# More tanks with more efficient setup?



## Navthrfez Platy (Feb 21, 2011)

Allo Folks,

Anyone have any exp. using alt. power sources other than household utility electric, like solar or wind generator setups. I want more tanks (lol who doesn't..right?), but my roommate is not happy with the idea of a higher electric bill. 

I am also trying to sift through thousands :shock: of posts already here to find out how, if possible, to link up multiple small tanks (5-10gal) to one pump/filter source. Is this done with a sump system? does anyone know of any good links giving a detailed "DIY" step-by-step example of this or other types of systems that would achieve this.


really appreciate this site and all you other fish nuts!!!

-WYRD n Thanx


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

Sorry I don't know of any detailed plans. Your idea goes with a post I had about insulating any unviewed tank sides, back, and the underside to lower heating costs (slightly). I apologize if I'm stating what you have already considered . It's a neat idea!
Most commercial systems I have peeked at have pressurized water supply output to each tank coupled with an overflow system. A DIY system, especially if you want energy-efficiency, probably would need to use a siphon system between tanks with a final overflow into a sump at one end of the system. How are you planning on filtering? A large wet/dry? If you have different size tanks, you'll possibly have water current issues if there is a constant flow through all tanks in a series. High flow in small tanks, low flow in the larger ones. You'll have an increase in heat loss (through the added plumbing) so if you live in a colder area, you'll want to insulate the hoses. You still may end up running the heater(s) more since the smaller tanks have more surface area/volume for heat loss and your linked larger tanks will tend to cool more rapidly than if they were not linked together.

The only significant downsides I see, other than possible "spaghetti" plumbing all over the room!(!) is the same problem modern fish stores (recirculating water) have versus the old mom and pop pet shops (individual tanks). ALL the water is shared and if any disease gets introduced, you could spend more on medicating all that water than you'd spend on electricity. The other major worry is a clog in the system, depending on how you design it, could flood your room. 

A gas generator would cost you a fortune to run. I'd bet it would take a long time to break even on electricity costs with the purchase cost of a solar panel or wind turbine.

Welcome to the forum!


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

Wind turbines can be quite easily DIYed to provide power. Its just not a ton of power, but there are lots of step by steps or examples if you google search the turbine can be made quite cheaply. Thing with all solar panals, turbines, ect is they provide irregular DC current, where as all our equipment for tanks needs constant AC power. You need more then just a turbine to get usable power usually. Its the turbine, then a current regulator is in the system somewhere. Anyway your solar panals/ turbine charge a battery. Most things you look at they use car or boat batteries I forget. Then attached to the battery is a DC to AC converter. So you get AC power to run whatever you can run. 

For filtering multiple small tanks that is fairly simple. Easiest way is a BIG airpump. How big depends on how many tanks. Anyway you use air tubing and control valves to run a branching airline to the tanks. Usually one or two airlines to a tank. These are used to drive sponge filters. This would be more efficent since air pumps consume less power then most filter pumps and cheaper and more easy to modify.

However the biggest power consumption is the mostly the heaters and then the lights. For small tanks have you made sure you are running florescents in all tanks?


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## Navthrfez Platy (Feb 21, 2011)

Much Thanks to both of u. I figgered the solar/wind thing might not be what i was looking for, but the large sump and "BIG" pump might be right down my alley.

-WYRD n Thanx


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## zof (Apr 23, 2010)

+1 to both the above posts, in my opinion its kind of silly to try and do some sort of solar or wind powered system, these are an investment meant to be recouped over 5-10 years. Smaller then ones meant for houses just wont generate enough power to be worth the DC to AC converters and the effort you put in installing them. A more reasonable solution would be to offer your roommate to pay 60-70% of the electric bill.

The one big sump hooked up to multiple tanks is your best bet at efficiency but like posted above comes with the risk of having all your fish exposed to the same water.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

If you decide on the air pump route, realize Mikaila31 was not referring to the typical diaphragm pumps. She's talking about the big magnetic piston pumps ($60+). They are the modern replacement for the old belt-drive piston pumps, and I think the belt drives have long disappeared now - they were "high-tech" in the 1980's. I had an old one supplying all the undergravel filters in my aquarium service business then ([email protected] gallons and a 29g). I had air to spare.

Neat thing is you can locate the pump in another room or closet to minimize noise. Just buy a spool of air line tubing. This system, be it sponge or undergravel, is by far the easiest to set up (not interconnecting each tank's water supply).


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## Navthrfez Platy (Feb 21, 2011)

kewl deal, thanks for the input


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

if you got the time, aquabirdge the tanks together and then run 1 canister or sump, draw water from the last tank, return it into the fist tank... Just will take a lot of time.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

That is a very cool idea and would be visually appealing. It's a more decorative version of what you proposed.
Aqua-Bridge


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## Navthrfez Platy (Feb 21, 2011)

That is WAY KEWL!!! Thanks guys n gals


-WYRD n Latre


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

DKRST said:


> That is a very cool idea and would be visually appealing. It's a more decorative version of what you proposed.
> Aqua-Bridge


You might want to DIY this, it doesn't look like the aqua-bridge is for sale anymore? The web site doesn't seem to work, but you can try emailing them I suppose. Should be easy enough to build out of sheet plexiglass and the proper solvent (not silicone), assuming you have access to a table saw or equivalent! I guess you get water into the aqua-bridge by removing the air from the system, pulling the water up into the bridge? :-?

Here is a DIY setup that looks easier to put together:
http://www.bio-elite.com/waterbridge.htm
This looks very easy to do!


