Tanks Ideas

[usctrack]

Guys and Gals,

I now have 2 new tanks that I would like to get an idea of how best to use. I have a new 40B (36*18*16)that I picked up yesterday and also a 50L (48*18*13)from glass cages. The 50L has been set up from what I can tell as as display tank from possibly a retail store. It has 4 sections of approx 12" with partitions that go from top to bottom and has 2 holes drilled in each section.

With that said, what might be the best way to make use of these. I have 2ea 90g set up ( 1 as reef, the other as FOWLR for now due to lighting (pc's). I will obviously need new lighting for the new setup and may upgrade this one as well.

Just curious as to what you all might think would be a good way to use these?

A second idea would be to tie all my tanks together with some crazy plumbing. Since they are across from each other I would probably need to go up into the drop ceiling and back down. That might not be worth it since they are doing well on their own.

 

[markie mark]

nick...the best way to go is to if possible to tie all the tanks together and if not all as many as you can..i dont really know what you should do with breeder with the split sections in it unless you pull them out.... i know someone who used some of the black marine expandable foam as decor instead of live rock..ive always wanted to try it..he said he made some cool caves using balloons and sprayed the foam around and over them and then popped the balloons and had a real cool look...he also said if you throw a lil roch with some coraline on them in there it spreads pretty quick over the surface..its not supposed to leach anything into the tank....might be worth a shot on one of them to see what happens...he also said the cool thing about the foam is you can push the bottom of a frag plug into the foam and let the coral spread over if your doing corals in the system...just giving you an idea..dont know if its what your looking for but anywho give me a shout or text me cause ive got some equipment you might be interested in...mark

 

[usctrack]

Thanks Mark. I now think the 50L is being sold or traded and ran to Petco and got me another 40B. I missed them last time and wont this time! They were loaded up on them!!

I have been toying with the idea of tying it all together after seeing your system but my challenge would be to travel up into the drop ceiling and over to 2 seperate tanks without too much flow going to one or the other. In a closed loop there is only so much room but say one tank got slowed or clogged my fear is that the other would get more water than normal and overflow. Is that a possibility or am I worried for nothing?

I would also need 3 pretty large pumps to move the water from 2 tanks to another room and one Big one to take it all back.

might need someone to help me think this all over.

 

[markie mark]

i dont think pumping the water would be an issue but i dont know how you would drain into one large sump...you wouldnt wanna pump water to a sump...if you wanted to replace some sheetrock,you could cut out some strips along the room and plumb in your drain and return lines if your had enough fall on the drains to make it to one large sump...pumping up is gonna restrict your pump flow any way..also the more bends or 90s you have in the pump line will restrict flow everytime it makes a hard turn...if you dont have sheetrock i would run the lines around the room with over sized drains at minimal fall on the drains to get where you need to go...a pipe barley has to fall to drain..i could get technical on how much fall for what size pipe per foot of pipe but you get the idea....let me know what you think,im interested in your project.....