Two stage DT/fuge idea

[williej]

I am new to the site and to salt, but not to aquariums and let me say thank you for the forum. I am almost done cycling my 55g and have learned SOOOOOO much. Last night I was explaining to my wife the sump/fuge I plan to build when she asked if it cuold be put out in the open to use for display. I showed her a pic of the plumbing involved and she said "Oh, never mind.". But I started thinking at work today, could I set up my sump as usual, but instead of pumping directly back into my 55 divert some or all of my return water (depending on flow needs) into a smaller (10-29) tank set slightly higher than my main DT and let it overflow back into the 55g?
The advantages I see would be:
1. more volume with a 10g sump/fuge and 10g aux it would be 75
2. biodiversity Can't be a bad thing, can it?
3. more options for critters
If it were set up as a coral tank, I wouldn't have to worry about fish eating them. I could also use it as a species specific tank if I wanted seahorses or octopi.
Are there any situations where I might want it to flow the other way, from the FOWLR tank into the aux tank?
Are there any problems that I have not thought of?
Thanks again for all the info and any input I get on this. I think I already know more than the punk at the LFS who told me to float new fish to acclimate them. Luckily I have learned about drip acclimation and QTs.
Thanx, Willie.

 

[turningtim]

Not sure i understand but. The problem with "strapping" to tanks together is always the issue of disease and parasites. You can always place a tank next to the DT and make it a display fuge. 1 pipe in and one out.

 

[williej]

Would this require a powerhead to circulate water? I understand that the two tanks would be linked (for good or bad) and was thinking that the fast turnover in the smaller tank would be a good thing if one was going to make it a coral tank.
Thanx, Willie.

 

[turningtim]

That would depend on how much flow we're talking. Remember that getting the water in is only half the battle. You will have to have an OF system in the 10 to accommodate that much flow. Example in my 55 reef in had about 15x turn over from my sump return. I can't imagine trying to get 900gph through a 10 gallon. The OF would have been 1/3 of the tank.
Also your are going to add head pressure to the return from your sump b/c its higher vertically.
Now you could place the smaller tank next to but a tad higher and drill the 10 for a bulkhead and just have a pipe drain into the 55. You could split the return and valve them to adjust flow. Drilling a 10 gallon is pretty easy with just a dremel tool.

 

[williej]

That is kinda what I meant. I figured I would have to split the flow or it would be kinda nutz. Is there any reason that I couldn't set it up as a coral or single species tank? Would I be better off to make it flow the other way? Siphon out of the aux tank and put an overflow box in the 55 and let them dump into the same sump.
Thanx again, Willie.