Drip system a floor above?

[DaveB]

Please forgive my total lack of household plumbing knowledge...

We close on a house thursday that has a nice utility room downstairs (a luxury in Chicago, where they usually just cram your water heater in a closet next to a stacked washer/dryer) so I'm excited at the possibilities. My immediate plans are to stash all the hospital/growout tanks in there instead of in a bedroom, and to use the bedroom that shares a wall with it to house as big a tank as I can make fit and set it up on a drip system. That part is easy... just T the washer unit and I've got water.

Since I will have the ability to run a drip and keep things super clean (as well as an RO unit), I was thinking I'd keep Discus. Only thing is, if I keep Discus, I'd rather keep them in a show tank upstairs.

Where I get completely lost is whether it's possible to run a drip (and drain) from a floor below. Assuming I can hide the pipe (a chore, but doable), how do I get the water up there, and where do I drain it? I know that the pressure coming into the house is enough to power the faucets upstairs, so I'm thinking/hoping I can split off of one of those lines, through the RO, and have it still make its way up to the tank... is that not accurate?

(I have other questions too, like how I drain it since I can't just run a line outside... I assume I can't just cut a hole in the grey line and shove a new pipe in there; also whether I could use the same R/O unit for upstairs and downstairs, or if that'd screw things up; and/or whether I can go 50/50 RO/tap... but all of that can come later).

I know that if I was using the downstairs as a filter I'd want to have a nice powerful pump that could handle the height, but in this case the pressure coming into the house ought to be sufficient to get flow upstairs, same as with the kitchen sink. Right?

Has anyone pulled off a multi-story drip/RO system before?

 

[KAWAMIKIE]

Pressure will fill it up and gravity will drain it away. Just tap into a drain, not much different than tapping in to water pressure. Be sure to have safe guards in place so you don't flood the house.
There are a couple of other threads with detailed builds outlining the materials and safeguards.
A quick search of (auto water changer) Try different search words you may find others.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/search.php?searchid=7716136

 

[DaveB]

Thanks. Yeah I've seen most of the builds but they all seem to be on the same floor. I guess my main worry was that I'd try to put in a junction and end up messing something up, causing too much pressure in one place, not enough in another, etc. Wasn't sure I could just tap into a drain either, if that wouldn't screw something up. It's all foreign to me. I understand gravity but that's about the extent of my plumbing knowledge.

I'm also considering putting a mini sink/wet bar up in the dining room, which would be basically like adding 2 new upstairs lines (though a drip would never require full pressure obviously). The ultimate goal would be to pull that off, plus 2 or 3 big tanks all on a 50/50 mix of RO and tap water, all getting auto water changes, all in different rooms, with all pipes concealed. That sounds like a bear of a project though... I assume that if I split the line post-RO unit it'd all take the path of least resistance and only drip into the nearest downstairs tank...

Maybe I should just hire a plumber for a consultation...

 

[Pharaoh]

I would cut out a small portion of drywall and run a drain hose down the wall similar to what Chompers did on his system. I would go with a gravity style drain to reduce the risk of failures.
You will have plenty of water pressure to get up to the tank. You will probably still need a pressure regulator.

 

[DaveB]

I would cut out a small portion of drywall and run a drain hose down the wall similar to what Chompers did on his system. I would go with a gravity style drain to reduce the risk of failures.
You will have plenty of water pressure to get up to the tank. You will probably still need a pressure regulator.

OK, time to bump this.

The tank is going to be sitting above an in-floor HVAC vent, which I'll probably leave clear and re-route out the sides or something. I passed this last night doing some Cat5 wiring, so I have a path established for running a supply and drain without cutting a hole... I can bend the vent edge around the tubing and pass it down between the floors right there. Then there'll be about an 18 foot horizontal run between floors before descending into the utility room.

What material should I use for this? rigid PVC? Copper? I would think something flexible and in one piece would be easier. I can't exactly cement sections of PVC together one at a time while passing it through the floors.

