Three aquariums connected via fish bridges

[Zamboniman]

Zamboniman I admire & appreciate your ingenuity. Thanks for sharing your pics & that video with the electric yellow lab swimming through the pipe is very cool!

Just one question. Each bridge is joined by a valve, one at each tank, & you also have one at that corner being propped up by that 2 X 4. On each valve I see that you have another valve (red) attached to a clear hose. What is the purpose of those extra valves attached to the clear hoses? Do they support your siphon? Or do you use them to refilled your tanks during water changes?

Thanks for the comments. The bridges aren't joined to each other if that's what you mean, and there's no valve at the part that goes into the tanks. There is however a threaded coupling at the end of each tube (the part that goes in the tank) to allow me to close off that part of the tube if necessary for a variety of reasons without draining the tube.

The red valves you see with the clear tubing attached allow me to easily and safely start and stop the siphon in the tubes. The valves just make it easier than just capping the end of the tube to keep the siphon, though since I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy, that part has both a valve and the end of the tubing is capped.

After placing the bridges in the tanks the siphon is started by opening the valve and attaching an air pump (or lung power) and just sucking the air out of the tube until they're full of water, then closing the valve and capping the small tubing. Emptying the tubes is accomplished by slowly opening the valve to allow the bridges to drain slowly rather than dump all the water into the tanks in one giant splash.

During water changes I don't have to touch the bridges. The ends of the tubing are below 50% in each tank, so I can accomplish 50% water changes without stopping the siphon. As a bonus, I'm draining and filling all three tanks at once (thanks to the siphon) so I do one water change instead of three.


The 2x4 will be replaced with soon with a wall bracket, just haven't got around to that part yet. Also I need to find a way to clean things up a bit, hide the valves, make the fitting a bit neater, etc.

 

[Zamboniman]

I have a question as well, because there is a siphon are the fish "sucked" into the tubing if they get too close?

I have a powerhead set up pushing water from the far left tank to the far right tank. The siphon effect forces water back through the three aquariums to the original one (with the powerhead) to keep the water level. This keeps the water in the tubes from becoming anoxic and stagnant. However, the flow is slow enough and gentle enough that being sucked in isn't even close to a problem.

 

[Zamboniman]

wow awesome project. how long has it been set up for? Also was this an expensive build if you don't mind me asking? I think it looks awesome and i would like to try this one day.

About two weeks now since it was finished. I had a few minor problems the first time after setting it up and had to take it down and reseal some couplings.

The clear acrylic tubing is pricey. And I got a good deal on it, but it was still expensive. A six foot length of tubing was around $50, and I needed four total (though if I had been thinking better and made the cuts correctly I could've done it with three).

The rest of the hardware was just home improvement center type of stuff. You can get the clear elbows and coupling and such as well, but they're ridiculously expensive. Like over $100 for one elbow! So I used cheap ordinary PVC for the those.

Total cost for the two bridges was about $300, with 2/3rds of that being the clear acrylic tubing and the rest the fittings, valves, sundry other supplies.

I woke up this morning and saw that the electric yellow in the vid and pics that went to the middle tank yesterday has made her way back to the original tank sometime during the night.

 

[sailedNJ]

Zamboniman, Thanks for the patient explanation of the whole set up for folks who bulbs don't shine so brightly (like me :grinyes.

OK so the red valves are used to start & stop the siphon in a controlled manner, but you'd rarely need to. I know you did mention in your original post that the bridges connected all 3 tanks, but that the bridges themselves weren't connected & that 50% water changes could be performed without breaking the siphon because all 3 tanks were leveled with stands (of varying individual heights to achieve one uniform height... very clever) & the clear PVC pipes reach down far enough in each tank to accommodate this. I should have been able to put it all together with that info alone but I didn't, so thanks for explaining it again.

Once you get everything all "dolled up" to your liking you MUST post updated pics! I think it looks awesome right now (at least the whole concept is awesome) so I look forward to seeing the "spit & polished" result of this project.

 

[Jumko]

Amazing. I remember reading about the fish bridge years ago and always wanting to try it out myself.