I can't tell everyone how happy I am that this if finally done. It has been finished and operating for about 2-3 weeks now. I encountered many problems along the way but in the end it all worked out fine.
I will only give a brief write up but will answer any questions anybody may have.
First I shut off the main water to the house so I could install a PVC T that will become my water feed for the drip. It passes thru a ball valve that I keep closed about 95%. It enters a filter that removes the chlorine from my tap water and reduces down to 1/4" line. At the end of the lines I have micro ball valves which I ordered online. At first I used the drip emitters but they limit you to whatever flow rate they are calibrated to. Ex... a 1 gph drip emitter will drip 1 gph. With the micro ball valves I can increas or decrease the flow if need be. Say I just fed an excessive amount of food or added a few new fish. I can crank the flow rate up for a few days to compensate. I measured the flow rate using a watch and a 10 gallon rubbermaid tub. At the moment I am dripping around 2 gph to two tanks (300, 240) gallon. The 240 exit drip uses the DIY overflow that works perfectly. On the 300 I was having trouble with water levels so a bulkhead was installed in the sump. Both of these drain into a condensation pump that has a built in float. This contraption turns on once the it is full and empties fully. As a back up I will put the condensation pump inside a rubbermaid tub and install a bulkhead at the very top. Coming from the bulkhead will be a 1/4" tube that will run to my sump pump. In case the condensation pump fails the water can still empty by way of gravity until I fix the problem. I want to thank Rallysman for answering a few questions I had along the way. I also must give a very big thank you to Li (neoprodigy) for helping me along the way and for keeping my temper in check when I wanted to give up, numerous times.
I will only give a brief write up but will answer any questions anybody may have.
First I shut off the main water to the house so I could install a PVC T that will become my water feed for the drip. It passes thru a ball valve that I keep closed about 95%. It enters a filter that removes the chlorine from my tap water and reduces down to 1/4" line. At the end of the lines I have micro ball valves which I ordered online. At first I used the drip emitters but they limit you to whatever flow rate they are calibrated to. Ex... a 1 gph drip emitter will drip 1 gph. With the micro ball valves I can increas or decrease the flow if need be. Say I just fed an excessive amount of food or added a few new fish. I can crank the flow rate up for a few days to compensate. I measured the flow rate using a watch and a 10 gallon rubbermaid tub. At the moment I am dripping around 2 gph to two tanks (300, 240) gallon. The 240 exit drip uses the DIY overflow that works perfectly. On the 300 I was having trouble with water levels so a bulkhead was installed in the sump. Both of these drain into a condensation pump that has a built in float. This contraption turns on once the it is full and empties fully. As a back up I will put the condensation pump inside a rubbermaid tub and install a bulkhead at the very top. Coming from the bulkhead will be a 1/4" tube that will run to my sump pump. In case the condensation pump fails the water can still empty by way of gravity until I fix the problem. I want to thank Rallysman for answering a few questions I had along the way. I also must give a very big thank you to Li (neoprodigy) for helping me along the way and for keeping my temper in check when I wanted to give up, numerous times.
