Connecting Tanks

[Tiki God]

Hey RC!

I currently have a ten gallon nano, and it is mostly macro algae and sand, with a few corals. There is probably two lbs of LR. But I love the look of the tank, and don't want rock in it, but I also can't have much of a bioload without a good filter (the rock).

So I have also had an idea for a non-reef safe crab tank (LOVE crabs), and I was thinking it would be cool to plumb it into the ten gallon. The tank would probably be a little five gallon tank crammed full of live rock. So my question is what would be a relatively cheap and easy way to plumb them together? They will only be about 8 ft away, so it's not going to be too hard (at least theoretically) to do.

I'm not looking to get overflow's and pumps and go through big ordeal to do it. I go for the KISS method, keep it simple, stupid. Thanks in advance! :wavehand:

 

[guserto4]

Without a pump you won't have much of any turnover in water; the two tanks will essentially exist as two different zones. There will be very little benefit...

I wouldn't consider it overly complicated to drill a few holes, plumb the tanks together and get a small pump to push water from one to he other and by head difference have water return through a second pipe for the filtration you are looking for.

Otherwise I'm not sure what else you'd be thinking would work (?)

 

[Tiki God]

I was thinking just connect them without a pump, but that makes sense now that it wouldn't work.

I'm looking to make these tanks very minimalistic, so I don't want to have a big bulky pump in either tank. And is there anyway I could connect them without drilling? I'm terrified to drill after I cracked one tank trying.

 

[jedimasterben]

Typical ten gallon tanks are difficult to drill due to the very thin glass used. In addition, after successful drilling, bumping the bulkhead or heavy plumbing that isn't supported can still easily crack the glass.

I would not suggest having tanks connected via siphon overflow. Drilling and using bulkheads is much safer, and using a pump to push water into the first for it to flow into the second, and then back to the first.