Having 3 Tanks Connected Together

[xxBarneyxx]

Ok basically I have:

Display tank: not drilled.
Fuge: Drilled with return to the display tank (above the display).
3rd tank I want to add to the system.

I was thinking of adding either a frag tank or my orca nano to this but cant seem to wrap my head around the best way to do it. Every solution seems to have one of the tanks overflowing if a pump fails and the only way I can think to do it is to have both the frag tank and the fuge above the display tank so the fuge overflows to the frag tank and that overflows to the display. This is not going to be possible though due to space limitations.

Anything I'm missing?

 

[ben1987]

probably want one big sump with the tanks all connected to that.
or masses of anti-siphon holes and non return valves

 

[xxBarneyxx]

yeah thats the problem. Because the display tank is in the middle and not drilled (and I want to avoid an overflow box if I can) it makes it difficult.

If it was drilled I could just have the fuge draining to the display display which then drains to the frag tank (which would be the lowest point) and have the return from the frag tank back to the fuge (not ideal way to move the water around I know). That seems to be the only safe way to do it though (overflow from top tank, to middle, to bottom with return at bottom to top tank). Anything else is going to be dependant on things not failing which is always a possibility. Only thing I can think of to avoid the overflow box is to try and put the fuge up higher so the frag tank is slightly above the display tank to drain into it. Means taking up more space then I was wanting to but will have to measure it up and have a look.

 

[ben1987]

will be a bit of an eye sore aswel having tanks dotted around above the display.
erm... i will have a think

 

[andywg]

I assume you currently have a pump in the display to go to the fuge which drains back to the display.

Why not drill the frag tank and have that at the same level as the fuge and drain into the display?

Put a Tee section in the return pipe from the pump and a couple of valves to control the flow to each tank. Then both tanks will receive flow nicely. This is sort of how I operate my large system. In the sump I have two pumps. One pump pushes water to the fuge which drains to the large tank which in turn drains to the sump. The other pump sends water to the clownfish tank which drains to the burrfish grow out tank which drains to the sump.

All the tanks have their own weirs and the return feeds over the top of the top tank so in the event of a powercut no back-syphon occurs.

 

[SkiFletch]

Agree with Andy. If you can get the display and nano at the same level, you can hard-plumb them together. If snails could ever get in the nano though you'd have to add a wier on the pipe that goes from the nano to the display

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Thanks for all the input. Im going to have the frag tank slightly higher then the display (by a couple of inches) and the fuge above that. The display will pump water into the fuge which overflows to the frag tank and that then overflows to the display. Its going to make it all taller then what I wanted but I think this is the best way to go about it given the space I have.

Keep putting it off because my woodworking is rubbish but will probably get it done this week as I have some time off