2 Cubes 1 Canister

[b00f]

Ok.. so pretty sure I am crazy.

Been doing research on how to join 2 tanks, with 1 common filter.

Obviously there are pro's and con's of this, which I will go into, older/wiser people, please chime in.

Here is a rough design.

Intake in one tank, out in the other.

Common "water bridge" between them.

The idea would be to use 2x U shapes between the two tanks, with prefilters, to not only give more surface area, but also to stop shrimplets from making their way to the other tank. The bridge would act as a siphon between the two, creating transfer.

The main reasons, are 1 have the cubes, and a "spare" 2213.

I want this to be cheap, simple. Purely just for shrimp.. I have another tank I can use for QT.

EVERYTHING i read, tells me not to do it, its gonna overflow!! You need a sump blah blah!

I know the risks of sickness between two tanks.

The theory works, (I did it with 2 cups on my desk), few strange looks from people sitting around me..

Pros:

- 1 larger body of water for better stability

- Less power use

-

Cons:

- Sickness spread between both.

- Dangerous water levels.

- Clogs

-

So, has anyone done this? How did you go with it?

Personally, a sump or overflow on the either tank might be a bit too difficult

Aaron

[KillieOrCory]

As long as you are on top of maintenance you should be fine. Though if you let the bridge clog you'll have a nice little flood in your house.

[Squiggle]

+1, could go horribly wrong if you rely on the bridge & it fails.

Personally I'd have the tanks overflow into a sump & have the canister pickup in the sump, then have two return hoses, one for each tank. :encouragement:

[KiwiBigD]

Personally I'd just be saying bugger it, KISS works as in Keep it simple. I'd just do a single tank and fine another 'spare' filter for the second.

If this fails you could end up with one tank drained almost completely and the second tank overflowing and potentially losing all the shrimp contained. If I had to do this I would personally go with drilling between the tanks and adding a tube through which you can force flow. You'll also need to ensure if keeping say CBS and CRS that the shrimp don't transfer otherwise you lose the benefit of two tanks.

[jayc]

Is the Bridge passive?

How do you plan on making the water travel up the bridge???

If it's not passive, you better make sure the flow rate is exactly the same as the canister's pump. Otherwise you are looking at an overflow.

Agree with KiwiBigD. KISS (Keep it Shrimp Simple).

[b00f]

As long as you are on top of maintenance you should be fine. Though if you let the bridge clog you'll have a nice little flood in your house.

I was thinking of using 2-3 "bridges"' date=' with some filter over them, making sure im not reliant on just 1 bridge...

+1, could go horribly wrong if you rely on the bridge & it fails.Personally I'd have the tanks overflow into a sump & have the canister pickup in the sump, then have two return hoses, one for each tank. :encouragement:

I keep looking at it, and thinking, it's painful.

[b00f]

Is the Bridge passive?

How do you plan on making the water travel up the bridge???

If it's not passive' date=' you better make sure the flow rate is exactly the same as the canister's pump. Otherwise you are looking at an overflow.

Agree with KiwiBigD. KISS (Keep it Shrimp Simple).[/quote']

Water always wants to balance.

Aslong as there is no air in the bridge, water will balance evenly.

Scary thought, but works... try it with cups.

Drilling these tanks is scaryyyyyy! They are not that thick...I heard of many tanks cracking...

Yes KISS principal may just need to happen... 2x HOB + might be a better idea... with the sponges...

With the overflows, just to make sure, it would either be:

- Overflows on both tank to mutual sump

or

-Overflow on last tank with join in the middle?

Failing all this, I might just put the HOB on the 2ft and put the 2213 on the cubes.

[Wraithie]

Agree with KiwiBigD. KISS (Keep it Shrimp Simple).

Keep it Shrimple?

[BlueBolts]

Keep it Shrimple?

LOL, I see what you did there.....

The "water bridge" theory scares me.....just buy a $15 air pump....one tank sponge filter, and the other tank with the canister & sponge filter .... no potential problems then ... :-)

[b00f]

Keep it Shrimple?

[Brado]

couldn't you just put a t piece on the intake so you have an intake in both tanks? then run the spray bar across the two.....

[Twellsy]

Wouldn't you be better off just drilling the two tanks and joining them like people on here have done with there sumps ( bulk head with PVC pipe )

The bridge thing with air bubbles sounds like an accident waiting to happen

You would still need to watch it doesn't get blocked

[b00f]

Wouldn't you be better off just drilling the two tanks and joining them like people on here have done with there sumps ( bulk head with PVC pipe )

The bridge thing with air bubbles sounds like an accident waiting to happen

You would still need to watch it doesn't get blocked

Probably, but Im crazy, and well, if its possible, it's worth a shot.

IMHO, overflow is my only problem. Other problems are no different to running shared sump.

Air getting up there, is obvious possible, but unlikely.

Having multiple bridges would mean if one is blocked, Im not relying on it..

The issue is, drilling 4mm glass, it worries me more than overflow.

having 20kg+ pushing towards the side of glass, cracks are possible.

Having a 2x Nano overflow boxes on each, would be the next option.

Followed by running both filters.

TBH, a HOB on the 2ft, would deal with the bioload EASILY, 120L of water with 12 neon tetras... (I also have more space behind it than the cubes, making external boxes, well uglier than it has to be), thus moving the canisters to each Cube would end up costing the same.

Im going to give it a crack, as I don't have to modify the tanks to try..

4mm glass, anyone drilled it before?

[Brado]

couldn't you just put a t piece on the intake so you have an intake in both tanks? then run the spray bar across the two.....

^^ simples no? ^^ even flow in both tanks.... no need to drill... no need to worry about overflow...

[jayc]

I'd go t-bar for the outflow too. Water exiting from a spray bar is no even. More water exits towards the end of the spray bar. Which means a risk of overflow in one tank, and draining the other.

[Bretty4527]

Id just make the one tank higher then the other so all flow is the same it can only suck out what the other puts in

[shrimpstan]

Gotta say I went the complete other way.. 2x2213 on 1divided 3ft tank :p

But ill suggest this.. if ur going to do it maybe u could have a raised intake (like what u see when u buy a set of lilly pipes) this way.. if disaster does strike then u would at least limit it to 20% of the tank capacity.. but still a scary thought, though.

[Sacrilicious]

I agree the theory is sound and will work due to the siphon action - I've considered it many times before... I've never done it though because the risks are too high for the place im living in currently.

Potential Issues with the U bend that I can think of:

Water level dropping/splashing allowing air in and stopping of the siphon

Blocking of the u piece (somewhat helped by having 2)

Something hitting/knocking the u bends out of place - fish, kids, other pets like cats, you during cleaning (might be helped if they are firmly secured)

The other thing that is important to consider is this:

With a siphon as the water level approaches the same pressure (i.e. the water in the tanks reach the same height) the siphon slows to a trickle - the bigger the difference in height of the water level, the bigger the difference in atmospheric pressure and the faster the water flows.

So... obviously with this set up you want your filter speed to match the rate of flow via the u tube... which should happen naturally if your u pieces are nice and wide (they need to be as wide as the canister hosing) but depending on how fast your filter is working, you might find to get significant flow from one tank into the other the water levels need to be dramatically different, which depending on the height of the tanks etc might ruin the look of the setup? Not saying its a definite, but something to consider - hopefully your filter has an adjustable flow so you can fiddle with it a bit :)