Drip Success!!

Been planning on doing a drip system for some time now and finally decided that with a new baby theres not the time i used to have to spend changing a couple hundred gallons of water 5-6 days a week anymore and also it would give me a fun project

Well i started out with a drip irrigation kit (which later i found i didnt completely need) which all that i really used from was the pressure regulator, check valve, tubing and some connections. The drippers leaked and the rest wasnt really needed for what i was doing so with the purchase oof new drippers and some pvc pipe, connections and some 3/8 " hose this is what i came up with.

starting at the faucet is the check valve(top), 25psi pressure regulator(middle), adaptor for 1/4" tubing(bottom). this section is the most important and keeps everything at a steady psi and aslo prevents everything from exploding from the water pressure


The tanks i have dripping on are a 135 at. 5 gph which totals 84 gallons weekly changed and a 225/150 that are hooked to the same sump dripping at 2 gph total(1 gph in each tank)





Next waste hard part but thank to threads posted by JK47 i was able to work out the overflows and a way to remove the excess waste water and they turned out pretty good and on the first try to boot I used 1/2" pvc with 3/8" tubing. First one is a pic of thge the hole for the water line in the sump. the rest of them are the two overflows and a little plumbing ofthe 1/4" tubing in the fishroom






Out the window with the waste water


thanks. will add to this thread as i progress and add to the system. i have two 75s that i would like to get hooked up at .5 gph and a 55 an 20 fry tanks that i would also like to drip at .5 gph each but want to see how well this works before I do any more. Super excited to not have to do mass water changes anymore and will hopefully have wc eliminated from my schedule in the coming weeks. thanks everyone this was a pretty easy install and i recommend it to anybody who has a hard time changing water.

heres a video

[video=youtube;47mRCbUVksA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47mRCbUVksA[/video]

anarekist said:

whats the air tube comming off the top for?

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off the top of the pvc? that siphons old water to the other side of the overflow allowing the water to go from inside the tank to the other side of the overflow then letting the excess water created from the drip to leave the system. works similarly to an overflow box but with much less flow

boldtogether said:

5gph x 24h/d=120gpd x 7dpw=840gal per week. 5gal per hour is to much for a continuous water change system on a 135g without filtering out chlorine.
1gph x 24h/d=24gpd x 7dpw=168gal per week. 1gal per hour is WAY to much for a continuous water change system on a 150g without filtering out chlorine and just about right for a 240g.
Just my opinion.

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only .5 gph on the 135 and with the 150 is plummed into the 240 and with the sump volume its a 400 gallon system and im dripping a total of 336 gallons per week on that and my city chlorine runs very low and dont really need to filter it out

bassfisher91 said:

I didn't notice it at first either but it says 0.5 gph....the decimal point is a space away. Good catch though. I have the same system running and it works well. Jk47 was my inspiration.

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yeah love this system. very simple and works very well