Converting diy tote fuge to glass display

Hey all! The title is semi-misleading. LOL For now anyway.;D
But this project is in the planning and will be complete before summer comes.
My remote fuge is currently a plastic tote in a cabinet with doors so it was kept from view. Well the itch to build has come again so I planned on building a 30g H.Fuscus tank for the living room. The other night I decided I'd rather combine both and in essence have more volume for my reef, have my fuge AND have my ponies.;D Psstt..don't tell my wife but it doesn't end there..the last link in the chain will be a 65 gallon fowlr predator tank that will sit to the left of the fuge/sh tank. The end result will be 3 displays that 'flow' along two walls of my dining room.
Anyway getting ahead of myself...
I've never tied tanks together and since this is in the planning want to take the opportunity to let you all have a look at my flow chart and give some input. This flow isn't final unless opinions lean towards 'it's a good one';D

 

Ok, I have a few thoughts and I want to start by saying I'm in no way trying to discourage you.
1. the predator tank and the seahorses need 2 different environments, the predators are typically messy causing heavy bio load requirements which will affect the ponies negatively.

2. your plan is way too complicated requiring at least 3 different pumps to work together well enough to not leave one sucking air while another restricts the flow causing a backup and possible flood.

3. the seahorses will want a slow, gentle flow like a fuge, not a 30x+ turnover rate.

If you can find a way to solve these issues and a few I'm not considering at the moment I'm sure, then this could be a great project.

good luck, I'll be watching to see how it goes

 

Why would he need 3 different pumps? Wouldn't it be a better idea to have one large pump split 3 ways each with a ball valve to adjust the return? Then the overflows from each will supply the one pump. I tossed around the idea about have m fuge be a display with horses but I was informed that horses tend to need cooler water then most reef tanks are. I could be wrong though. Either way it sounds like a great idea(if the wife allows it).

edit: Excelent paint drawing btw...I woulda got frustrated and gave up long before I got that far lol.

 

Thank you Telgar and MalacOda13 for your input. I didn't like using three pumps either but I have them on hand and was hoping to do this fairly cheap. The pair of H. Fuscus will be $200 alone after shipping. lol Ah well on to plan B.
BTW this will be a macro tank as well and have some rock I made in it. Yes I know to leach the rock in freshwater . I'll need to build up the pod pop. before the ponies go in and it may not be til this time next year before that happens.
To respond to the predator tank part Telgar: yeah I know how messy they are so that tank most likely won't be truely linked to the rest of the system. To the flow part: right now flow in my fuge is less than 10x turn over. That's what gave me the idea of just linking in the seahorse tank. Macro's to reduce nutrients, food farm for my fish, a pair of amazing animals..life couldn't get better for me if I can make it work. Trust me if I'm not comfortable with the conditions in the fuge I will not murder two beautiful creatures for my short lived pleasure. I'll just have an expensive fuge LOL
To the water temp. by malacOda13: H. Fuscus comes from water in the 72-77 range and I keep my system at 76.5 +/- .3* I don't do anything without deeeep research.
*edit* TYVM for the compliment..using paint sux but my recovery drive is failing so MS Vista won't let me install google sketch or any drawing software. I have a cool gremlin flippin the bird I drew saved but don't think I can post it here LOL

 

I hate to say it but I knew it would be a problem I don't want. I have the pumps on hand and am trying to keep costs down but again this is reefing and nothing is cheap *sigh*
So flow chart 2 shows using one pump that I'll have to buy. The problem I'm having with this is that I don't think my skimmer is going to have enough flow to operate efficiently. It's to big to fit in the stand so will be hidden inside/behind some artificial ferns in a basket and sit between the DT stand and Fuge stand. Also because of limited space I can't use a reef-flo or gen-x type pump so I'm limited to submersibles.

 

You know after thinking about it you could prolly get away with using two pumps if you put both in the same return area(I think). I just figured it would be easier to use one and "T" it. I could be wrong though as it is kinda early and I feel like have medicine head(I hate being sick). BTW I wish I could keep my water close to that temp lol. I start to panic everytime my water gets to 80. Thank god it doesn't go any higher.

Sent from my T-Mobile G1 using Tapatalk

 

I'm curious to see how warm the tank gets as we roll through summer. If it starts to climb I have plans for a DIY chiller lol.