So... I had this idea. Anyone know what I'd need to make it happen?

I've got a 50 gallon display tank on top of a great custom built stained wood stand. Right now my stuff is disorganized across the room the tank is in. I'm already planning on adding some shelf space under the aquarium and I figure while I'm at it organizing supplies under the aquarium I might as well make some improvements...

I'd like to set up a few 10 gallon tanks as quarantine and Daphnia culture tanks then one of my housemates had a brilliant suggestion. A pump system to take tank water from the display tank and empty into the Daphnia tanks while water is removed from the Daphnia tank into buckets. This doesn't sound like it'd be too difficult.
I may be missing something but it just sounds like I'd need two pumps, two T connectors, some tubing, and mesh on the Daphnia outflow tubes. What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Any suggestions?

 

So, I guess your 2nd tank would act as a sump, but I'm still confused - are you doing this to fill your quarantine tanks? Anyways, you can use a pond pump and just some long, bendable plastic tubing.

 

So, I guess your 2nd tank would act as a sump, but I'm still confused - are you doing this to fill your quarantine tanks? Anyways, you can use a pond pump and just some long, bendable plastic tubing.

The idea is that Daphnia tanks can't have freshly conditioned water, it being better for them to have tank water.

Essentially what I want to have happen is to do the water removing part of a display tank change and all of the water change for the Daphnia tanks. It would then be a simple mater of moving tubes if I wanted to fill the quarantine tank.

This would also make the only part of water changing for the display tank not handled by the system being adding back in temp-matched and conditioned water.

Thank you for suggesting pond pumps, I'll look into them.

 

So, I would think it could be done. You COULD just start a siphon from the display tank into the daphnia tank. That would save some money from pumps, but up to you.

If you want pumps, you can get.really cheap marineland maxijet pumps that can do what you want to do. Just look for ones that are like 100 or 200 gph. 200 gph will take about 3min 20sec to fill a 10 gallon tank, which is why I say to get one with less flow of possible.

Are you wanting to gravel vac the tank and send THAT water down, or just pull tank water from the display?

If you got a plastic tote for the daphnia, you could just add a bulkhead to the side towards the bottom to drain water from. (I have no clue how daphnia farming works, so that idea may be really dumb

 

Are Daphnia the really small micro organisms or am I a mile off?

 

Are Daphnia the really small micro organisms or am I a mile off?

Daphnia are small crustaceans. I believe they could be considered zooplankton. Adults, dependent on species, get between 3 and 5.5 cm in body length. I'm interested in keeping them as live food for my fancy guppies though I do enjoy watching them too.

So, I would think it could be done. You COULD just start a siphon from the display tank into the daphnia tank. That would save some money from pumps, but up to you.

If you want pumps, you can get.really cheap marineland maxijet pumps that can do what you want to do. Just look for ones that are like 100 or 200 gph. 200 gph will take about 3min 20sec to fill a 10 gallon tank, which is why I say to get one with less flow of possible.

Are you wanting to gravel vac the tank and send THAT water down, or just pull tank water from the display?

If you got a plastic tote for the daphnia, you could just add a bulkhead to the side towards the bottom to drain water from. (I have no clue how daphnia farming works, so that idea may be really dumb

Thanks! Great to have some frame of reference for flow without having to run the math myself. Right now I'm considering just sucking water from the display tank and sending to the Daphnia tank.
I have been unable to get any manual siphon to work for me. Just a lot of frustration, stirring up dust, and stressing out my fish... though with a pump I should be able to actually vacuum my tank. Though pulling all the dust into my Daphnia tank might not be the best idea. I'd need to get ahold of someone with Daphnia keeping experience to advise on that.

 

I don't know how handy you are, if you are very handy, this is what I would do:
1. Small single standpipe siphon with a weir out of the upper/display tank. Permanently mount it. Set the bottom of it up with a few Ts and valves and run hoses into the tanks you with that day.

2. Water change style hang over J siphons from lower tanks into buckets. You can print these easily on the fly and put them in the tank you want to drain from.


Whenever you add water to the upper tank, it will run over the weir and into the drain system. You can select which tanks you want to be topping off with the valves attached to that system.

