Joining two tanks together

[slimreb]

I was wondering if there is any special thing I need to do in order to join two tanks together to form an L shape. I have a 55G that is just laying around my house that I would love to join together with my 100G to wrap around a corner in my house. If anyone has an ideal on this please let me know. I am thinking I would need to silicone the two pieces of glass together then put some type of bracing on the outside to give it some support so it does not bow out and break the seal. If this is not possible then just let me know. Thanks in advance.

[mwood]

Exact details would depend on if this was an inside corner or an outside corner and if it were in a wall or using a stand and canopy, but my advise would be to plumb them together and be done. You would benefit from the water volume and appearence of a L tank, but not have the risk and cost of trying to join them. You may even be able to use bulkheads and clear pvc big enough for fish to swim through, but that might be risky.

Marcus

[tekknoschtev]

Are both tanks the same height? If so, that likely would reduce some of the work, however, I'd be concerned about the different thicknesses of glass given the increased water volume. Are both tanks the same thickness? I dont think so, but might be wrong.

I like the idea, I just think its likely more work than its worth.

[jmkarcz]

Be prepared for a very nasty blind spot...

J

[sgolden]

i have my 55 fowlr perpendicular to my 135 reef....i keep the tank tops at the same height and use a U-tube to join them ....water pumps up from sump into the 135 then throught the U-tube into the 55 then through the overflow to the refuge then to the sump.....works fine and 1 pump does it all....you just have to keep an eye on air in the u-tube....

[slimreb]

Ok thanks for all the points brought up here. I did not take into account the thickness of the glass. Indeed the 100G is thicker than the 55G is. As far as height is concerned they are the same height.

I was looking at having them on a stand and it would be an outside corner wall. So from thinking on the points here it would not be feasible to do it the way I was looking at.

Now maybe if I built a stand that would hold both tanks and wrap aroung the corner like I was thinking I could put wood facing between the tanks to hide the plumbing to connect the two systems together. Thus increasing the water volume and if I use large enough tubes it would allow some fish to swim in between the systems. Maybe put a 20G tank in between and have two refugiums running in the system. With a door so I can get to the small tank.

I will have to do some planning and see what all I can come up with. Thanks for all the comments thus far.

[vanillaprice]

I can not remember where I saw it but I saw where a guy had a pipe from one tank to another. His tanks were a couple feet apart. The clear pipe was about 3-4" in diameter. It had to be suported because the weight of the water. He said a couple fish would go from one tank to the other.