side by side

[xdusty6920]

i have a 55g that ive had a 10g sump on. obviously since day one its been less then adequate. but i only have room under the tank for a 10g. i have a 30g with the same measurement as the 55g that i would like to plumb in as an alternative. the problem is the only place i can put it is directly side by side with the 55g. so my question is how can i plumb and external overflow to drain into another undrilled tank directly beside it?

[xtrstangx]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. If you have three tanks (30g, 55g, and 10g sump)... The 30g and 55g need overflows on them. The overflow on the 30g or the 55g needs to be higher than the second tank. The highest tank should drain into the next shorter tank. This tank should drain into the sump. The sump should then have a return pump for the highest tank.

Or you can drain both tanks to the sump if they have similar height. You'd need a return pump for each tank though.

If you are going to plumb two tanks together, you need a much bigger sump than 10g... when power goes out, your sump will overflow.

[xdusty6920]

oh yeah i know all of that and i wish it were that simple but unfortunately its not that easy. i want to do away with the pathetic 10g all together and replace it with a 30g. the 30g will not fit under the stand so i want to put it directly beside the 55g. i have a stand for the 30g that makes it almost the exact same height as the 55g.
so pretty much its a 30g beside a 55g and both are the same height. how can i plumb to two together with an external overflow? (both tanks are undrilled)

[xdusty6920]

bump

[BLockamon]

In order to use an external overflow, the outlet of the overflow has to be higher than the inlet to the 30 gallon tank. It can work with the tanks side by side, but you'll have to drop the 30-gallon down to let the overflow gravity drain.

There are two potential problems, 1) there should ideally be a continuous decine from the overflow to the 30 gallon (i.e., no kinks in the drain line. 2) Because the change in hight is relatively small, I'm not sure how much flow it will handle. Maybe oneone else can help with that.

[kind reefer]

Good luck with that. Sounds like a sure disaster to me. Why not put have two display tanks (55 and 30gal) with a hang-on filter such as a Bak-Pak on each tank. This will eliminate the need for a sump all together. !0 gal is far too small as you know.

[xdusty6920]

no no, i want to get rid of the 10g all together. all i want to do is pretty much circulate water between the two so i dont have to buy another skimmer, reactor etc. plus as you all know the more water volume the better. i just want them plumbed together but the problem is they are the same height so i dont have gravity on my side.
the only way i could have the inlet to the 30g lower then the outlet to the overflow on the 55g would be to drill the 30g almost at the bottum and the run the drain from the 55g overflow directly to that bulkhead. but then i dont know if it would be possible for the overflow to reverse syphon back into the 55g