Before starting service, select the lower tanks you are working on that day and prime and hang your water change J siphons and position the valves and buckets appropriately.

You can service the upper tank with a normal siphon if it needs it and the wire will keep the main siphon primed. Otherwise, just add top off water to the upper tank and overflow water fills/changes the lower tanks you select.



Did this make sense? I could draw it if you'd like, the upper siphon would be like the one I'm using on my network tanks, only with more valves.

Single vented siphons with weirs drain from the 20l and 10 into the left 29. You can see the valving, the weirs are in the outward rear corners.


This is what that siphon assembly looked like without the weir whole I was testing it. The water level is set by the height of the weir.


Here's a shot of a weir close up, if your tank is already full, you could make one out of a pipe with a cap on the bottom instead of gluing one in.



I'm using mine a bit different than I described to you but you could use smaller diameter yet for an over flow style top off system. Mine is running as a minI sump, I can get 400+gph to follow through them in testing. I've been running them full time at about 160gph for 5 months now and haven't lost a prime through many weekly servicings.

 

I don't know how handy you are, if you are very handy, this is what I would do:
1. Small single standpipe siphon with a weir out of the upper/display tank. Permanently mount it. Set the bottom of it up with a few Ts and valves and run hoses into the tanks you with that day.

2. Water change style hang over J siphons from lower tanks into buckets. You can print these easily on the fly and put them in the tank you want to drain from.


Whenever you add water to the upper tank, it will run over the weir and into the drain system. You can select which tanks you want to be topping off with the valves attached to that system.

Before starting service, select the lower tanks you are working on that day and prime and hang your water change J siphons and position the valves and buckets appropriately.

You can service the upper tank with a normal siphon if it needs it and the wire will keep the main siphon primed. Otherwise, just add top off water to the upper tank and overflow water fills/changes the lower tanks you select.



Did this make sense? I could draw it if you'd like, the upper siphon would be like the one I'm using on my network tanks, only with more valves.

Single vented siphons with weirs drain from the 20l and 10 into the left 29. You can see the valving, the weirs are in the outward rear corners.View attachment 676641

This is what that siphon assembly looked like without the weir whole I was testing it. The water level is set by the height of the weir.
View attachment 676642
Here's a shot of a weir close up, if your tank is already full, you could make one out of a pipe with a cap on the bottom instead of gluing one in.
View attachment 676643

I'm using mine a bit different than I described to you but you could use smaller diameter yet for an over flow style top off system. Mine is running as a minI sump, I can get 400+gph to follow through them in testing. I've been running them full time at about 160gph for 5 months now and haven't lost a prime through many weekly servicings.

Okay, I think I understand how this is suppose to work. The basic idea is that to use the system you add water to the top tank and the weir is an overflow prevention. It takes the water that would otherwise overflow and pipes it to the below tanks... is this gravity powered or is there a pump somewhere I'm not seeing?
I don't think a visual aid could hurt if it wouldn't be too much trouble. If I am understanding the system currectly it sounds quite elegant.

 

I think you understand how it would work. It would be powered by whatever method you have to fill your display tank, and only run while you're filling it up. You could put the J siphon on the lower tank into an empty 5 gallon, pour 5 gallons into the top tank and it would flow over the weir, into the lower tank, then from the lower tank into the empty bucket on the floor.

I've never had good luck with dual pumps, one up, one down, they rarely balance right, though if you want to be able to circulate your daphnia tank up into your display you would be able to do that with a pump as well. I'll doodle you a diagram tomorrow.

 

I think you understand how it would work. It would be powered by whatever method you have to fill your display tank, and only run while you're filling it up. You could put the J siphon on the lower tank into an empty 5 gallon, pour 5 gallons into the top tank and it would flow over the weir, into the lower tank, then from the lower tank into the empty bucket on the floor.

I've never had good luck with dual pumps, one up, one down, they rarely balance right, though if you want to be able to circulate your daphnia tank up into your display you would be able to do that with a pump as well. I'll doodle you a diagram tomorrow.

