wet/dry filter sharing

[mrairportjunke]

hey i have been reading stuff online about people sharing a wet/dry filter between 2 tanks.  Well that is cool.  but how would you do that?  Im not very smart when it comes to plumbing and stuff like that.  How could you hook that up to work.  Second how could you make it work safely enough to have in a house?  How would you keep one tank from over filling or one tank from over filling and the other from pumping dry,.  stuff like that.  Id love to have a wet/dry and share it between a couple tanks. i found an article a guy wrote when i was lookin up what kinda fish a Lamp. Calvus was and this guy said he had a 110 and a 75 sharing a wet/dry.  http://www.wetdryfilter.com/freshwater_aquariums.htm

and second thing,  how exactly does the overflow box built in work? what if you water level goes below the top of it where it flows in?  i never really study one before and was wondering. i know lots of questions. but i would like to konw.  maybe id convert my 110 to a wet/dry one day.  hell, that be awesome if i oculd convert my 29 and hopefully soon to be 29 or 37 that will sit side by side with a cabinet underneath the 2 to a wetdry system.  drill the bottoms and put the pipe right through to the cabinet underneath for a clean no pipe, hose, heater all that crap look.

this guy is in houston and has everything.  evan the bits to cut the glass. but if my glass is tempered i dont think oyu can cut that.

[wvgdiscus]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

Its not hard at all to have more then one tank on a wet/dry.
All you have to remember is have a larger pipe leaving the tank the the inlet pipe. With this you can not put more water in the tank then what will come out.
For flow u use shut off valves to control which tank you wont more water to.
Do a google seach on Durso Standpipes for the return pipe of the tank.

To drill a glass tank you will need a diamond bit hole saw. Use plumbers pudding to form a ring around the hole saw with water in it. The water is to keep the gless cool & to keep the fine glass out of the hole being drilled. You will need to drill slowly to.


If you decide to do this I can help you out with it.

[Spot86t]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

Shared filters are just fine so long as one tank doesn't come down with some disease.  Otherwise you share the disease with the common filter.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

yea i though about that. but im thinkin about doing it for 2 29g's so that wouldnt be bad.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

so the water out of the tank, does it just free flow or the pump sucks it out.  i dont have any expercience with wetdry. im researchin though.  i know the pump pumps it back in the tank but if i have a larger pipe out what happens if the electricity goes out, does the sump flood and flood the house or how you stop that?

[Spot86t]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

The water leaves your tank by either 1) overflowing into an overflow box and out a hole in the bottom of the tank, 2) through a hole in one of the tank walls placed at the height where you intend to maintain the water level, or 3) via a pipe attached to a bulkhead in the bottom of the tank.  

From here it basically falls into a wetdry filter, or (in my case) to a pump.  After filtration in the wet/dry, the water is pumped back up and into the tank.  In my case, the pump pushes it through a large canister filter (pond filter) and then back up into the tank.  

The wet/dry filter is never completely filled.  This way if for some reason the pump stops, the water will overflow until it gets below the overflow box or bulkhead.  The wet/dry much have enough extra empty space to contain this water.  

To run 2 tanks you need an overflow in each tank to the sump, and 2 pumps - 1 for each tank.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

You could have a hole drilled up top on the back with a pvc elbow and that will serve as an overflow.
You can have a hang on back overflow box which will serve as an overflow.
Drilled with in-tank overflow.

I would go with two seperate wet/dry filters for two seperate tanks, the only way I would combine the two if one is a nursery tank to a breeder tank.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

im gonna have to go look at that big tank on the left at mikes i guess to really understand how the whole thing works.  i understand the side drill hole, and that. but i dont understand the hole drilled in the bottom.  the hole in the botttom, is that where they put a pipe up in the middle of the tank and the water drains into like a drain hole. i see that now too actually if that how it works cause then you could adjust how much water can drain out durin poweroutage or not.

[wvgdiscus]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

Thats is the reason they came up with the Durso Standpipes. It allows the hole to be drilled in the bottom with only minimum water loss durning power outages besides it stays very quiet.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

nice.  im gonna have to look at a setup one time.  id like to set my tanks up on a wetdry and a couple on the same one.  i agree with you about the disease on the other post that i just saw abuot 2 wetdrys,  disease shouldnt be a problem if your doin things good.  i occassionally have a scare, like thinkin one has fin rot or something. but turned out only thing was he got beat up.  and another scare i had was a bump on my severum.  turned out to be a welp or something from her hittin her head on a rock or something.  only disease problems i had was when i bought fish and didnt QT them.  learnt me a good lesson.  lol

[eklikewhoa]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

I think the main reason behind the durso was the noise reduction.....raises the water height in the in tank overflows so that the water drops less and it goes up into the tube from there.

The drain is limited to the height of the grates on the overflow box or in tank overflow itself.

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

yeah.  i was readin that the wetdry has a high evaporation problem. could that be controled by covering the top of the wetdry or i guess that would be a good thing the evaporation cause helps keep fresh water all the time.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

Leaving the wet/dry open helps provide more fresh air for the beneficial bacteria.....

[mrairportjunke]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

yeah where yall buy yalls wet dry?  what brand. anyone know this guy??

http://www.wetdryfilter.com/WetDry%20Filters%20and%20Sumps.htm

[eklikewhoa]

Re: wet/dry filter sharing

That looks homemade and for that price you can go buy a nice acrylic one.