Re: Two tanks, run by one canister filter

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Greger Lindstrand said, in part:

> Inspite of advice against it I say it can be done. . . 
> To achieve this
> you use common plastic plumming pipes of the type you use
> underneath the bathtub or kitchen sink. . .
> Put them together in a
> "U" shape . . .
> Turn it over ("n" shape) and lift it up over the water,
> holding the ends in the glasses. The water inside the
> tube will not run out (laws of fysics).
> Lower it again so that you have one end in each tank and
> remove the glasses under the water surface.
> 
> Now you have 2 communicating vessels that will always
> strive to keep the surface at the same level.

 
> The only drawback with such a system is illness. If one
> tank gets a disease then the other one will to.

This works only if you want to keep the water level the
same in both tanks -- not if one tank is shorter, or on a
different platform, or needs less water height.  In those
cases you need something that can break the filter-input
flow without breaking the siphon necessary to allow the
flow to restart -- as previously posted, an overflow box or
something functionally equivalent.  Alas, canisters do not
tolerate breaks in the input flow very well ;-(  If they
suck a lot of air, then they stop sucking water altogether.

Skip the pricey Eheim and get a much mre economical Rena
xP, and with the money saved, get another Rena.  They're
very easy to clean and on planted tanks they don't need
cleaning often anyway.

Scott H.


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