I give up

unknown

unknown

Member
I ave a 30 gallon and a 10 gallon SIDE by side. I want out and bought 2 brand new CA800 PH's. I bought 3 feet of the sam size hose. I cut the hose the same size and still doesnt work. The water NEVER stays equal.
By the way I should probably tel;l you what im doing. I want to use my 10 gallon as a fuge but the 10 gallon drains and the 30 starts to fill up for some reason??
How do you guys connect your tanks to your fuges or sumps(,or lagoons)(bangguy=) and such.
Vince.:happyfish
 
T

tizzo

Guest
If you could somehow put the smaller tank under the bigger one, then you can go with an overflow into the smaller one.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member
You really can't use two pumps and expect to get them "balanced"
There are too many variables in the equation...even with two of the same make and model pumps and hose sizes...
Manufacturing tolerances are the most evident but also wear in and build up restrictions will be different in each pump...not to mention water pressures in two different tanks (one being 12" tall the other 16")
Even if these differences are minute (1/4 gph) eventually one tank will overflow the other...
Your best bet is to run one pump and use gravity to drain/return water to the other tank...that way the flow will equalize itself...
 
jb rekit

jb rekit

Member
I like squidd's 2nd idea and if you make the siphon go down deep enough, you would never get airlock even during a waterchange.
 
unknown

unknown

Member
What if I syphoned it down from the main tank with 3/4 hose and used a PH with 3/4 hose to shoot it back up?? would the flows equalize them selves???
Need help asap.
Vince.:happyfish
 
dominican

dominican

Member
I have a 150g with a 20g sump. I have two 1" hoses coming down from the tank (holes in bottom of tank) using gravity to fill the sump. There is one PH pumping water back up.
I have two 1"PVC pipes rising like towers from the two holes on either side of the tank, and I put fittings on the top with 1/4" holes drilled in both sides of each, and the tops plugged with styrafoam circles. Then I cut styrafoam rings to fit tightly over the fittings. Now I can slide the rings up and down over the holes in order to equalize the amount of water going down to the sump with the water coming up from the powerheads.
The rings have to fit snugly over the fittings, or else the critters can move them - leading to a potentially disastrous situation! The snails like to get up on them to clean.
This sounds kinda funky, but I was about to hang myself before I devised this solution. I inherited this tank and didn't know how this was handled before.
Hope that helps.
 
squidd

squidd

Active Member

Originally posted by Unknown
What if I syphoned it down from the main tank with 3/4 hose and used a PH with 3/4 hose to shoot it back up?? would the flows equalize them selves???
Need help asap.
Vince.:happyfish
No that will not work...the 3/4" hose will continue to siphon until water level is below upper end...it will suck air and stop siphon,,then with the power head still running, the upper tank will overflow...
Or the 3/4" hose will not keep up with the power head and the upper tank will overflow...
Or the 3/4" hose will siphon more water than the powerhead can return, overflowing the lower tank...
If you want to set your tanks up as in your drawing you will need to install a HOB (hang on back) overflow to regulate tank water levels in the upper tank...then as long as the powerhead has less flow than the HOB overflow the upper tank level will remain stable and everything will be cool...
The reason the U tube will work in the side by side tanks in the drawing above is that the water level is and would be self leveling...gravity will equalize them out...in a tank over tank set up gravity will continue to pull water down...
Heres a pic of a simple DIY HOB overflow...there are many on the market you can purchase for a reasonable fee...Amiricle, CPR, Lifereef,etc...
 
unknown

unknown

Member
I have a Whisper HOB filter. I was wondering could I drill a hole in the back, seal a tube there so it would not have to syphon it would just fall down the tube and the ph would shoot it back up??
And just a fact I tried the syphon down and Ph the water back up and the syphon would over flow the bottom tank.
If i moved the tank back to its side by side position. it would look like this

[hr]
 
unknown

unknown

Member
Would the flows still equalize even thought the tanks are UNEVEN. and also could i just use two hoses syphoning from tank to tank like in squids first pic in stead of a PH puching water back could the ANOTHER hose syphon back the water??
I dont think the side by side will work cause the 10 gallon would have to syphon watter up to the 30 and I dont think that can happen?? Can it if you get the syphon going???
Thx for every ones help so far
Vince.:happyfish
 
golfish

golfish

Active Member
go to a few loacl fish stores and see how these thing work. YOU HAVE TO SEE IT andor UNDERSTAND it before you can use it.
 
unknown

unknown

Member
Yes but would the side by side tank idea work with using two syphons work?? even thought the tanks area at different heights?? can you have a syphon go up???
Vince.:happyfish
 
sly

sly

Active Member
If you raised your shorter tank up to the height of the other tank it would work. A siphon will not go uphill so the water level of both tanks would have to be the same.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
You could try this. The water would siphon from the big tank into the middle box. Then water would spill out of the middle box into your smaller tank. You may need to raise or lower the middle box until it works right. It would work without leveling it, but your main tank volume may not stay full if your box is too low. the water would just siphon down until the levels are the same (the middle box and the large tank).
The overflow of the middle box could be a tube drilled into the side of it or it could be a plastic ledge that the water runs down, kind of like a water fall. If you go with the ledge, you could put some lights on it and use it as an algae scrubber, adding more filtration to your system.
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I made a small change to the middle box to show you that it wouldn't be completely full. It would only raise to the level to where it started to spill out the side tube.
Make sure that your side tube is a large diameter so that water can drain out of the middle box quickly and not cause the middle box to fill up to much because of restriction. If you use a ledge for the water to spill over, then make it wide enough so that the water doesn't spill over the sides.
[edit] you could probably use your HOB filter as the middle box. The spill over ledge would work great as an algae scrubber.
 
unknown

unknown

Member
What if i did this.
The HOB filter sucks from the main tank and I hav like maybe 1" or bigger cpvc drain into the smaller tank like so..
 
sly

sly

Active Member
It looks like it would work as long as you only have one pump in the cycle. You can't have a pump pulling water into your HOB filter and then another pump putting water back into the main tank from your smaller tank. You will have the same problem if you do. One tank will drain or fill up faster than the other.
What you need is one pump in the whole system that is in charge of water circulation. Water from the small tank is pumped into the big tank and as the big tank fills up, water spills into your HOB and then back into your small tank.
 
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