Connecting 2 Nano Tanks, Thoughts?

Hello friends,

So as the title suggests, I plan on creating a water bridge between two nano tanks and yes I've already done some research and seen some people do it with success but I have yet to come across people who's done the exact same thing but on two tiny tanks, specifically, a 1 gallon and a 2.5 gallon. I doubt it'd be any different but I wanted to get you guys' thoughts on it. The reason why I'm doing this is because I recently upgraded from a 20 gallon community tank and a 13 gallon betta tank to a 95 gallon cichlid tank (along with some other fish) and I miss keeping a betta. I can't set up my 13 gallon again though because my father said he'd break the tank or fry up my fish if I were to do that. He's just kidding....I hope...

ANYWAYS, I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but will connecting a 1 gallon and a 2.5 gallon total the water to 3.5 gallons or will I have to treat each tank separately? It's just that I wanted to get at least a 5 gallon cube tank for my betta but being in university, money's a little tight and the cheapest 5 gallon cube I can find was $100. I figured combining the tank will help maintain the water parameters and if I make the bridge big enough, the betta will be able to move back and forth too! Will I have to get a separate filter and heater for the other tank though or will the one filter and heater on one nano tank be enough to sustain both? I can try to maybe pull some DIY magic for the filter so that the water flows to both tanks but not sure about the heater. Is this a good idea or should I just stick with the 2.5 gallon?

Another thing, I was planning on adding one of those vacuum-suspended extensions to a tank originally but I figured that if the betta decides to spend most of its time there, the tiny amount of air left at the top of the extension would eventually be riddled with CO2 and no O2 so it will become poisonous to the betta as it goes to the surface and takes a breath. Have any of you guys figured out a way around this? Only thing I can think of is placing an air pump underneath the extension but air might push out the water from the extension rendering it useless. Thoughts? Thanks

 

I don't like the idea of those water bridges, are the tanks acrylic? If so you could use a holesaw to drill a hole in the tanks then connect them by a clear pvc pipe using a bulkhead at each end to keep the connections water tight
This would improve flow through the tanks because there is no vacuum force on the water to make it stagnant and your betta will learn where to get air because it's not the highest point in the tank

 

I've seen this done on a few tanks but not sure what negative long terms effects were if any I would think it would work like you think as you are just combining 2 water sources. Here's a link I found that may help

I have an extra 4 ten gallons tanks laying round Ive have been playing with the idea for a few weeks of combining them into a 40 gallon with 1 larger filter like in the link.

 

I don't like the idea of those water bridges, are the tanks acrylic? If so you could use a holesaw to drill a hole in the tanks then connect them by a clear pvc pipe using a bulkhead at each end to keep the connections water tight
This would improve flow through the tanks because there is no vacuum force on the water to make it stagnant and your betta will learn where to get air because it's not the highest point in the tank

I did consider the idea of drilling holes but not only am I uncertain of what type of glass both tanks are, I'm not really fond of that idea reason being that I like the cube look and would not want to modify either cubes in a way that is permanent and irreversible. This is what led to my consideration of creating a water bridge. I think finding a way to discourage the betta to stay in the bridge would be one of the most important concepts of this tank. The bridge should be used to simply get from one tank to the other. I'll brainstorm some ideas after I get home for any concepts that I can think of. One just came to my head right now (it doesn't mean it's good, just throwing it out there) where I would place one tank above the other and place the HOB filter on the upper tank but have the intake tube go to the bottom tank while also having a consistent siphon happening so there would be a balance in water levels. My issue would be as to how the betta would move from one tank to the other unless I create an even more complex bridge which actually seems interesting to me now if it means making this concept work. Anyways, I'll get back to this! Thank you for your reply

 

I've seen this done on a few tanks but not sure what negative long terms effects were if any I would think it would work like you think as you are just combining 2 water sources. Here's a link I found that may help

I have an extra 4 ten gallons tanks laying round Ive have been playing with the idea for a few weeks of combining them into a 40 gallon with 1 larger filter like in the link.