Is there a way to take a 50gpd RO system and somehow run 50% of new water from that and 50% of new water from the tap?

(Further complicating things - is there a way to do that same 50/50 mix on TWO tanks... using the one RO unit? Heh.)

 

[kallmond]

If you put an RO holding tank upstairs, you could put a float switch (similar to the water control mechanism in a toilet) in the holding tank to turn the RO off top stop any possibility of overflowing it. Then run 2 separate lines from the RO holding tank, 1 to each fish tank.

In addition, set up a tap water drip. Basically, if you want 50/50 mix, 1 drip tap, 1 drop RO per minute/4 minutes/half hour/whatever time interval gives you the amount of water you want to change out per day. If you want 75% tap, 25% RO, you'd do 3 drips tap for every 1 drip RO.

You could get really complicated with this. Try to keep things simple, less to go wrong, less to break, and less to maintain.

If you have a fergusens or other plumbing supply house, go spend a little time at the contractor counter. (usually a separate entrance). When its not busy, tell the clerk what you're trying to do and ask his advice.

 

[DaveB]

No room for a holding tank upstairs. Or even really a sump. It can have one, but weight and space concerns make me prefer to run it on 2 FX5s if possible. It won't be heavily stocked.

Interesting. I'll have to see what plumbing places are nearby.

Does RO water also need a chloramine filter? Or would that just go on the tap? I don't know anything about those.

 

[JK47]

No room for a holding tank upstairs. Or even really a sump. It can have one, but weight and space concerns make me prefer to run it on 2 FX5s if possible. It won't be heavily stocked.

Interesting. I'll have to see what plumbing places are nearby.

Does RO water also need a chloramine filter? Or would that just go on the tap? I don't know anything about those.

Hey Dave. No, you do not need a chorine or chloramine filter with RO, the RO membrare will remove it. You will need it for the incoming tap however. I am doing the same drip system on my 300 gallon although it is in the garage.

 

[DaveB]

Hey Dave. No, you do not need a chorine or chloramine filter with RO, the RO membrare will remove it. You will need it for the incoming tap however. I am doing the same drip system on my 300 gallon although it is in the garage.

Good. That's what I thought.

I am hoping when this all gets set up that my eartheater homes will be as nice as yours.

I assume that to be safe I would run 2 separate IN lines, one for RO and one for tap, rather than trying to merge them somewhere. That'd probably mess up pressure among other things. So I can run 3 lines to the tank location... still not sure what material they should be made out of though.

There are two good tanks on sale down south of Indy that I may try to pick up. Or a potential 96x18 unique footprint that'd be perfect for my listening room/theater. No clue how I'd get them here, but it has me very excited. If my floor can hold a 380g it'll be perfect because it already has a very nice stand and canopy. I get the feeling the floors can hold a parked SUV, honestly, but one end of it would be opposite a stair case, so there'd be a trimmer on the other end instead of a full weight bearing wall, so that could throw it off some.

 

[JK47]

Good. That's what I thought.

I am hoping when this all gets set up that my eartheater homes will be as nice as yours.

I assume that to be safe I would run 2 separate IN lines, one for RO and one for tap, rather than trying to merge them somewhere. That'd probably mess up pressure among other things. So I can run 3 lines to the tank location... still not sure what material they should be made out of though.

Thank you Dave that was kind! Well I really liked Jose's design with the splitter off of the laundry room outlet so that is what I am going with only with a twist like yours of doing two seperate incoming lines. It is convenient that it's about 8 feet from my tank so preasure is no issue. I bought two splitters so that I could have three outlets (one splitter onto another) to hook on to.

first = washing machine, second = RO unit, third = chlorine/chloramine filter. I will be doing a 75% RO, 25% tap roughly. I have everything so far but the chlorine/chloramine filter. I will order that when I am done with my sump and send you pics so you can see what I mean. Subscribed on this thread. Lets get it sorted out for you.