Drip system.

[Bee0912]

I want to do a drip system on my 180 tank. My plan is to drill a hole in my sump with the bottom of it being were I want the water to be. Put a bulk head on it and plum it to the drain. Then run the drip into my overflow.

Will this work?

Is there a better way?

 

[MadRussian79]

I would be worried about is power outages. If the power fails your tank will drain down to your over flow box and the sump will drain down to the drilled hole.

 

[Austin]

you need solenoids to cut off the flow during an outage, float switches to operate these, and a chemical treatment of one kind or another to remove chlorine and chloramines.

the risk during an outage is not the draining but the over flowing...

 

[MadRussian79]

you need solenoids to cut off the flow during an outage, float switches to operate these, and a chemical treatment of one kind or another to remove chlorine and chloramines.

the risk during an outage is not the draining but the over flowing...

I just have my sump large enough to take the over flow. Haven't had any flooding during power failure.

 

[Austin]

obviously, but the drip system will continue dripping and the sump will fill eventually, a float switch and solenoid will prevent this...

 

[alcohologist]

i dont see any way the sump could overflow/drain if you position your sump overflow-to-drain hole at your desired water level in the sump.

 

[Austin]

i dont see any way the sump could overflow/drain if you position your sump overflow-to-drain hole at your desired water level in the sump.

this is true but i would use a solenoid on the feed just to be safe. if something clogged it could be bad.

 

[Bee0912]

i dont see any way the sump could overflow/drain if you position your sump overflow-to-drain hole at your desired water level in the sump.

Yeah thats what i thought. it would go in the overflow box(non drilled tank) so the drip would not go in the main tank at all. Then the sump would have a drain in it so the water line would never go above it. I could put my garden hose in the overflow if i want and the system would never over flow right? but this would just be a drip(like 4 gallons a day) so if the power goes out my tank would draindown to the overflow box and stop well the tdip would keep going and the sump would drain power or not?

Now the drip would be in the outside part of the box so the power would have nothing to do with it.

As for additives i do not use any as is and i do 20% every week with no problems for the past year.

 

[Pharaoh]

I want to do a drip system on my 180 tank. My plan is to drill a hole in my sump with the bottom of it being were I want the water to be. Put a bulk head on it and plum it to the drain. Then run the drip into my overflow.

Will this work?

Is there a better way?

This is pretty much how my system works. I can turn the power off and on without any problems.

 

[rallysman]

Make sure the hole is high enough that when the power fails it doesn't drain so much that the pump runs dry when the power comes back on.

The way I measure is (before you drill)

Figure out the lowest level in the sump (with the system running-without it sucking air)

Kill the power, let everything drain into the sump.

Drill at the top line.

You'll probably have more water in the sump than what you'd normally want to have, but if the residual overflow goes down the drain you've thrown the system out of balance. This will ensure that the water level in the sump won't go below it's minimum level.

Edit:
Here's a drunken video explanation.
[YT]<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wDVcZJ-L4rs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wDVcZJ-L4rs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>[/YT]