Haha I love the King of DIY. Yes! With 4 ten gallons, you should be able to create an experiment where you can maybe put some feeder fish in each tank (after they're all cycled) and pay close to the water parameters. If this is a valid way of fish keeping, I can see a lot of cool concepts being built around this. Haha imagine a room filled with tropical community tanks all over the wall but they're all connected so each fish may travel to another tank while each tank will have their own theme. That would be great. Of course each fish would probably prefer one tank over another so...eh, let's not discuss that. If you do decide to play around with this concept, do let me know and tell me your results Thanks!

 

I did consider the idea of drilling holes but not only am I uncertain of what type of glass both tanks are, I'm not really fond of that idea reason being that I like the cube look and would not want to modify either cubes in a way that is permanent and irreversible. This is what led to my consideration of creating a water bridge. I think finding a way to discourage the betta to stay in the bridge would be one of the most important concepts of this tank. The bridge should be used to simply get from one tank to the other. I'll brainstorm some ideas after I get home for any concepts that I can think of. One just came to my head right now (it doesn't mean it's good, just throwing it out there) where I would place one tank above the other and place the HOB filter on the upper tank but have the intake tube go to the bottom tank while also having a consistent siphon happening so there would be a balance in water levels. My issue would be as to how the betta would move from one tank to the other unless I create an even more complex bridge which actually seems interesting to me now if it means making this concept work. Anyways, I'll get back to this! Thank you for your reply

I would like to connect some of my smaller tanks once I get out of my mums place and have the space, I like the idea of a siphon, but I have always thought if the power goes out and the filter stops you could end up with a fair bit of water on the floor from the lower tank

I'll have to brainstorm and if I think of anything I'll repost
Good luck and keep us updated with how you go!

 

I think a fail safe for that would be to set the position of the siphon so that if the water line goes below the siphon, the bottom tank would not overflow

I'll do the same!

 

Gatesy !!!

So, I've been doing some brainstorming and this is what I've come up with. I just got the new (bigger) cube and it's actually bigger than it was advertised as it is over 3 gallons and not 2.5 so it's actually okay for the betta to live in by itself. However, I still wanted to connect the 2 cubes to bring the total water to over 4 gallons and I've come up with an idea. Since the 3 gallon cube is okay to house the betta in, I don't mind not having a water bridge and with the project I have in mind, a water bridge seems impossible (after seeing my sketch and if you think that I am wrong, do let me know because I'd still like to attempt it). Just one note, none of my sketches are up to scale of what I had in mind, they were simply drawn the way they are for the sake of convenience.

The Setup: Let's name the cubes "A" and "B". Cube A is where the betta will reside and is where the uptake tube for the HOB filter will be and is also where the water will come out of in the siphon. Cube B is where the actual HOB filter will be and is where the water will come from in the siphon. Cube B also may or may not have any feeder minnows inhabiting it depending on my fertilization needs. Both tanks will be planted and cube B will be placed at a higher level so that the siphon will actually work. Essentially what's going to happen is that the HOB filter will uptake water from Cube A and filter it in Cube B. Afterwards, Cube B will siphon the filtered water backdown to Cube B. Here's a sketch of the set up:


Issues I've Encountered (So Far): Overflow might be an issue but unless my system is wrong, I've found a way to counteract that. By having a certain level of water in both tanks and positioning the uptakes tubes for both the filter and the siphon at a certain height, I can create a system in which when one water level (in either Cube A or Cube B) gets lower than either uptake tubes, the system will eventually equalize without having any sort of overflow.
Here's a sketch of what I'll assume might happen:

So there are 2 scenarios I've accounted for (separated by the dashed line). The 1st one is when the water level in Cube A will fall below the filter's uptake tube. Although the filter will no longer be able to uptake any water from Cube A, the siphon is still draining water from Cube B and as it deposits the water to Cube A, the water levels will eventually equalize. Once the siphon breaks from Cube B, the water level in Cube A will still not be high enough for the filter to be taking up any water and even if it does, the little water it takes up will not be enough to overflow Cube B.

