2 tanks 1 sump multi floors?

reeffanatic67

New member
Put your thinking cap on. My Brain is fried trying to make it work. I have 2 tanks now. 210 reeftank with 36 inch sump refugium combo/etc on 1st floor of house. 150 gallon fowlr tank with sump/skimmer etc on 2nd floor. I want to only run one sump downstairs on 1st floor. Simple right. Just get bigger pump for reeftank on 1st floor and run drain line upstairs to downstairs. Bigger skimmer etc? Curveball. I want the sump on 1st floor not under tank but across room 20 feet into huge walkin closet with my water mixing station.i have drop ceiling. Want to pump water overhead between floors to closet. The drain from 2nd floor tank also uses same space. One tank right over another 2 different floors. Help? Lol wanted to use around 75 gallon sump in closet for both tanks.I have no basement.
 
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You are not going to be able to pump drain water up and over if you know what I mean. You would have to run a typical drain from the tank on first floor to the sump in the closet, and the sump would need to be a little lower. Still possible, if there is someway you could hid or disguise the drain pipe.
 
Or you could run a basic sump only under the tank on the first floor that would circulate water, then pump water to the "equipment closet", but you would also still need a typical drain back to the sump.
 
Two possible solutions one to place the sump higher than the drop ceiling on the 1st floor and gravity drain from sump to 1st floor display then pump from overflow back up to sump. Problem is the bottom display will hold all excess water which is not feasible without a second sump anyway.

Other solution is to use electronics to control pumps which will likely fail in time.

Best alternative is to go with two sumps one for each tank.
 
Thanks everyone for all your replies. I run a calcium reactor but dose some color enhancing liquids for the coral. The fish only tank is slowly becoming coral populated. I was testing the aggressive fish tank and so far so good.
 
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