Hi guys. I want to plumb another tank to my existing setup. My question is would the extra water volume effect my current livestock, or do i need to aclimate them in a way? Or will it just be the same as a big water change? I currently have a 4ft tank and i want to add another 4ft.
Adding another system advice
- Thread starter kbyclown
- Start date
As long as the temp and salinity is the same it should not be a problem. It would be like a 50% water change. Just make sure your new hardware will handle the new load. Skimmer etc.
Done this in a couple of setups. Last one was a drilled TL550 that I connected up to my main system. Lang time ago I had a 5 foot and 4 foot running of the same sump.
Biggest problem is if your sump can handle the extra water when the power goes out. As mentioned above.
If you are worried to acclimatize your current fish, then you can T off the new system return and only pump up to the new tank 50% or less water on the return. So that it will take much longer to have all the water distributed evenly everywhere. That is just for the startup, day one only.
My current system I got one "main" sump. Lowest collection point. I got my main system draining there. Plus a 550L refugium. A 220L drum full of liverock. Another 220L drum that is the water changing drum. And I got my fragtank draining to a remote DSB that eventually drain into the same common low point. Yeah, I got 5 drain lines. Sump worked out just right when the power goes out.
Biggest problem is if your sump can handle the extra water when the power goes out. As mentioned above.
If you are worried to acclimatize your current fish, then you can T off the new system return and only pump up to the new tank 50% or less water on the return. So that it will take much longer to have all the water distributed evenly everywhere. That is just for the startup, day one only.
My current system I got one "main" sump. Lowest collection point. I got my main system draining there. Plus a 550L refugium. A 220L drum full of liverock. Another 220L drum that is the water changing drum. And I got my fragtank draining to a remote DSB that eventually drain into the same common low point. Yeah, I got 5 drain lines. Sump worked out just right when the power goes out.
Thank you very much I completely forgot about the extra water during the power outage. Ill see how much water my current sump can handel and if its not sufficient ill do an upgrade on it aswell.
Do you guys think i can add a valve to the the inlet of the new tank to restrict the flow to help with acclimation. Just to control it better and open it more and more as time goes by
Do you guys think i can add a valve to the the inlet of the new tank to restrict the flow to help with acclimation. Just to control it better and open it more and more as time goes by
I did something every similar a while back. I had an existing 4ft 400L system and added a 400L cube. All I did was plumb the additional return (from tank to sump) lines into the sump and T-ed off my return line to go to both tanks with a valve on each. The DC return just got a 50% increase in output, and everything is sorted. I pre-heated and confirmed the salinity before opening the valve to the second ( addon) system but everything worked perfectly. Luckily in my case the new tank is plumbed to have almost zero back flow.