Tanks plumbed together

Alright, so I've been waivering back and forth on this idea for a while, but I think I found a practical solution to the main problem with it.

I wanted to do a refugium for my RSM250 for a while now. The problem is that the cabinet is stupidly designed, and only allows for relatively small standard-sized tanks. As you know, custom tanks can be pretty expensive.

I noticed that the BioCube 14 is perfect in terms of dimensions to fit in the RSM cabinet. Honestly, I think it's really weird that an AIO is the only commonly-available tank suitable to be a sump for another fairly common AIO, but that's neither here nor there.

I don't quite need a refugium anymore for nutrient export; I have that totally under control without one, to the point of <5 nitrates and 0 phosphates, mostly just from skimming, regular water changes and a GFO reactor.

Pods would be a nice bonus of having a separate tank (with the mandarin and all), but that's not my main reason for wanting another tank. I kinda want to keep some softies now, but I don't want to jeopardize my current tank to keep them (packed, and has some corals considered sensitive to allelopathy), and I have no room for another tank somewhere else in the house - except inside the RSM250 stand.

I would still put them on alternate lighting schedules because the pH benefit should still be realized even without macros. I currently get a small (0.1) swing from end of day to end of night, which I may as well lessen even more. I don't mind the alternate lighting schedule on a coral tank, as my schedule tends to be night owl-ish.

I drew up an idea for plumbing the systems together here. If anyone would be willing to take a look and give some feedback, that would be great.



I would plumb the GFO/Carbon on the return from the Biocube for 2 reasons. The first is to get rid of phosphates, which I don't care about being in the biocube, out of the water before it gets returned to the RSM, where I care a whole lot. The second reason is for carbon, which will also be run in the reactor, to prevent any of the chemicals released by the softies from going back to the RSM. I figure the flow rate through the carbon is probably about as much exchange as I want between the two tanks.

EDIT: BTW, I'm now an occelaris clownfish! SCORE! ;D

 

Looks solid, best of luck

 

Alright, that's one opinion that sounds good.

Just one thing I forgot: would the PC lighting on a stock BC be enough for softies?

 

a friend of mine has a BC14 and the stock PC lights do fine for her corals. SPS not so much, but mushrooms and GSP seem to grow fine in her tank.

the design looks alright. im concerned about power outage though. would the BC14 have enough empty volume to sustain the amount of water that will back siphon?

 

if this works for you im doing it on my rsm i asked the other night about this and now heres your post. a few questions though.
do you pump the water out and back with 2 pumps right how does it go trhough the lid of the biocube ive never really seen one also your saying it will fit in the cabinet ?

 

My first thought is your gonna have an issue trying to match the flow rates between the overflow and the GFO/Carbon reactor.
As the GFO/Carbon begins to collect detrius and other debris as well as a bit of a bio coating the flow will become restricted slightly thus requiring nearly daily adjusting to maintain the flow so the sump doesnt backup and overflow.

BJE also has a valid concern with the back siphon capacity during a power outage.

 

Yeah, the BC14 is one of the only things (that's not custom made, that is) that will fit in the RSM250 cabinet, which is why I'm even considering it.

It should be an overflow out of the RSM, and a pump back up to the tank

I'm not sure I follow about the GFO concern. Shouldn't the overflow pretty much just match the return rate?

As for back siphon capacity.....that might be the killer. I dunno what to do about that. I'd likely need 5+ gallons there, which would make the BC less available for corals.

 

I wouldn't put the GFO/Carbon between your fuge and DT because it will likely trap pods headed to your DT.

 

I guess it depends on the type of overflow he uses.
The way he drew it in the diagram it looks like a direct siphon plumbed directly to the sump/refugium that will continue to drain the main tank till the water level drops below the siphon inlet and breaks the siphon till manually restarted, unlike a level corrected overflow box which would arrest the overflow if the water level dropped below the rim due to the return not keeping up and then restart itself once the water level rose again.

In either case the GFO/Carbon in the middle presents a potential issue.

 

I was going to use an overflow box; that's why I said built on the diagram. I should have made that clearer though.

I was going to do it similar to the one on this thread (first post), except only using one line of the accessory kit instead of both.

I apologize, I'm still not seeing the issue with the gfo/carbon (beyond pods not getting through). I could always use the room in the back section of the biocube to run it instead of on the return, and just run a carbon bag on the end of the return line to avoid the chemical issues. I'd rather understand why I'd do that than just go for it, though.