The 2nd scenario is when the water level falls below the intake tube for siphon in Cube B. The siphon will be broken but the filter will still be taking up water from Cube A back to Cube B. Once the filter is no longer able to uptake any water, it shouldn't overflow Cube B and since no siphon is present, the water will remain stagnant for both tanks.

The issue I've found with these solutions though is that if the water levels do fall below a certain level, the filter will eventually no longer be taking up any water while it is still active. If the water levels keep dropping, this will eventually break the filter but if it doesn't then it should be fine. Also, I haven't decided as to which cube would be set higher than the other, so if you guys think that the bigger cube should be on the bottom or the top, let me know. Another thing, the rate of the siphon will also have to equal the rate of the filter's uptake so I'm going to have to experiment to find the perfect balance.

Have you guys thought of any issues that may arise or do you guys think I'm making this way too complex than it has to be and I could just leave the betta in a tank that's over 3 gallons and let him be happy?

Another set up which I thought of is having 2 HOB filters for both tanks and connecting them with a water bridge like so.



One cube is taller than the other so the bridge will have to be something like this unless I elevate the smaller cube to make the bridge flat. This was less thought out and I kinda just created it for the sake of seeing what that will look like. Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Thanks

 

Gatesy !!!

So, I've been doing some brainstorming and this is what I've come up with. I just got the new (bigger) cube and it's actually bigger than it was advertised as it is over 3 gallons and not 2.5 so it's actually okay for the betta to live in by itself. However, I still wanted to connect the 2 cubes to bring the total water to over 4 gallons and I've come up with an idea. Since the 3 gallon cube is okay to house the betta in, I don't mind not having a water bridge and with the project I have in mind, a water bridge seems impossible (after seeing my sketch and if you think that I am wrong, do let me know because I'd still like to attempt it). Just one note, none of my sketches are up to scale of what I had in mind, they were simply drawn the way they are for the sake of convenience.

The Setup: Let's name the cubes "A" and "B". Cube A is where the betta will reside and is where the uptake tube for the HOB filter will be and is also where the water will come out of in the siphon. Cube B is where the actual HOB filter will be and is where the water will come from in the siphon. Cube B also may or may not have any feeder minnows inhabiting it depending on my fertilization needs. Both tanks will be planted and cube B will be placed at a higher level so that the siphon will actually work. Essentially what's going to happen is that the HOB filter will uptake water from Cube A and filter it in Cube B. Afterwards, Cube B will siphon the filtered water backdown to Cube B. Here's a sketch of the set up: View attachment 390545

Issues I've Encountered (So Far): Overflow might be an issue but unless my system is wrong, I've found a way to counteract that. By having a certain level of water in both tanks and positioning the uptakes tubes for both the filter and the siphon at a certain height, I can create a system in which when one water level (in either Cube A or Cube B) gets lower than either uptake tubes, the system will eventually equalize without having any sort of overflow.
Here's a sketch of what I'll assume might happen: View attachment 390546
So there are 2 scenarios I've accounted for (separated by the dashed line). The 1st one is when the water level in Cube A will fall below the filter's uptake tube. Although the filter will no longer be able to uptake any water from Cube A, the siphon is still draining water from Cube B and as it deposits the water to Cube A, the water levels will eventually equalize. Once the siphon breaks from Cube B, the water level in Cube A will still not be high enough for the filter to be taking up any water and even if it does, the little water it takes up will not be enough to overflow Cube B.

The 2nd scenario is when the water level falls below the intake tube for siphon in Cube B. The siphon will be broken but the filter will still be taking up water from Cube A back to Cube B. Once the filter is no longer able to uptake any water, it shouldn't overflow Cube B and since no siphon is present, the water will remain stagnant for both tanks.

The issue I've found with these solutions though is that if the water levels do fall below a certain level, the filter will eventually no longer be taking up any water while it is still active. If the water levels keep dropping, this will eventually break the filter but if it doesn't then it should be fine. Also, I haven't decided as to which cube would be set higher than the other, so if you guys think that the bigger cube should be on the bottom or the top, let me know. Another thing, the rate of the siphon will also have to equal the rate of the filter's uptake so I'm going to have to experiment to find the perfect balance.

