Drip system for DAS commercial rack system

[jandb]

Hello. I was fortunate enough to get a pair of racks from a lfs that is moving. There's 14 total tanks ranging from 25-75 gallons. Each tank is independent of the others and has a bulkhead on the back in the overflow. I'd like to run a drip system. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to streamline this process? I don't plan on having all the tanks running at once so I want to be able to easily adjust things. Thanks.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

What kind of filtration does it use? Does it have some sort of sump setup?

 

[jandb]

What kind of filtration does it use? Does it have some sort of sump setup?

Each tank is separate. I don't have them for another couple weeks but was told there is a power head in each overflow box that sucks water into a sponge filter and out a loc line type return.

 

[tomojsg]

no input here i just wanna see that das tank sitting on the side of that rack lol

 

[jandb]

no input here i just wanna see that das tank sitting on the side of that rack lol

Ha. Yep. That was one of about 5 of those. They also had 2 larger ones and a few big dogbone tanks. They were keeping most of them though.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I think you have a few options here.

First, since all of the tanks are completely separate, you could add an additional bulkhead at the top of each one that can be used as the overflow drain for the drip system. Then, you could run tubing off of a main line to each tank and put a needle valve on each one so that you can control the flow. This would allow you to drip more into a particular tank that is a bit heavier stocked and drip less into lighter stocked tanks. It would also allow you to shut the drip off in the case that a particular tank is not currently in use. Lastly, it would allow each tank to remain completely separate of the others, but this also means that each tank needs its own heater and filter, and will need a heater large enough to keep up with the cold water drip.

The other option is to remove the "sponge" filters from the tank and use the bulkheads to connect the tanks to a central sump system. Then, you could run one common drip into the sumps pump chamber and have the drip overflow in the sumps inlet chamber. This way all of the new water would immediately be pushed to the tanks and the old water would exit out the overflow. This would give less adjustability but would only require one set of heaters and one filtration setup. You wouldn't really be able to shut any of the tanks down that easily and all of the tanks would be on one system, so sickness would spread to all tanks.

There are pros and cons to both setups and I honestly can't tell you which one you would like better, or which one would be harder to setup. You also don't have to keep the original sponge type filters. If you keep all tanks separate, I'm sure you can hook up canisters to the bulkheads that are on the tanks.

 

[jandb]

I think you have a few options here.

First, since all of the tanks are completely separate, you could add an additional bulkhead at the top of each one that can be used as the overflow drain for the drip system. Then, you could run tubing off of a main line to each tank and put a needle valve on each one so that you can control the flow. This would allow you to drip more into a particular tank that is a bit heavier stocked and drip less into lighter stocked tanks. It would also allow you to shut the drip off in the case that a particular tank is not currently in use. Lastly, it would allow each tank to remain completely separate of the others, but this also means that each tank needs its own heater and filter, and will need a heater large enough to keep up with the cold water drip.

The other option is to remove the "sponge" filters from the tank and use the bulkheads to connect the tanks to a central sump system. Then, you could run one common drip into the sumps pump chamber and have the drip overflow in the sumps inlet chamber. This way all of the new water would immediately be pushed to the tanks and the old water would exit out the overflow. This would give less adjustability but would only require one set of heaters and one filtration setup. You wouldn't really be able to shut any of the tanks down that easily and all of the tanks would be on one system, so sickness would spread to all tanks.

There are pros and cons to both setups and I honestly can't tell you which one you would like better, or which one would be harder to setup. You also don't have to keep the original sponge type filters. If you keep all tanks separate, I'm sure you can hook up canisters to the bulkheads that are on the tanks.

Hey Travis. I appreciate the insight. I'm thinking more along the lines of the first option. I'm told the bulkheads are purpose built for a drip (they're at the top in each box) so I should be good to go there. They're going to be used for qt and for discus so I'll have different temps and don't want to cross contaminate tanks too. I'm just trying to nail down the actual drip into the tanks. I plan on using the Filter Guys 3 stage Freshwater system. I could go from the 1/4" line that comes with it into say a 1/2 rigid pvc that runs from left to right over each stack of tanks. From there is where it gets murky. I don't want to spend a ton on John Guest fittings to go back to 1/4" or overcomplicate things. Do you have an idea to go from the PVC to the individual tanks?

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I may have others disagree, but I would recommend using a brass fitting to reduce the 1/2" PVC to 1/4" and then run a short 1/4" copper line to each tank with a needle valve on it to control flow. If you think about it, it's not any different than using water from your house that flows through all of your copper pipes. You could use nylon line instead but I find it to be pretty delicate. Just make sure you don't let any of the metal actually remain submerged inside the tank water.

 

[jandb]

I may have others disagree, but I would recommend using a brass fitting to reduce the 1/2" PVC to 1/4" and then run a short 1/4" copper line to each tank with a needle valve on it to control flow. If you think about it, it's not any different than using water from your house that flows through all of your copper pipes. You could use nylon line instead but I find it to be pretty delicate. Just make sure you don't let any of the metal actually remain submerged inside the tank water.

I'm with you on that. If we're drinking the same stuff it's fine for water to just pass through the copper.

That said, I priced out the needle valves at home depot and they're in the $9 range a piece. I looked at their version of John Guest push fittings and they're equally pricey. I wish someone just made a manifold or something for a decent price. I just worry that I'd be spending a ton of cash and having a ton of connections for something to go wrong over time.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I'm with you on that. If we're drinking the same stuff it's fine for water to just pass through the copper.

That said, I priced out the needle valves at home depot and they're in the $9 range a piece. I looked at their version of John Guest push fittings and they're equally pricey. I wish someone just made a manifold or something for a decent price. I just worry that I'd be spending a ton of cash and having a ton of connections for something to go wrong over time.

If you set it up properly, glue your PVC well, use good thread sealant on your threaded fittings and make sure your copper tubes are well connected, then you shouldn't ever have any trouble.

You mentioned that you didn't want to have all the tanks up and running at once so you could run all of the PVC (since it's cheap) and use PVC plugs in the spots you don't currently want to set up. Then, as you go, you can buy the fittings for the new tanks and spread the purchases out over time.