Awesome, thank you very much! Using pumps would likely have been fussy for me as well so glad to have a system like this, and to be able to save some money on pumps.

 

For a normal WC siphon, Python makes a nice little starter bulb that goes on the end of your siphon hose. Well worth the $6 from Amazon!

That looks like a cool design, John! If it's not to difficult, could you add a photo of the wier? I don't see what you used.

Ebreus, if you didn't want to do such a complex/semi-permanent system, you could just use the pump on the end of a siphon and pump the water into a bucket (I use a 5 gallon bucket on a piano dolly). Take some water out of the daphnia tank with the pump and put it in another bucket on the same dolly, then just pump the original tank water into the smaller tank.
This would run you the ~$13 for the maxijet, $14 for the dolly (if you don't have one, or don't have 4 boards and 4 wheels lying around), and whatever for 2 buckets. So maybe a total of $38 if the buckets are only $4 a piece (home depot is the cheapest I've seen...)

 

For a normal WC siphon, Python makes a nice little starter bulb that goes on the end of your siphon hose. Well worth the $6 from Amazon!

That looks like a cool design, John! If it's not to difficult, could you add a photo of the wier? I don't see what you used.

Ebreus, if you didn't want to do such a complex/semi-permanent system, you could just use the pump on the end of a siphon and pump the water into a bucket (I use a 5 gallon bucket on a piano dolly). Take some water out of the daphnia tank with the pump and put it in another bucket on the same dolly, then just pump the original tank water into the smaller tank.
This would run you the ~$13 for the maxijet, $14 for the dolly (if you don't have one, or don't have 4 boards and 4 wheels lying around), and whatever for 2 buckets. So maybe a total of $38 if the buckets are only $4 a piece (home depot is the cheapest I've seen...)

This the starter bulb: ?
I had something like this before. It wasn't much help in getting a siphon to work though the one I had was midway down on the tube not right by the siphon.
Since I'm not entirely sure I'm making my intentions clear the idea is water will follow this path: Tap -> conditioned in buckets -> poured into display tank -> removed from display tank -> added to Daphnia tanks -> removed from Daphnia tanks -> disposed of.
The Daphnia are sensitive to the treatment that makes tap water tapwater and the conditioner used to make it safe for being aquarium water... they also eat bacteria and algae so old tank water makes for good Daphnia tank water from there the water is just high Nitrate water.

 

This the starter bulb: ?
I had something like this before. It wasn't much help in getting a siphon to work though the one I had was midway down on the tube not right by the siphon.
Since I'm not entirely sure I'm making my intentions clear the idea is water will follow this path: Tap -> conditioned in buckets -> poured into display tank -> removed from display tank -> added to Daphnia tanks -> removed from Daphnia tanks -> disposed of.
The Daphnia are sensitive to the treatment that makes tap water tapwater and the conditioner used to make it safe for being aquarium water... they also eat bacteria and algae so old tank water makes for good Daphnia tank water from there the water is just high Nitrate water.

Yeah, that's the one I meant. I just have it on the end of a 6ft piece of tubing. It works well for me, but maybe not well for longer tubes?

I understand the what you want to do with the tank water, but I thought you would need to take water out of the daphnia tank to make room for water from the display, and from the display to make room for the tap water. Unless you did the fully plumbed method, or keep your tanks less than full... Obviously, after you pull water from the display tank you'd need to add more conditioned water in....

I like John's idea, and I think it would work great, I just thought I'd add another method if you didn't want to have a fully plumbed system.

 

Yeah, that's the one I meant. I just have it on the end of a 6ft piece of tubing. It works well for me, but maybe not well for longer tubes?

I understand the what you want to do with the tank water, but I thought you would need to take water out of the daphnia tank to make room for water from the display, and from the display to make room for the tap water. Unless you did the fully plumbed method, or keep your tanks less than full... Obviously, after you pull water from the display tank you'd need to add more conditioned water in....

I like John's idea, and I think it would work great, I just thought I'd add another method if you didn't want to have a fully plumbed system.

Yeah, without tubes or creative water control one would need an interm container for holding the water that would otherwise cause overflows. Thank you for you suggesting an alternative I do appreciate having options.