Have you guys thought of any issues that may arise or do you guys think I'm making this way too complex than it has to be and I could just leave the betta in a tank that's over 3 gallons and let him be happy?

Another set up which I thought of is having 2 HOB filters for both tanks and connecting them with a water bridge like so.
View attachment 390547

One cube is taller than the other so the bridge will have to be something like this unless I elevate the smaller cube to make the bridge flat. This was less thought out and I kinda just created it for the sake of seeing what that will look like. Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Thanks

I like the pictures and how much thought has been put into this!

Matching the siphon rate to the filter will be by far the hardest, an issue I can see is even if you can match the siphon rate to the filters uptake rate, the filter uptake is going to slow down as the filter media becomes full and the siphon may start to become faster than the filter can handle leading to your first scenario

The only way I can think of around this is to create an overflow instead of a siphon and have a powerhead of some sort pumping water back into the higher tank and over flowing into the lower tank
I've thought of trying to arrange some piping in a S bend sort of configuration (opening facing up within the tank) similar to a toilet or creating some sort of overflow box within a tank to siphon out of that instead

But i'm starting to think that space could be an issue, I believe your idea could work with playing with water levels and the intakes of the siphon and filter/pump to stop an overflow accedent, but how much more water volume would you be gaining by the time you lower both levels?

If your determined I believe we could make this work, but maybe it's more suited to a couple of 10 or 20 gallon tanks to give a bit of internal tank room to play with

I think your betta will be just as happy in the 3 gal as he would be if we joined them and gave him 4 gallons

 

I like the pictures and how much thought has been put into this!

Matching the siphon rate to the filter will be by far the hardest, an issue I can see is even if you can match the siphon rate to the filters uptake rate, the filter uptake is going to slow down as the filter media becomes full and the siphon may start to become faster than the filter can handle leading to your first scenario

The only way I can think of around this is to create an overflow instead of a siphon and have a powerhead of some sort pumping water back into the higher tank and over flowing into the lower tank
I've thought of trying to arrange some piping in a S bend sort of configuration (opening facing up within the tank) similar to a toilet or creating some sort of overflow box within a tank to siphon out of that instead

But i'm starting to think that space could be an issue, I believe your idea could work with playing with water levels and the intakes of the siphon and filter/pump to stop an overflow accedent, but how much more water volume would you be gaining by the time you lower both levels?

If your determined I believe we could make this work, but maybe it's more suited to a couple of 10 or 20 gallon tanks to give a bit of internal tank room to play with

I think your betta will be just as happy in the 3 gal as he would be if we joined them and gave him 4 gallons

Yes, maintaining an equilibrium between the filter and the siphon will prove to be a challenge and will require constant observation but I'm sure in a bigger scale, this would be easier. So I suppose you're right in that this kind of experiment would be better off attempted with bigger tanks.

Haha yeah, I was thinking about exactly how much water there would be in each cube to satisfy the system I had in mind and unless I really think about it or experiment (which is getting a bit exhausting), the amount of water in each tank may end up being less than just having them separate. But I mean, the idea is still cool though lol.

I did little research on overflow filters but I actually came up with an idea of overflow for the two cubes. The idea would be that the smaller cube will be placed above the bigger cube while having the filter itself on the upper cube and the uptake tube in the lower cube. This will create a "trickle down" system where the overflow from the upper cube will cause the water to go down to the lower cube so both cubes are still getting filtered and I won't have to worry about finding some sort uptake balance between the two cubes! My issue with this system is that I'm not entirely sure as to how I can set the upper cube on top of the lower cube and how I can make the flow of water as calm as possible in order to reduce as much current as possible since bettas are not too fond of those. Lighting would also be an issue for the lower tank and perhaps even the upper tank once I figure out an ideal way to place it on top of the upper cube. As I would like both tanks to be planted, adequate lighting must be considered...

Anyways, I didn't think about this set up that much because I found the other idea to be a little bit more solid but it's still something I'd like to share as someone may be able to engineer something