1 pump for 4 tanks with out drilling

[tdnine]

Does any body have a good design for one pump servicing 4 tanks with out drilling?

I want to run 1 1000 gph pump to filter 4 55gl tanks for tetras and such. I want to use pvc from the tanks to a 30gl tank that will hold the pump and filtration system. All of the tanks will be level. Any good plans?

tdnine

[yeomans]

Do you want to have the system plumbed into the room from the pump, or have a single hose that you can fill each tank with?

[lhforbes12]

Josh,
He's looking for a central filtration system.

TD,
Simply using syphon tubes to each tank will work, but is something I would not reccomend.

[Jeff B]

I've spent months ( literally ) trying to balance everything the way you describe. The major problem is that depending on the water level of each tank determines how much of a flow there is out of it and everything is set on a knife edge, especially when using a "continuous overflow". One tank you could get away with getting right but any more than that I found impossible. I could write a book on the subject :noway: .... the upshot ( after I'd finally admitted defeat ) was that I had to get someone out to drill the tanks in situ .... sorry I didn't go that route in the first place .... it works like a charm now. I wasn't really too keen on having my tanks drilled either, but really I found it was the only way to go. HTH :)

[Cosmo]

do a search on dyi overflows. There's a way to setup pvc overflows without drilling so you wouldn't have the balancing problems you would with straight syphon tubes. Reef Central has a great thread on it but I don't have it bookmarked any longer
Jim

[crazie.eddie]

1 pump to service 4 tanks? :shocked2:

One way I could think of is a water fall effect, with each tank lower than the other and having an overflow box. The bad thing is, the last tank will have the dirtiest water, since it's a collection from the other 3. Unfortunately, all your tanks are level.

I'm not sure if there is a PVC pipe that will let you divert into 4 separate pipes, but I know garden hose connections allow you to do it, which looks like this...
http://img.alibaba.com/photo/50942180/Hose_Connector_with_Valves.jpg

You would use an overflow box (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3642&Ntt=overflow&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1) on each of the tanks to return water to your sump and then use the pump to return the water to each tank after it's been filtered, heated, etc. (I could do a rough sketch on paper, scan it, and post it here if you don't understand)

The only problem I can see with the 2nd method is that each tank must not be too far from the sump, becuase the distance will reduce the turnover rate of the flow.

What ever method you use you would not have to drill any tank and you would just use an overflow box (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3642&Ntt=overflow&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1), which hangs on the rim of the tank.

IMO, a 30 gal sump maybe too small. I would consider a 55 gallon tank as a sump. Also, a centralized filtration would introduce diseases/parasites to the other fish in the other tanks.

[tdnine]

After long consideration I could use a over flow seystem for each tank to one colection area. Then I could pump it back evenly to each tank. But at last I thin I will just change water every day and use a spung filter in each tank thank you for all the help and good ideas.

TDnine