Linking two tanks!

[myenigmaself]

This company has clear PVC tubing (not pipes) up to 3" diameter:
http/www.abbeyextrusions.com/index1.htm

Note that with this flexible approach you could do either the bridge or cut through the glass if you could find bulkheads.

You might want to check them out. They're located in England. That's the best I've got. Good luck to you! Keep us posted.

 

[MrMashashin]

use a diamond if you can find one.

Or use a Diamond Cutter (i think thats their name) It's like a little thingy thats soooooo sharp on the end of a little hammerlike thingy. You cut the hole and tap it with little force and pop out goes the part you cut

 

[ChrisH]

OK - So I am half way towards the set up I am after!

I wanted to also do some tests with only using one Filter (Rena XP) to filter both tanks and see if a water bridge would return the water quick enough! Using two 19mm tubes in place of the bridge both tanks stay nice and level! Will post some pictures later if anyone is interested!

Chris

 

[ChrisH]

Just a quick picture to show the layout of my two tanks and the pipe that I am using to return the water between the tanks.. Hopefully this piping should be replaced by a water bridge soon!

 

[The-Wolf]

dose it work?
Keep us posted chris.
I am very interested in your outcome

 

[ChrisH]

Hi Danio2004!

I am glad that my playing is of interest to someone! The following diagram shows more thouroughly what I am doing:

And yes it works! Obviously as the water gets higher in one tank, the presure increases to keep the two tanks level so there is approximately 10mm difference in height between the two tanks (The small tank being higher). I anticipate that with a bridge taking a higher volume of water that this difference will get smaller.

At the moment I have the two 19mm pipes as the syphon (which gives a total area of 566mm squared). Even if I build the bridge out of 40mm waster pipe this will give a much larger area (1256.6mm squared).

Will keep you informed!

Chris

 

[myenigmaself]

Hey Chris, that looks awesome. I should be getting my PVC tomorrow, which will give me a total area of 2.62544e+06mm sqr. I'll post pics of before, durring, and after. What exactly are you going to build your water bridge out of? Do you have any concrete plans?

 

[ChrisH]

Hey!

Well I have now discovered that my Neon Tetras are more than happy to swim back and fourth through the 19mm pipes.. Which was a bit of a surprise! Particularily when they had to pull some netting off the pipe to get into it!!

Therefore as I am on such a tight budget, as a student (and have blown most of the budget that I did have on the Reana XP3 filter!), I am going for the cheapest option - I am going to build my first bridge out of 40mm waste pipe. The plan is to cut 'windows' in the top of the pipe as it is white and silicone clear plastic over the top of the holes that I have cut in the pipe. This will allow me to visually see that there is water in the pipe and see that it isn't blocked! Where the pipe enters the tank I will use 45 degree bends to enter the water, and have also got some end caps so that I can fill the pipe with water and then invert it.

I think that most of my fish should fit through the 40mm pipe as they are all fairly small - The initial plan was to make the connection big enough that the smaller fish could have there own hiding place! If it doesn;t look big enough I will look to makeing it bigger in the future!

I will post a diagram tomorrow! And maybe even some photos depending upon how far I get!

Chris

 

[myenigmaself]

Hello hello! I've started my Water Bridge Project. Check it out!!

 

[The-Wolf]

thats great chris keep the updates comming

 

[Popeye]

Buy yourself a water bubble lamp from Argos and chop it up. It consists of a lovely thick hard clear plastic pipe about 3 and half inches diametre. Use an 'idiot proof' mitre saw which you can pick up for £15.00 (Argos, B&Q etc).

The lamps cost about £40.00 each now and are over 5ft high. They were £80.00 when I bought mine a few years ago! There's a bonus. They come with a very powerful external air pump. Cheap unnamed Chinese make. But I can assure you more powerful and every bit as reliable as a Rena 400. If you look at it like that the pipe is free!

 

[ChrisH]

Just thought I would appologies for no updates for a little while, I am in the process of planting out each tank etc, so that both tanks are ready when I put in the water bridge! Will keep you all posted!

Chris

 

[Aquascaper]

1
2
I don't know if either of these companies could help? Might be pricey though

 

[ChrisH]

Buy yourself a water bubble lamp from Argos and chop it up. It consists of a lovely thick hard clear plastic pipe about 3 and half inches diametre. Use an 'idiot proof' mitre saw which you can pick up for £15.00 (Argos, B&Q etc).

The lamps cost about £40.00 each now and are over 5ft high. They were £80.00 when I bought mine a few years ago! There's a bonus. They come with a very powerful external air pump. Cheap unnamed Chinese make. But I can assure you more powerful and every bit as reliable as a Rena 400. If you look at it like that the pipe is free!

Buy yourself a water bubble lamp from Argos and chop it up. It consists of a lovely thick hard clear plastic pipe about 3 and half inches diametre. Use an 'idiot proof' mitre saw which you can pick up for £15.00 (Argos, B&Q etc).

The lamps cost about £40.00 each now and are over 5ft high. They were £80.00 when I bought mine a few years ago! There's a bonus. They come with a very powerful external air pump. Cheap unnamed Chinese make. But I can assure you more powerful and every bit as reliable as a Rena 400. If you look at it like that the pipe is free!

That my friend was a genious Idea! I gave up trying to buy clear plastic pipe and a couple of days ago one of my air pumps decided to pack up.. So I went to 'Index' and for £19.99 bought a 70cm bubble lamp. I had a £1.99 hack saw from B&Q and chopped the pipe of cleanly. I found the pipe to be 69mm in diameter, and so the closest bends I could get were 68mm Drainpipe. With a bit of work, and a quantity of aquarium silicone I managed to achieve a waterproof seal.

The air pump is working perfectly - about the equivalent of my other rena 100 - just got to find something cool to do with the stepper motor and lamp!

The bridge finally got put into place last night, after having left the silicon to cure. I hadn;t really thought too deeply into how I was going to block the ends of the pipe to fill the bridge with water, but I found a much more efficient solution. I simply put the bridge into place and pushed a piece of air line into the bridge so that the end was at the highest point of the bridge. A quick suck on the pipe, and the water was pulled into and filled the bridge! Much easier than expected.

At about 9pm last night - 2 of my drarf gourami swam through to explore the other side, and I woke up to find two of my clown loaches in the other tank this morning! They don;t appear to have swum back yet though!!

I will post some pictures when I get home this evening!

Chris

 

[ChrisH]

Ok I promised I would take some pics when I got home! What do you think of my tank set up so far? Link to fish pictures