So I've been thinking.... (God, I need to stop that..) Anyway, I spend a pretty large amount of time that I don't really have doing water changes and topping off my sump on my 150 gal. I've come up with an idea to utilize airline tubing, a float switch, a small pump, and a ball valve to adjust the speed of the drip. I'm thinking that I can tee off of a line my brother uses for his RODI system for his reef tank and send it to my sump at like 5 drips a second. That will be about 40 gallons worth of new water per week. I would have the float switch turn an aqualifter pump on that would pump water out of the sump when it reached a specific level and right outside. Would this work? it certainly could be done very cheaply by me and would save me so much time. I'd only have to clean filter socks,scrub algae, and vacuum my substrate every once in a while. My tank would also benefit greatly from this in terms of stability.
DIY drip system
- Thread starter Devin VandeVelde
- Start date
If you need a drip emmiter I had to buy a bag of 25 when I did mine, if you pay shipping I will send you one
I drilled a hole in my sump at the water level I wanted, installed a bulkhead, and just run an waste water pvc line. 6 of one half dozen of the other. But it seems there's less room for error with the aqua lift and float switch that could screw up... I also switched from a constant drip to a solenoid valve so instead of a constant drip it turn the water on every 6 hours for 10 minutes then shuts off. However at the same time I'm asking trouble since that will probably have a higher fail rate than just a drip. Just my 2c
I ended up just having a constant drip right from a line under my house and a bulkhead at the water level of the sump that puts waste right out the sump and through a hole in my floor and outside. I did it all with stuff around the house with no pumps and no way to fail. I'll post pics later. 
I am running it at more like 90 gallons a week. the airline is just kinda tied off to limit the amount of water coming out of it.. I'm cheap... i know