Connecting 2 IBC totes

[John Wroten]

I just purchased 2 IBC totes that I want to put in my basment and use as fish tanks. Can anyone tell me if my idea of connecting the two outlets on the totes, running the pump from one to the grow beds, and the return water from the grow beds to the other tote? Would the water flow between the totes, or the connecting pipe  get stopped up with the poop? .....John

[TCLynx]

I would probably recommend using larger pipe and fittings to connect two tanks together  Or it might be a good idea to set it up as two separate systems so in case something goes wrong with one, hopefully the other is still fine and that would give you a means of quarantine as well.

[John Wroten]

I hadn't thought of the quarantine aspect. I was just thinking of the expense of the hardware of two complete systems, and keeping them both up and running, but from the problems I have had so far, I know there will be times I will need to have them separated...Thanks for the good advice.

Well now that I have the advice colunm going, how about talking about grow lights for my basement. I will have grow beds for these two totes outside in the summer, but I intend to have grow beds inside for the winter. What little I think I know is that cold weather crops dont need alot of expensive lighting. Hopefully just some floresncent grow lights. I dont really want to run my electric bill up, or my upfront purchase expenses. Any good advice on this? ...John

TCLynx said:

I would probably recommend using larger pipe and fittings to connect two tanks together  Or it might be a good idea to set it up as two separate systems so in case something goes wrong with one, hopefully the other is still fine and that would give you a means of quarantine as well.