say I have a 90 gal tank with all Lifereef sump, skimmer and cal reactor . Now my question is that I have another 90 gal doing nothing can i set this up and have water go though from the tank to the other 90 to the sump and back to tank or any other ideas thx.
water flow
- Thread starter gandolf
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Scooterman
Well-known member
This can be done but without an elaborate set-up your looking for a disaster, plumbing wise you need to have more back-up water flow options etc in case of failures power outages etc., not to say if you have a problem in one tank It will be carried over to the next tank. I would suggest either sell it & use the money to add to your existing tank or build a new set-up with the empty 90 & improve on it & then later sell of the other tank, last set up two completely separate tanks & keep an aggressive fish tank in one & a reef set-up with small fish in the other. Or maybe a massive school in one, or something of the sorts! JMO
Scooterman
Well-known member
That would not be something I'd do or recommend as I mentioned, you can have major problems unless your really experienced at this & still I would recommend it. JMO!
Krish
RF STAFF
The more water volume the better as you will have more stability. If you can work out a concrete way of plumbing them all in, it would be a great idea
MC Lighting
A Little Overboard!
I am curious what are the problems associated I have my 26g bow front running off the 180's sump for 6 months without any issues, I use a independent pump for the 26 and it operates just like the 180 in that it pumps water up and back through the overflow to the sump even when I shut down all of the systems I have not had any issues if there is something I should be looking for I want/need to know.
Krish
RF STAFF
If everything is running fine then you're good. It's when you are un-sure how to properly plumb it all you can run into problems with maybe the sump running dry and the tank overflowing for example.
Scooterman
Well-known member
Your chances of water overflowing the sump increases if you have a pump failure but the main thing is if you have a disease you will spread it across both tanks or imagine a params problem & you spread that problem across to the other tank. The risk of a total failure goes up when two main displays rely on one sump, not saying it can't be done but it isn't recommended! You don't want to have two 90g display tanks loaded with fish & corals in each relying on one sump set-up. The cost of separating the two will increase reliability & the cost to loss isn't worth that risk, this isn't like adding a second sump or refugum.
chris&barb
Reef-Geeks
we run our display tanks off a common sump and i wouldn't do it any other way. when you do a water change you do one water change, when you do your tests you do one test, one big skimmer ect...
when we were looking into setting up our system(before we got into the internet thing) we asked all the LFS's around about setting it up this way and got the same responses, "if you add a fish with ich then both tanks have ich", "if one tank crashes then both crash" and none of these responses made any sense to me. they were all looking at it the wrong way, as two tanks with one sump. but its not two tanks its ONE system. whats the difference if its 2-90's or 1-180? if you screw up and over dose your alk on either you get the same result, if you dont QT every thing and add something nasty you get the same result.
the funniest part is that every LFS i asked about this i also asked to see how they had everything set up, they all had 30 or 40 tanks running off of one sump! why would they do it but tell me not to? because it easier and cheaper and they would lose out on selling me another skimmer and pump and heater and chiller ect..
all the potential disasters can effect a single tank just like they could a 10 tank system. if your worried about intrducing ich or what ever then QT everything, you should be doing that anyway
when we were looking into setting up our system(before we got into the internet thing) we asked all the LFS's around about setting it up this way and got the same responses, "if you add a fish with ich then both tanks have ich", "if one tank crashes then both crash" and none of these responses made any sense to me. they were all looking at it the wrong way, as two tanks with one sump. but its not two tanks its ONE system. whats the difference if its 2-90's or 1-180? if you screw up and over dose your alk on either you get the same result, if you dont QT every thing and add something nasty you get the same result.
the funniest part is that every LFS i asked about this i also asked to see how they had everything set up, they all had 30 or 40 tanks running off of one sump! why would they do it but tell me not to? because it easier and cheaper and they would lose out on selling me another skimmer and pump and heater and chiller ect..
all the potential disasters can effect a single tank just like they could a 10 tank system. if your worried about intrducing ich or what ever then QT everything, you should be doing that anyway
DonW
R.I.P.
I like the idea of having two sumps. I'd use one for water changes and the other stays running. I would not run two displays on one sump. I just lost most of my tank due to the sump being contaninated. Sure would have been a drag to loose two displays full full of animals.
Don
Don
Scooterman
Well-known member
One thing about giving advise to others that are asking questions, they are asking because most probably they aren't that experienced, so it should be clear that certain things takes a through understanding or a level of experience. That's why I would not recommend someone new trying something I would consider a little more advanced, people can sound misleading by not clarifying their experience level. This is another reason why I would not recommend this to someone unless they are experienced, when an experienced person ask about something like this then most probably the question would of been different.
chris&barb
Reef-Geeks
its not that advanced. if the OP had said "i have a 90g tank but i think i want a 180 what do you think?" you probably would have said "go for it". tanks crashing and introducing unwanted stuff would have never been mentioned. ive never seen anyone ask about setting up a single tank and someone reply "no, dont because if it crashes think of all the stuff you will lose" but when ever someone wants to run 2 tanks one one sump thats what everyone says
all that you need to worry about is that your sump and equipment can handle the extra water. forget that theres 2 tanks and look at it as one tank and you will be fine
all that you need to worry about is that your sump and equipment can handle the extra water. forget that theres 2 tanks and look at it as one tank and you will be fine
MC Lighting
A Little Overboard!
honestly that is the way I looked at it instead of having to buy a huge tank I could just ahave a few smaller ones with the main display and just run them together for the water quanity advantage.
theJ
Well-known member
If I had the opportunity I would. I think Chris & Barb bring up a great point. Its one tank, regardless of location. You just have to treat it like one tank, QT everything like you should be doing already and good tank husbandry should be about all you need to worry about. That, and it is a single system, so treat it as such. Just more water volume to me!
