would a 2 tank combo work?

[Soltaker]

This spring, I am going to be moving to a new house. So for now, I am trying to plan out what exactly I can do to make the transition easiest for my guys. The best I can think of is setting up a complete tank/sump/ect.. Then, transfer my LR over to help the tank cycle, and finally moving over my fish and inverts. This leaves me with my current 220 empty.

I have always wanted to keep an FO AND a reef tank. There are just too many fish that I like which are not reef safe. This would be a prime chance to do both, while hopefully doing what I can as to not shock the hell out of my current fish.

So now for the real question... would it be a good or bad idea to build like 1 very large filtration system in which the 2 display tanks share a common filtration system? I would have a CPR dual skimmer tickle to use, as well as my 90 gallon refugium.

My thoughts are that the FO would benefit greatly from sharing the refugium, and the refugium would naturally benefit from the detritus. The reef should benefit from the added water, in that with the greater volume of water, any changes in the water chemistry would not have the same effect as, lets say an amonia spike in a 35gallon. I would be able to do 1 water change and take care of both tanks too. Of course, I would never be able to copper treat the FO tank, but am I missing anything else?

[gbtower]

Typically, a FO will have a heavier load than a comparably sized reef. So even though the reef would have more shared water volume, it'll also have more shared waste. But if your equipment can handle the extra load, then why not?

[o2manyfish]

Hey There,

I like to keep my reef and fish tanks seperate. It lets me run the reef system at a high salinity and the Fish Only at a lower salinity.

One of the things I have learned the hard way by expanding my reef system out past 1000g is that when you add more gallonage to a reef it makes the tank more stable but it also makes it more difficult to control your environment. If you want to raise your alk or any of you other levels the more water you have the more challenging it becomes to control.

Dave B

[Putawaywet]

Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of having to treat the FO tank for pathogens. Copper is out of the question with a setup like this, as well as hyposalinity treatments.

Not that doing something like this is a bad idea, but there are considerations to be aware of.

Brett

[sabodish]

you should check out "glassshark" setup on here in the photo galllery... he actually has 3 tank setup with a reef in the middle and 2 bow fronts on each end..total lenght is like 13' or something..he has separate filtration for the reef and the FO..it has already helped him a bunch as he has several fish in his FO that he needed to medicate...keeping them separate is a much better idea.
-mike

[laxing22]

Originally posted by Putawaywet
Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of having to treat the FO tank for pathogens. Copper is out of the question with a setup like this, as well as hyposalinity treatments.

Not that doing something like this is a bad idea, but there are considerations to be aware of.

Brett

I suppose you could have a UV on the return to the FO tank

[Soltaker]

Thanks for all your pointers guys. The more I think about it, the more I think I am better off keeping them seperate. Like I said, I think that the refugium and all of the live rock would be beneficial to a FO tank, but at the cost of never being aboe to medicate? I dunno if that is the best route to go.

[tehfishmang]

Make sure the planned reef tank never had copper ran in it. Copper leeches into the glass of the tank and copper is deadly to corals.

You cannot use the tank for holding corals if copper has been used in it.

[o2manyfish]

I have tanks that I have run copper in and then later kept corals in it.

I have never heard of Copper leaching into glass. I won't use the sand from a tank a that had copper in it.

But the tank itself and equipment is easy enough to remove the copper from.

Dave B