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

an aqua bridge can be made with clear pvc piping, 2 pvc pipe joints, and a bracket to lock it to the tank. The hardest part is probably finding clear pvc pipes, everything else is basic drilling holes, screwing things together, and using epoxy or weld-on. No need to cut plexi to exact sizes and things like that. It's just a lot of time that needs to be dedicated to testing it and patience waiting for the bonding agent to cure.


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## GraphicGr8s (Feb 22, 2011)

Here's a link for home made bridge.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forum...56-Three-aquariums-connected-via-fish-bridges


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

dang, that link features a really good setup. Nice find.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

The only thing to remember is that you aren't ever going to find clear "PVC". Those clear tubes are made of acrylic ("plexiglass"). It looks like the cool DIY setups linked by GraphicGr8s use silicone to seal the acrylic tubes to PVC connections. Silicone does not bond with acrylic, you have to use an adhesive/glue designed for acrylic. The silicone will help make a waterproof seal, but does not add much structural/bonding strength to the joint. The Weld-on mentioned is good stuff and pretty cheap on Amazon.com

Still think the link I posted has a more finished look (scroll down the linked page for picts), and it's DIY also.

You can find acrylic tubing lots of places. www.tapplastics.com has the tubing up to 6" diameter and 6' in length for about $95. It's not cheap.


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

um, Clear PVC Pipe and Fittings - Alsco Industrial Products


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

SinCrisis said:


> um, Clear PVC Pipe and Fittings - Alsco Industrial Products


OOPS! Goes without saying - absolute statements have a way of biting me in the "dorsal fin"
My apologies, thanks for the correction of my error 

With SinCrisis' link showing the options, the structures that could be made boggle the mind!


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## GraphicGr8s (Feb 22, 2011)

SinCrisis said:


> um, Clear PVC Pipe and Fittings - Alsco Industrial Products


Beat me to it.


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

pvc and acrylic are both plastics, clear pvc isn't true clear PVC, its tinted. If you need glass level clearness, then you need to buy the tubes as DKRST says.


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## DKRST (Jan 11, 2011)

GraphicGr8s said:


> Beat me to it.


SinCrisis - Thanks for the PVC/acrylic clarification, I still should have fact-checked more carefully!


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## Navthrfez Platy (Feb 21, 2011)

you guys are really great and so very help.... thanks everybody!!!!

-WYRD n latre


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

IMO that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Just be aware if you ever loose suction in the bridge you will have one tank drained and the other tank overfilled till your filter is sucking air.....

More surface area also means more heat loss... so is it really being efficient?


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Well its probably more efficient than running 3 filters, and 3 heaters. 2 heaters and 1 filter would be adequate for a system like this. In terms of suction, assuming the tanks are all the same height, the water level will be even through all 3, just make sure you top the tank off regularly. If you need to go on vacation or something, then consider getting a lid(assuming you dont have one arleady) or add a segment of tubing to entrance and exit sections of the bridge so the suction remains intact even if the water level falls.

If you have the time, there are also water level checkers that you can buy that will auto shutoff your system if the water drops below a certain level. Its more work, but consumes less power overall.


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

I'm still not following it though. If you cut a heater out of the equation does that really save more power? It would also be much easier to run all the tanks off one airpump that consumes a few watts. The heaters heat the water and heat it to a set temperature. Removing a heater IMO may save you more power, but it also may not make any difference. What you had was 3 heaters that were on some of the time, now you have 2 heaters that are on more to heat the tank the same. What it really comes down too is how much energy does it take to heat the tank, because I don't think it will change just because you removed a heater. Just like if you had 2 heaters in a 55 gallon, they would run less often then one heater, but since the run time is split between the two your still consuming pretty much the same power. The biggest factor with heaters and overall energy consumption for the tank is how much are you heating it and how much heat loss is there. Even if you exchange a 300 watt for a 200 watt heater the 200 watt is going to be running longer, but will be consuming less energy when it does. I personally don't think you will see a difference in energy consumption. The heater is only using power when the indicator is on.

Again the heater is you biggest consumer in a tank, even in a high tech tank. Aquariums though do not really consume that much power. In a year's time my worst one consumes $100 in electricity, and that is with the heater keeping the tank at least 15 degrees above room temperature in the winter. My 15 gallon that runs 3 WPG costs about $43 a year, but probably less since its in my closet and sees less heat loss then most of my tanks. Still even with 3WPG on 10 hours a day my heater being on 8 hours a day makes up 55% of that $43 energy cost.


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Hmm Mikaila makes a good point, in 5-10g setups, airpump filters would work well and you can run 3 off one pump, so its like consuming the power of 1 and the heaters would run longer since they need to heat the same volume of water anyway. 

However, in 3 10g tanks heat loss is not terrible your heaters may not actually have to run as hard, for example, using a jager heater, the smallest wattage is 50w, for 10-30g aquariums. In 3 tanks, your heat source would be 3x 50w heaters. However, in 3 10g setups, you would only get 2 50w heaters. The flow of water should even out the temprature differences. You might even be able to get away with only 1 50w heater. Although 3x heaters would run for less times and consume less power, whereas 2 heaters will run for longer, the overall power used will still be less since all heaters still use power even when not actively heating. The actually amount of power saved is probably negligible, but anything short of hooking a system up to wind power or something, more tanks will always take more power.


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

If one honestly wishes to save in energy costs it is much more about being efficient then anything. Use the AC less, it saves you power with the AC and with heating the tanks. Insulate the aquariums and if possible find an external heat source to set them near. Like you heater in the winter or simply away from the AC.


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

But if i turn the AC down it will be hot...jk.

+1, I turn my heater off and ac down in the summer, saves me several months worth of heating costs.


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