Plumbing two tanks into the same sump

Anyone have two tanks plumbed into a sump with the primary display tank being drilled and the secondary tank using a HOB overflow? Im considering setting up a 20gal tank I have next to my 75gal tank and piping off a feed from the return pump on the 75gal.

Just curious if theres anything I should be weary of. I figure its the same as having a single tank and I just have to make sure that during a power outage my sump can handle the water that will siphon from the primary and secondary displays.

I figure im asking for a flood by doing this. Im not sure how I feel about using the HOB overflow.

 

just as you said, just be careful with the backflow...

it will still work the same way, make sure your pump has enough head pressure to push that much water to 2 diff locations.

 

Ill be potentially using an external pump capable of 1325GPH @ 1' head. I have 3' of head to the 75gal DT and estimated 2.5' to the 20gal. There will be one of these manifolds off of the top of the pump:


And then I will also have a carbon/phos reactor off of the manifold.

 

hmm, thats a lot of water movement. do you already have this pump? is it internal or external... better yet, what kind and model pump do you have?

 

I ran almost the exact set-up you're talking about for awhile. I agree, the only thing to look out for is sump volume in the case of a power out. Be sure to put ball valves in each line to the separate tanks so you can dial back flow individually.

 

Little Giant 4-MDQX-SC

how'd you like it?

 

Loved it! I will never set up another tank again without plumbing it into the reef. The reef is so mature and I'm so used to monitoring it that the new tank quickly fell into the system and was immediately a well matured tank. It also adds water volume, surface area, more cooling and diversity to your original system. try to do something completely different with that tank to help make your eco-system more complete. Your making me want to get mine running again

 

The 75gal is a mixed-reef in progress, and the 20gal was going to be a mantis tank with alot of planted macros.

 

Ill use a CPR CS50 Overflow Box for this. The overflow I have now is the kind that uses a siphon tube and I dont like priming it.

 

I use CPR overflow and love it