon. Thats why I placed the pump in the refuge so if something happened it would only be able to pump the 5 gal refuge into in my tank and not my main tank onto the floor. Basically just keep this in mind so the pipes are low enough to not break siphon when you perform water changes. Otherwise you will have to re-prime the siphon pipe.
To make life easy dry fit all the pieces and mark a line across the joint. Then you can glue it together and know exactly how you had the pieces aligned.
The only downfall to this system is if the water falls below the pipe outlets into the tank you will break siphon. Thats why I placed the pump in the refuge so if something happened it would only be able to pump the 5 gal refuge into in my tank and not my main tank onto the floor. Basically just keep this in mind so the pipes are low enough to not break siphon when you perform water changes. Otherwise you will have to re-prime the siphon pipe.
Sweet I think I can make this liar: ) Ill contact you if I run across a snag. Thanks for the pics really helpfull:headbang2:
liar: ) Ill contact you if I run across a snag. Thanks for the pics really helpfull:headbang2: