Multiple fish tanks: why/why not?

[Ben Rodman]

The doorway to the shed I'm hoping to convert is small, perhaps too small to accommodate a tote or 300 gallon stock tank. Apart form the obvious additional complexity of plumbing and temperature control from splitting volumes, any reason one couldn't use two fish tanks in parallel (essentially) to achieve target volume?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

It is often done for the purpose of harvesting on a regular schedule. 4 tanks harvest every 3 months keeps your fish at a steady mass and keeps your inputs stable.

[Alex Veidel]

Nope, no reason at all.

[Ben Rodman]

Cool! How do they plumb to the system? Is it good to have each serving their own grow bed or can they commingle? And if so, mix in sump or directly connect to each other?

[Alex Veidel]

They can commingle and they can directly connect to each other. What I would do is just have them flow by gravity from one tank to the next, then ultimately to the growbeds. Keep in mind that you want to design your system in such a way that if your power should go out or you have a pump problem, there will be enough residual water in your system to keep your fish alive.

[Ben Rodman]

Wondered about that. So I understand, if the system is robust enough (and you're monitoring water chemistry) having one tank's water flow to the next and thence to sump won't mean the "downstream" tank will suffer (or at least not in a way that's significant)?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Well I don't think you would want the waste flowing from one fish tank to the next fish tank in series. You would want each fish tank to either drain to a central sump or a clarifier or a media bed.

[Alex Veidel]

Because of concentrated waste? Yeah, you're probably right. I do feel like you could get away with it, but it would depend on how much waste you're dealing with. I don't know, do you think two 150 gallon fish tanks would be a problem? Obviously, what fish you're using would be a factor. And you wouldn't put the more fragile fish at the end of that cycle.

Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair said:

Well I don't think you would want the waste flowing from one fish tank to the next fish tank in series. You would want each fish tank to either drain to a central sump or a clarifier or a media bed.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

It would be an interesting experiment to see if the down stream fish are compromised in any way. For sure if you had trout or some other fish that needs very clean water you wouldn't want to do it.

[Ben Rodman]

I'm looking at catfish at this point; heating to tilapia temperatures in winter would be very energy-intensive I think.

[Devoid]

I have two plumbed in a row, I occasionally have to clean out the piping between them as it starts to cause a backup