DRIP SYSTEMS Success & Failures

[Egon]

The "main drain" is huge I have a 1.5 inch pipe going around the backs of the tanks below all the sumps.

And the last pic is the whole fish room. From the left is a 360, 450, 120, and a 180. Zero water changes. The water goes out to my trees and bushes which I was going to water anyway so basically I water my fish for free

 

[dxdx]

Very nice setup for multiple tanks, Egon... two questions

Is the fresh water on all the time or do you turn it on/off?

Do you have pics of the sump drain combining to the bigger drain pipe? Is it just a pvc join?

 

[Egon]

The water is on 24/7. The point of this is, I'm trickling in very little water over a long period of time. No stress on the fish. No issues with water parameters changing drastically. I test the water every month or so and make small adjustments. Summer the temps rise and the fish are more active so I trickle in more water. Winter months I let the water temps drop to 75 and I trickle in less water.

My drain line is 1.5" and my overflow pipe in my sump is 1". I get a PVC 1.5" to 1" T fitting and drop that 1" overflow right into the 1.5" line. Very simple to set up and easy to add another tank onto this system.

I'll take pictures when I get home.

Edit: There maybe be some pics in my 120 thread.

 

[dxdx]

The water is on 24/7. The point of this is, I'm trickling in very little water over a long period of time. No stress on the fish. No issues with water parameters changing

I understand. I have a drip too it just looked like a high flow rate in that one pic. