Water bridge

[bronco300]

Hey there all...has anyone ever seen a bridge of tubing running from one tank to the other to connect them?? I was going to try it out on some small tanks i have, but then i ended up busting my freakin 10gal....so the test is out for now untill i can another small tank...but i looked up prices for clear PVC, and man does that get expensive when you want 2"+ in size....

any ideas of what someone else could use, or anything else youve seen like this?

 

[dogstar]

Are you talking about something big enough for fish to swim thru or just water to flow thru ??

 

[bronco300]

something for fish to go through....i saw on a different forum some guy who built a square one, i'm gonna see if he'll let me know how he did it....probably be cheaper if i could build it

 

[dogstar]

Well without details of tank sizes or end to corner, ect. or types of tanks, cant say but should go glass to glass or acrylic to acrylic if your not wanting to use huge bulkheads and pipe. But I dont know wher to get a large glass short ?? pipe from.
Cutting the holes could be tricky.

 

[bronco300]

no no dog, this is a bridge that runs above the tanks...you don't have to drive....this one guy on another forum built it for his tanks..and its actually square...so you basically make it into a U, then suck out the air, and boom...i'm wondering if i could make it out of a thicker plexiglass, itd be alot cheaper i think than acrylic sheets

 

[jakebtc]

I'd like to see this done Luke

 

[bronco300]

haha, well i'm gonna see if i cant try at least

 

[jakebtc]

I've seen those acrylic aquariums that come with huge like 4" or so tunnels built in between 2 main tank sections and was wondering how well it would work for animals to get through if they would even use it and how the flow would be and stuff
but this idea sounds very interesting

 

[jakebtc]

this is what im talking about but they are like 400$ for a 55 and I'm not even sure if fish and animals would use the tubes :thinking:

 

[dogstar]

Seaclear makes a double hex tank thats connected by a straight across bridge. Looks weird.
Seems like a lot of work for something that IMO the fish will not use it ( esp. an over the top U tube type ) but I really dont know. Good luck

 

[bronco300]

i would think itd be cool to do in the side of the tank, but thats so much money, and if i break my tank drilling id be pissed...i think theyd use it...maybe....ive seen pics of fish in em...who knows...no harm in trying

 

[ghiggi]

I did something similar to this while I was rebuilding my 40gal sump/fuge. I had a 10gal and a 25gal that I joined with a simple bridge I fashioned out of 2 2" PVC elbows and some pipe. I drilled a small hole in the top of one elbow and inserted a short length of airline tubing. I was using a powerhead as a temporary return pump and I connected the airline tubing to the aerator connector on the discharge side of the powerhead. This sucked all of the air out of the bridge.
It worked great the whole time I had it set up. I had my main tank overflowing into the 25gal where I had my macroalgae and the return pump and skimmer in the 10gal. The bridge connected the two and I never had a problem with the flow.
here's a sample picture:

 

[jakebtc]

so the powerhead was constantly running?

 

[my way]

I have seen this "Bridge" and my personal opinion it would be a total wast of money. I have biult a tank that was two tanks connected by two acrylic tubes and nothing would go into them other than an octopus. Also should for some reason it broke syphon it would make a hell of a mess.

 

[my way]

Originally Posted by ghiggi
I did something similar to this while I was rebuilding my 40gal sump/fuge. I had a 10gal and a 25gal that I joined with a simple bridge I fashioned out of 2 2" PVC elbows and some pipe. I drilled a small hole in the top of one elbow and inserted a short length of airline tubing. I was using a powerhead as a temporary return pump and I connected the airline tubing to the aerator connector on the discharge side of the powerhead. This sucked all of the air out of the bridge.
It worked great the whole time I had it set up. I had my main tank overflowing into the 25gal where I had my macroalgae and the return pump and skimmer in the 10gal. The bridge connected the two and I never had a problem with the flow.
here's a sample picture:

I have the same system between a 10 Fuge and a 30 DT.

 

[ghiggi]

Originally Posted by jakebtc
so the powerhead was constantly running?
Yes. This was just a temporary setup while I was redoing my normal overflow/return system to my 40gal fuge/sump. The powerhead didn't provide nearly the turnover as my regular system, but I figured something was better than nothing. And it was easier to build the bridge than it was to try and put a baffle system in my 25gal to keep the macroalgae from getting sucked into the powerhead intakes. Plus I was able to add the extra 10gal to my volume.

 

[phixer]

Have you ever seen something like this used by fish? I wonder if the fish would use it or feel unnatural going thru it because it goes over the water line? Im sure they would use a tunnel.

 

[my way]

Unless they smelled food coming from it, I doubt if they would use it. From experience and my opinion.