Cons of tieing my two tanks together?

[michaelkittrell]

Pros and Cons of tieing my two tanks together. 125 DT, 150 g sump, 100 g DT

I've got a 125 downstairs next to a fish tank room. I run pipe 10' trhough a wall to my 150 gallon rubbermaid sump. DT has corner overflows, drain comes up over edge of the sump and dumps in, return comes out the drain plug in the bottom. I have a 1150 gph pump running it.

I've got a 100 gallon in my bedroom directly above my fish room... There is a 2500 gph pump running this tank. It has through the back of the tank overflows (2") and return pipes come up and over back sides. Very noisy drain and fairly noisy pump. Regardless of whether I tie the systems together, the sump on this system will move downstairs.

The 125 is stocked with powder blue tang, 2 clowns and a green chromis, couple mushrooms of some sort and I think a gorgonia looking like soft coral. The 100 has a large emperor angel 5-6", large red corris wrasse 8" three clowns and an LTA M.dor anemonme.

I'm wondering what the cons are of tieing the two systems together. I think there are more than enough pros and the only con I can think of is tank collapse blowing both tanks at the same time =(.

Someday I'd like to do something interesting in the 125 like add a big anemome lps/sps corals or zoas or something like that... One intention of the 150 gallon sump/fuge was to pods for a dragonette or something. Also I have a ton of xenia in the 100 gallon upstairs, haven't decided whether I want it in the downstairs tank yet, thinking no.

Any thoughts or advice?

[jonbry123]

Mike,

I'm not sure I see any pro's per say as they are so far apart that it seems like a lot more work involved in keeping temps and SG level. Why not bring the other tank down stairs-not sure where the one is already down stairs but maybe have on opposite sides of the room combining the fish from up stairs into the tank down stairs with the emperor. The other tank could be the anemone tank only. Both tanks could then be plumped to the single sump in say the basement which I think you said is a 150gl sump. Just an idea to consider.

[michaelkittrell]

Thank you for the response!

Not sure that I follow you. The 100g being upstairs is not a barrier to plumbing them together.

There is an air return that runs straight down into my fish room; basically an open section between 2x4s "sealed" with thermal paper. It really won't be difficult; I don't even have to put a hole in my floor or my wall. The air return doesn't intersect with any others (and it's never been very effective either).

What I'm looking for is reasons not to tie them together...

I think its a good idea, fish stores do it right? but maybe that doesn't make sense in a hobby setting or in my situation. I have at most 3 months worth of experience and I haven't read about many people doing this.

The big thing I'm after is the reduction in maintenance and the expense of new equipment. If I tie the 2 tanks together, I have 1 set of water tests and place to dose, 1 convenient place to do water changes. When I add GFO or CA or CO2 or a controller I only need one.

I can only see benefits to plumbing everything together, but maybe I'm not thinking about something?