Is it possible to run 3 tanks on 1 canister

[crackatinny]

I am thinking of making a 3 15G tank breeding setup, tanks would be in a metal frame one on top of the other.

Is it possible to run 1 large canister filter for the 3, if so, how would you plumb it?, I am worried about getting a blockage and overflowing tanks.

[Dave66]

Its perfectly possible. I have 36 tanks on a canister the size of a rubbermaid trashcan. What you need is a line splitter for the outflow and on the inflow. The splitters plug into the tubes. You put hoses on the ends and route them to the desired tanks.
Obviously you need a fairly lusty canister filter to do it.
You can get the parts from aquaticeco.com. Just email them what you want to do, and they'll direct you to what you need. It's where I get all my aquarium plumbing supplies.

Dave

[crackatinny]

Thanks Dave, only prob with your source is I am in Australia, by a line splitter, do you mean like a Tpeice?

What is to stop one tank getting more water back through the return than the others, leading to a possible overflow?

[Lady Hobbs]

You might want to consider just sponge filters, crack, on breeding tanks or will have to cover the strainer with something so babies aren't getting sucked in.

[Dave66]

Not like a T-piece, like three fingers spread out. The tanks don't overflow for the same reason a canister on one tank doesn't; each tank's connection is porportional to the others. The line splitters are designed to keep things even.
You know, I was dead sure aquaticeco shipped to Oz. Knew you were an aussie.
Though my central system was readymade (came from a defunct LFS) the principal is quite simple. You just need the parts and a canister powerfull enough to run three tanks.

Dave

[salman]

Can you take a picture of your tank dave? I want to do the same thing crack wants to do. But i dont get what you mean by the line splitter. And do you get 3 tanks attached together or like a 45 gallon with 3 dividers?

[salman]

I think this is what we want crack, right?

2148

But how do we set that up?

[crackatinny]

No mine would be seperate tanks on top of each other.

To set up a canister in the one like you posted, I think it would only be a matter of putting the intake and outtake at oposate ends of the tank, which should cause a flow through the whole tank. I may be wrong, but it sounds logical lol,

[Lady Hobbs]

I just posted you but I think 3 on top of one another will leave the top tank too high. Fish might get air sick.

[crackatinny]

I just posted you but I think 3 on top of one another will leave the top tank too high. Fish might get air sink.

Air sink?

Please explain LOL

[Spyder]

How about using a wet/dry with the intakes used as overflows. Are the tanks acrylic?

[crackatinny]

How about using a wet/dry with the intakes used as overflows. Are the tanks acrylic?

The tanks are all glass, I already have the tanks, and thought it would be a good experiment to set up something like this.

[Lady Hobbs]

Air sink?

Please explain LOL

Air sick! LOL

[Chrona]

An overflow tube, not a regular intake tube, is required in each tank to prevent overspilling, as line splitters never split water evenly, particularly when the tubing/intake strainer starts to grow gunk. This applies for both the intake and the output tubing, so if the intake portion in one tank is a little clogged, the canister will pull out water from the other two tanks into the first tank unless you have an overflow setup. Water will flow in the loop with the least resistance. Even then, I would suggest attaching an in-line flow meter (pretty cheap) to see when a line starts to get plugged up (this reduces filtration in that particular tank obviously)

[Go Guppy]

An overflow tube, not a regular intake tube, is required in each tank to prevent overspilling, as line splitters never split water evenly, particularly when the tubing/intake strainer starts to grow gunk. This applies for both the intake and the output tubing, so if the intake portion in one tank is a little clogged, the canister will pull out water from the other two tanks into the first tank unless you have an overflow setup. Water will flow in the loop with the least resistance. Even then, I would suggest attaching an in-line flow meter (pretty cheap) to see when a line starts to get plugged up (this reduces filtration in that particular tank obviously)

G'day Cracka

I agree with Chrona above. A three tier aquarium setup with inlet header and outlet header tubes on the filter supplying the indivdual tanks may work for a year or even longer, as Dave66 has indicated, but it only takes one one suction hose to partially block up with gunk, as Chrona puts it, and you're likely to come home to the other two tanks drained onto the floor, ie overflowed from the third tank.

If you really want to try this, you will need a safety overflow tube in each tank that drains into a decent size container. This will hopefully provide a telltale drip if one of the suctions lines is starting to block up, or the suction strainer is partially blocked, by a leaf or such. This does mean though that you'll need to drill a hole in each tank floor.

A great concept, but I reckon it would not be worth the effort or the risk.

FYI, on industrial plants where they sometimes have a similar problem for other applications, they get around this by installing electronic high level and low level switches in tanks which trip (ie switch off) the pump. All this is expensive and would be far more expensive than buying additional filters for an aquarium.

Cheers