# Draining multiple tanks



## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Hello,

Pretty soon I am setting up (4) 55g tanks. I am using those double 55 gallon metal stands that hold a 55 on top and a 55 on bottom. The stands will each be on a separate wall, but butted up to each other in the corner.

Can anybody suggest a few ideas of draining the tanks all at once? I drain into a spare bathroom.

I'm thinking something like this, with ball valves installed so that I can drain two tanks at a time. Without the ball valve, the top tanks would drain faster and end up breaking the siphon. I would prefer a setup that could drain all 4 tanks at once, but not sure how I could do that.

a second question, could the below setup be used to fill the tanks as well, or would they fill at different rates?










Sorry for the bad sketch, trying to brain storm.

Aaron


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## 123vb123 (Feb 10, 2012)

4 x 3 inch hoses would be alot smarter, and alot easier to fix if you should encounter any water problems during the draining.
I dont understand your issue really, you said "DRAIN" but do you mean "FILLING" aswell?


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

He's talking for water changes I think to make it faster. For that to work and actually increase the speed, yeah you'd need ball valves to adjust the flow rate (a nightmare IMO)...

I would go to a big box hardware store and get a cheap garden hose for each tank 25' for $9 around here and hook those to some solid pvc that you hang over the edge of each tank. I just suck on the drain end to start the siphon and let gravity do the rest.

To refill, you could get a four way split for the garden hoses $14 and fill them all at the same time.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

If you were to run the two top tanks separately, and tee them into the final drain, you shouldn't have a break in the suction. However, if you you don't enlarge the final drain hose the process will be slow. there is still the possibility that one of the tanks will drain a little faster on each level, and filling equally could be problematic.
Depending on how you deliver the water to the bathroom, there are ways. If you were to use a section of eaves trough, to drain the 4 tanks into, and have one drain line from the eaves trough, you wouldn't need to have valves to control flow. A section of pipe could be also used. This of course would not allow you to stop the flow before the siphon broke, which would mean restarting it each time. 
Alternatively, you could use overflow siphons and fill the tanks, and allow them to drain. I believe fmeuller has built a hang on overflow for automatic water changes, and I believe this might more accomplish what you are trying to do.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Hmmm.

Trying to accomplish:

-Fast drains without loads of tubing everywhere. I live in a 2 bed room apartment. The tanks are going to be ran off of sponge filters, so a system that drains all of them would be nice because I could walk away and fill later. Lots of times I am skipping out on WC bc of the time needed.

-One reason why I was trying to have all of the tanks drain into a common tube was for storage. I could just pop that tube off and throw it in the closet until it was needed again. That is a must for me.

-If there was a way to fill two at a time I would be happy.

-I don't want to mess with anything with risk involved and keeping it simple is the preferred
approach.

I don't have much experience with plumbing, sorry if I don't think of the basics :lol: . I will have a look at fmuellers setup.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Could I just use the setup described with a cheap external pump? Pop the tubing onto the external pump, and it would pull water out of each tank right?


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## 123vb123 (Feb 10, 2012)

Get on the chat m8 ill try give some input


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## 123vb123 (Feb 10, 2012)

best way i can explain what you want to do, is do a reversed chech HMF.

1. 3 way connector(adaptor) for 2 top aquariums and 1 leading to the
2. 4 way connector(adaptor) that combines the 2 lower aquariums, the leading connector above and an exit/entrance to the whole system, exactly as you drew it above.

If your "tubing leading to drain" hose is below tank altitude, its easy emptying.
If thats too slow, or if its at higher altitude, you could place a powerhead in each tank, and connect the 2 top tank powerheads to the 3way connector(adaptor) and the 2 lower tank powerheads to the 4way connector(adaptor), that way you will be able to empty 95% of the tank in no time.
If you want to fill the tanks, all you got to do is unplug the valves/tubes/hoses from the powerheads and just let them "float" in the tank, and use the "OUT" of the 4way connector(adaptor) as a "IN" by hooking it up to your water-tab. Unless ofcourse you are either using a RO machine at the tab, or if your transporting water from elsewhere without an already constant pressure.

I hope this helps!


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## sirdavidofdiscus (Dec 8, 2006)

ball valve for each tank should work. but like123 said it'll be a nightmare to adjust each valve to keep the flow rates the same. The other thing did say you going to remove the set up after each water change? If so priming every time would also be a headache.


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