# joining plastic totes



## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

I am in the process of setting up a 3m (about 10') long tank. I want to use plastic totes for the sump system, and I want to maximize sump volume in the stand. I reckon I can get 3-4 totes lined up side-by-side in the cabinet under the tank. The return pump will be in the tote on the left, and the drain pipe will go into the tote on the right, so the water will flow through the entire system.

The question is, what's the best way to join the totes together. Obviously I could use bulkheads and I reckon 2" PVC pipe should accommodate the flow I am looking for. But that's a lot of bulk heads ($$$), and a lot of potential leaks over the years to come.

An alternative is to use flexible hose going over the rim of the totes that is full of water and maintains a siphon. The problem with this is that the siphon can break, plus I'd need quite a number of fairly thick hoses (I think 1" is the maximum I can get), to accommodate the same flow as a 2" pipe.

No ideal solution seems to present itself. Looking for clever ideas


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Instead of the totes, use a pond liner. This will give you the maximum sump size that will fit in the tank cabinet. Box it in with plywood in front of the cabinet doors and at any place you want to keep clear.

Another idea. If you have a remote location you can plumb to, use a 300 gallon Rubbermaid livestock tank. Run two pipes from the tank into the wall behind, and then connect to the stock tank located in a closet, utility room, garage, or basement. One aquarist I used to know had a 265 in his living room and two 300 gallon stock tanks connected to it in the basement. One was the active sump and the other was for water volume. To do a water change he would disconnect the reservoir from the system, age or treat the tap water, then reconnect them and gradually mix in the new water.

Totes are cheap and tend to fail so having three connected is a fairly certain way to court failure.


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

Dan - many thanks, I like the pond liner suggestion. That is a really nice idea, and I will give this some further thought. Just got the built some type of lid to make sure there isn't too much evaporation, but of course that problem can be solved.

I have some space right behind the wall that the tank is standing along, which is a kind of a crawl-space where my house is built into the hillside. I've been very tempted about having a larger water volume there, but I am worried about the moisture aspect. My house was built using kiln-dried lumber that is completely untreated. The space is currently as dry as a desert, but introducing any sort of moisture to the area is a bit of a worry for me. In addition, the door into that space is so small that I could not even get a regular chair through it. I was going to store garden furniture there until I discovered this problem. Getting a stock trough the door is a no-go!

Regarding the totes, I reckon they are highly underrated as sump containers. I had mine running in Ohio for more than 8 years without problems. I believe the trick is putting them on Styrofoam. They usually have little feet or even wheels at the bottom, and admittedly they are not made for holding water. Usually the weight of the water will push the tote bottom down, and on a hard floor surface this can push the feet or wheels up into the tote causing it to crack and leak. On Styrofoam the entire bottom is supported and you don't have this problem. Of course in Ohio you can buy a 45G tote at Walmart for $15 or less when on special. In NZ the largest available tote is 30G and costs at least $30, so the attraction is not quite the same


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## somebody (May 13, 2014)

The guy I bought my 125 from had upgraded to a 250 (reef tank) and he showed me his sump. It was two totes and a old smaller tank. The first tote was 2-3 inches off the ground and the second tote and small tank was ground level. The way he connected the flow between the two was carving a slit about 2 inches off the rim and folded it down to make a "waterfall" to the next tote. The level maintained in the first tote was regulated by the slit height. He butted them so close together that the sides of the slit was over the second tote so no spillage. Wrapped then together with a rachet strap. he then plumbed the second tote with the bulkheads to the drilled tank. I asked about the bulging and he said the stand kept everything supported on the sides. When he opened the doors on the stand I saw he ran a 2x4 across horizontally and held it in nicely.

Increased his tank volume by almost 50% and had a ton of room for a live rock refugium and a tote for the skimmer, heater, and whatnot. The smaller tank was strictly the ato and return pump.

So I'm sure with tinkering you can get it to work.


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

If it was just two totes, I would simply use bulkheads to join them and call it a day. That waterfall contraption sound a little rickety to me. How about if a leaf gets stuck on one side. Will there still be no spillage?

I have used side support with 2x4s with the sump for my 240G in Ohio: http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic ... ontainers/ That part works really well!


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## somebody (May 13, 2014)

Seemed sketchy to me too, at first. After he showed me how it worked I understood it better. That and it wasn't in my house and he was comfortable so, great. I'm sure it would take a lot of tinkering to give me the warm and fuzzy.

Personally I would go with the bulkheads and pvc connecting them. When I did my ato reservoir to the eshoppes float valve I found on amazon a 1/4 inch push fitting bulk head. To seal it to the side of the reservoir I used silly cone between the plastic and the flange side of the bulkhead inside the reservoir to create a gasket. After the silly cone set I put an *extremely* generous coat of pvc cement to lock it in. Yea if I need to fix it it'll be wasted but a $2 piece locked in permanently to create a solid seal I was willing to absorb that cost.


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## SrsSarcasM (Jan 28, 2016)

I wouldn't use a siphon, just asking for trouble.

You can use a single bulkhead to join 2 totes together if the walls are vertical enough, just push them together and then use a single bulkhead to seal the two together and have a rubber gasket between the 2 totes. This would only cost as much as 3 bulkheads. It would be like: bulkhead screw | Gasket | Tote wall | gasket | tote wall | gasket | bulkhead

I see you are from NZ too, try irrigationexpress.co.nz for the cheapest bulkheads and PVC stuff if you end up using PVC.


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