Yet again, another idea.

F

factorybacking

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Sep 3, 2006
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Well, it's now 1:00 in the morning, and after sitting around looking at my tank, i just realized, sense im getting the new acrylic 20 gallon display tank tomorrow, im going to have this basic 20 gallon glass tank sitting around(the old display tank), then i thought some more (knew i should of fell asleep sooner!) Well, would there be a way to have the 20 gallon off to the side(on the floor) and a way to plumb it in with the refugium, giving me more area for the fuge chamber and being able to set the protein skimmer inside of the other 20 gallon "sump" with LR rubble? Basically, heres a picture of what i would like to make work...if possible... The 20 gallon basic and 10 gallon fuge are NOT drilled and don't plan on it, so would there be a way of making all this work?

drawing2a.jpg
 
You could plumb your 20g glass tank into your current system. That is essentially what I did when I made our sump and refugium. I used 2 separate glass aquariums and plumbed them together. I drilled 1 of them, which made it much easier and less risky in terms of flooding.

I'm not sure I'd plumb it in the way you have it shown (requiring a second pump), since there's a risk of flooding if the pump in the extra 20g cannot keep up with the amount of water being pumped into it from the T coming from the refugium. Similarly, there's a risk of running the pump in the extra 20g dry if it begins to pump water back to your display faster than the pump in the refugium can feed water to it.

Any plumbing set-up I can think of in my mind is pretty risky without a direct plumbing connection between the refugium and extra 20g to allow for the water level in the two to stabilize between them. I do see possibilities if the refugium or the extra 20g was brought up to the same level as the display tank, but that would require buying an overflow (or drilling). Hopefully, someone else can provide a solution I have not yet thought of myself.
 
that would theoredicly work but fsn did point out some major flaws. If youa re 100% oposed to drilling, i think the easiest thing to do would be to just run a few u-tubes connecting the tanks. Clear ones would be best so you can see if any air bubbles are in them, but PVC ones could work fine if you keep an eye on them. Keep in mind that this would mean that your 10 gallon's water level must be higher than the water level of the 20 gallon. of if you want you can reverse it, keep the return pump in the 10 gallon and run the u-tubes form the 20 to the 10 gallon. You will be able to hold more water this way, but you will probalby have to deal with a lot more noise as the overflow will not be muffled by the cabinet.
so it would work like this.... take what you ahve there, only remove the upwards arrow that is the most to the left. and the arrows connecting the tanks do not have a pump, but instead work on a siphon.
 
You cannot rely on a pump to move water into your 20 gallon and another pump to move water out of your 20 gallon because even if you buy 2 pumps rated for the same flow or use gate valves to adjust the flow, they will still not pump at exactly the same rate over time and you would end up with either your 20 gallon flooding or it running dry with too much water to your main tank / fuge.

If you are opposed to drilling, you would need to gravity feed your 20 gallon with a hang on the back siphon overflow. The fuge could sit below the display tank but higher than the 20 gallon and you could run an overflow from your display to your fuge then another from your fuge to your 20 gallon and move the return pump from your fuge to your 20 gallon.

Of course you would be relying on not only one, but two siphon based overflows (assuming your main tank is also not drilled) and they always make me nervous.
 
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