Collecting tanks in series

[batsofbedlam]

I am working on setting up a new sugarbush of about 700 taps. Under high vacuum, I have the potential to collect quite a bit of sap. I presently own 4- 550 gallon poly tanks, which by themselves are to small to hold a half days run.
Can I hook two of these tanks in series using the bottom drains to double my holding capacity?

[VT maple maker]

I dont see any reason why you cant. A couple of years ago I was at a guys sugar house and he had a small bulk tank and a round bottom tank hooked together like that. The sap dumped right into them from the releaser and it worked great.

[Maplewalnut]

Absolutely. I have seen it done a couple times. As long as two (or more) tanks are level to start they should assume the same height when filling. and vice versa when emptying.

[Dennis H.]

I would think that you would want the interconnect pipe as large as possible so as to prevent freeze up, or for it not to freeze completely shut.

[ennismaple]

That would defeinitely work. I'd put a valve between the two tanks so you can isolate one or the other for washing or if there's not a lot of flow you only have 1 tank to wash at the end of the day.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I have connected tanks in series. I put a T in the connecting pipe and a drain from there. Also valved off the individual tanks so I could wash them separately.

[lew]

We have run tanks in series several times. Sometimes 3 tanks hooked together. But we didn't hook them together at the bottom. Instead we set the tanks up so that would overflow into one another. The sap ran into the first tank, filled it up, then ran through an overflow pipe into the second tank that was only a couple of inches lower than the first tank. The second tank would fill up until it reached capacity then overflowed through an overflow pipe into the third tank. This made it easier on us in a number of ways. First I didn't have the money for one large tnak at the time and could easily afford smaller ones. Second, I had to remove these tanks at the end of the season, so the smaller ones were easier to handle. Third the smaller tanks were easier to unload during small flows. Bythat i mean that it is easier to suck out 100 gallons out of one 400 gallon tank than it is to suck out 50 gallons out of 2 400 gallon tanks. You also don't have to worry about the pipe crossing between the two tanks (if you hook them together using the drains) freezing. I never had a problem with the overflow pipes freezing. They were well sloped, and I suppose the woods froze up before the large volume of sap in the tanks started freezing.

[brookledge]

I would agree with Lew connect them at the top and you will have less chances of freezing. Also if you have multiple tanks hooked up at the bottom they will all fill at the same level which might take it longer to pump out. On a small run you might just need to pump out one full tank vs 3 partial tanks
for plastic tanks a good way of hooking them up at the top is to use bulkhead fittings
Keith