Drip system

[LiquidWare]

OK i see waht you mean but the only problem is that the sink is higher then the sump also i cannot get the sump out to drill it. Since it cant fit throught the doors unless i drain the whole tank to move it then i have nowhere to put the fish in there.

For the Drip part, it only needs to be lower than the return to the 'Main' tank. The closer your drip output is to the level of the return for your main tank, the lower the pressure will be to the drip emitter but that can be taken cared of but putting a valve on your main line to create more pressure to the T'off line.

Now would a DIY overflow work to drain the sump incase of an power failure. Because i think the top of the sump would be higher then the sink in the garage but it would go under the house which would make it lower then the sink then back up to sink to drain. I hope that makes sense

No ... not if the end of the output is higher than the output of your sump. For the sump overflow, you could just send it outside because it will be only for an emergency and not be use for the day-to-day opperation. It's only a safety for your float valve in the event that the flow does not stop.

Here's my design ...

You'll see that in my design my drip goes to my quarantine tank, and then my quarantine tank overflows to my drain & i have an overflow also on my sump.

hope this helps.

 

[Dr Joe]

"I do have one in the area. Im actaully in San Francisco. But will this switch turn the pump on when it gets to the top level i set then turn off at the bottom level i set? For example i want to set the valve to turn on about 5-6 imches before it hits the top of the sump and then turn off about 8-9 inches before the bottom of the sump"

These are purely mechical float valve, I was under the mis-impression that's what you were going for. I know of electrical ones but you should be able to find rallysman's one locally (I'm sure I saw them at Lowes).

Dr Joe

.

 

[PMK]

PMK - Please keep us updated on your project and please be sure 2 include pictures.

One day I plan on hiring you to install one at my house!

You may want to wait to make sure i dont flood my house

I can't remember the name of it and I threw the box away
I did find a couple online though. I think they're commonly called vertical float switch
http://www.septronicsinc.com/switches/4650-4658.html
http://www.pumps-in-stock.com/little_giant_switch_rvms-20.html (price seems high)

One thing to do is to make sure that the drain pump is higher than your main pump just in case the float switch sticks on. That way it can't take too much out of the system.

You could put a 120v normally closed solenoid valve in the line to make sure that the water would stop if the power did fail.

http://www.iprocessmart.com/burkert/bukert_6011.htm
I would search around for price. A lot of the time www.mcmaster.com has good prices.

Perfect now i know the name of what i am looking for a vertical float switch.


So for the solenoid if i understand correctly the solenoid uses power to stay open but once it loses power it will automatically shut the valve and cut the water off to the drip emitter. So essentialy if power goes out i dont have to worry about water continuing to be added.

"I do have one in the area. Im actaully in San Francisco. But will this switch turn the pump on when it gets to the top level i set then turn off at the bottom level i set? For example i want to set the valve to turn on about 5-6 imches before it hits the top of the sump and then turn off about 8-9 inches before the bottom of the sump"

These are purely mechical float valve, I was under the mis-impression that's what you were going for. I know of electrical ones but you should be able to find rallysman's one locally (I'm sure I saw them at Lowes).

Dr Joe

.

I went to lowes and home depot and niether had them

 

[rallysman]

Perfect now i know the name of what i am looking for a vertical float switch.


So for the solenoid if i understand correctly the solenoid uses power to stay open but once it loses power it will automatically shut the valve and cut the water off to the drip emitter. So essentialy if power goes out i dont have to worry about water continuing to be added.

Exactly!
Make sure that if you get one that the coil (that holds the valve open) is replaceable. It's easy to replace a coil, but can be a pain to replace an entire assembly.


You can also use a whip style float switch (that you can find almost anywhere), but they take up more room and are more prone to getting stuck on something around them. If you can find the vertical one, that's what I would use.

 

[PMK]

For the Drip part, it only needs to be lower than the return to the 'Main' tank. The closer your drip output is to the level of the return for your main tank, the lower the pressure will be to the drip emitter but that can be taken cared of but putting a valve on your main line to create more pressure to the T'off line.




No ... not if the end of the output is higher than the output of your sump. For the sump overflow, you could just send it outside because it will be only for an emergency and not be use for the day-to-day opperation. It's only a safety for your float valve in the event that the flow does not stop.

Here's my design ...

You'll see that in my design my drip goes to my quarantine tank, and then my quarantine tank overflows to my drain & i have an overflow also on my sump.

hope this helps.

I like the fact you only need one pump and the overflow on the sump is how im going to set up my next large tank but since i cant get the sump out from underneath the tank to drill it i cant put an overflow that would be benefical to this application. Since ill need to pump the excess water out.

 

[PMK]

Exactly!
Make sure that if you get one that the coil (that holds the valve open) is replaceable. It's easy to replace a coil, but can be a pain to replace an entire assembly.


You can also use a whip style float switch (that you can find almost anywhere), but they take up more room and are more prone to getting stuck on something around them. If you can find the vertical one, that's what I would use.

Im going with the vertical switch since for what im doing with this one there is no possiblity of drilling the tank for a overflow. But with the solenoid i dont have to worry about power failures since the water would be shut off once the solenoid loses power.

And say the drip emitter starts pouring the pump will juswt continue to pump out the excess water

 

[rallysman]

Im going with the vertical switch since for what im doing with this one there is no possiblity of drilling the tank for a overflow. But with the solenoid i dont have to worry about power failures since the water would be shut off once the solenoid loses power.

And say the drip emitter starts pouring the pump will juswt continue to pump out the excess water

Sounds like your setup will be almost exactly like mine. My system has worked very very well.

 

[PMK]

Sounds like your setup will be almost exactly like mine. My system has worked very very well.

What are you doing differently?


After this works on my 240 im going to add it to my 180 but with the 180 ill have the exact same setup but the only difference will be that i can drill the sump for an emergency overflow for peace of mind

 

[rallysman]

I don't have the solenoid valve. I like living on the edge lol

 

[PMK]

I don't have the solenoid valve. I like living on the edge lol

I just got back from lowes i think im just going to use a float valve to stop the water incase of a power failure.

Basically the float valve will be on before the 1 gph emitter. Where the water exits the float valve im going to reattach the 1/4 tubing then put the 1 gph drip emitter on after the valve. Im going to put the bottom of the float valve above the on point for the vertically adjustable valve switch this way the float valve would be less likely to get clogged by other things. I may even put some pvc around it to be positive it wont get clogged.


The solenoid seems like it would be too much of hassle