Auto water changer, zero drilling walls, possible?

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jschall

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 9, 2009
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Chico, California
Soooo, I have an auto water changer on my 110g turtle tank. I did that one by putting a piece of 1.5" thick insulation styrofoam in a window that I can lock 4" open, put a magnet on the alarm sensor, sealed it, drilled it, put an overflow through it, brought in well water from through a 1/2gph irrigation dripper.

Love it. All I do is feed the turtles and clean my filter once every couple months (when I notice it running a bit slow.)

Now, I have a 75 gallon aquarium, which is bordered on both sides by big sliding glass doors. No way to do the same deal. I'm not allowed to drill the wall.

My idea is:
Run two lines of 1/4" tubing through the electrical socket box (replacing the box if necessary with a larger 4-plug one, rather than 2-plug), up to the ceiling, and out through an attic crawlspace vent. One line would then go right into the rain gutter, the other would go to a water supply (split off a hose.)
The drain line would then be attached to a tom aquatics aqualifter, which would pull water from the tank and pump it up (approximately 24" head) to the rain gutter. The pump would be on a timer, allowing me to control how many gallons per day are changed.
The supply line would be attached to a float valve (or more likely, two inline float valves) in the sump.

Thoughts? Is it a dangerous thing to do, going through the electrical outlet box? Is there any reason it won't work? Can someone link me to an inexpensive, compact, reliable float valve that I can mount to a sump?
 
There's also no crawlspace above the ceiling, but there is still a small vent for the 5"ish space between the roof and the ceiling.

There's a company in my town that does electrician work, home theater install and alarm install. They've got to have a way to run the tubing.

What type of tubing should I use? Vinyl? I want it to go around corners without using a barbed angle that could leak inside the wall, so that just about rules out polyethylene.
I also don't think I should use copper, because I don't want inverts to die in the tank.
 
A wire fish should work to get the tubing through the wall if you can't just push it through. I did something similar but cut a hole for a new electrical box (not a good idea to run water through an electrical box that has electricy in it). It was an inside wall so I didn't have to deal with insulation. I run a 1/2" tube for the drain and a 1/4" for the water supply.

I use an aqualifter to keep the syphon going but not to actually pump any water as part of the drip system - just remove air from the low-flow pvc overflow.

Is there a reason you want to go up with the water instead of down? Chompers has a thread how and why he went up. If you are dead set on going up I'd search for his thread and work from that design.

For the drip system in my basement I ran 1/2" pvc around the room against the wall at floor level, once painted and furniture put in place you don't even see it. It's another option to poking holes in your wall or trying to move water up.

I have a controller and float that I use to use in my sump for a different water changer. They cost about $100. I used it for 2 years with no issues. I'll sell it for $50
http://www.marinedepot.com/dosing_p...omatic_top_off_water_level_controller-ap.html
 
jschall;4606598; said:
Thoughts? Is it a dangerous thing to do, going through the electrical outlet box? Is there any reason it won't work?
Click to expand...
It sounds very dangerous to me. I understand not wanting to drill holes in your house. I would try to get your waste water to an existing drain, utility sink or basement sump pump. Even if you avoid going through the outlet box, a leak in the attic could be big problem especially if it was not discovered soon.
 
Is there a basement or a floor below this one? What is the flooring like? You could run a 1/4 line through the floor. If there is trim on the wall at the floor, you just remove a piece, drill your hole right next to the wall through the floor, run the tubing and put the trim back on. If you can do this behind the tank you wont notice it and the hole would be pretty insignificant.

The other thing you can do is run 1/4 tubing right under the trim where ever you want to go with it through the house. Does not take much to tuck away 1/4" tubing if the trim is thick enough and the flooring is carpet.

I would say going through the wall socket would be fine if you kill the power to the socket and just don't use it for a power source anymore. Outlets can get hot and the tubing you are probably going to use will likely not like that much heat and over time it could cause a leak and you do not want a water leak in an outlet, I think that is pretty obvious. So running the tube through the outlet with power still active would not be an option if I was doing this project. But if I was doing the project I would be drilling holes in stuff so.....
 
Well, below the floor is a crawlspace. There's no way I'm going down there, but I might hire someone to do the job for me and they'll just do it right, whatever "right" is, as long as one of the following conditions are fulfilled:
1. There's no drilling of walls
or
2. The amazing professionalism of the contractor convinces the parents that drilling the wall is no problemo!
 
Without knowing the specifics of the house, none of us can really answer that for you. Your idea of running tubing through an electrical box IS dangerous, and it is against code in every area I've been in. You run a great risk of starting a fire this way. If your parents are against putting a hole in the wall, then maybe relocate the tank or go without a top off
 
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