New tank suggestions

[dela]

Hello All,

I'm setting up two new tanks. The tanks are 30 Gallon Longs and will sit one under the other. The plan is to have fish & LR in the lower tank and have the top as a refugium + misc tank.

I'm doing the usual pump water from the lower tank into the top and let the top (drilled) tank drain water back down to the bottom.

Any suggestions on pumps/circulation systems for this size tank system? I'd like to make things as plankton friendly as possible, so I only want ONE pump. It would be nice to have an external pump in order to save precious space or (what I would rather do) place the pump in the top tank and "suck" water from the lower tank.

 

[skylsdale]

What if you used a 20high and set it next to the 30. Use a powerhead (Maxijet, etc.) to pump water from the main tank into the 20, then with the extra height, just drill it and have it gravity feed back into the 30.

 

[dela]

Well, I already have the shelf system that this will go on. It's 36x18 and will take 500 lbs per shelf, but I don't want to go too much over 350lbs per shelf.

In addition, I didn't want to make the post too wordy by getting into details, so I just said they were both 30L's, but really, the top "tank" is a 35 gallon rubbermaid container that I can drill myself and don't plan to fill all the way. Yeah that changes things a little, but I believe the original questions are still relevant.