An external fluidic system and methods of operating the same are provided. The fluidic system can be hot-swap connected to a flow-cytometer-based system at runtime to expand sheath or waste fluid storage capability of the flow-cytometer-based system by making only minimal changes to the flow-cytometer-based system. The external fluidic system can include a pump and a controller configured to operate the external fluidic system such that the sheath fluid is supplied from the external fluidic system to the flow-cytometer-based system or the waste fluid is extracted from the flow-cytometer-teased system and provided to the external fluidic system.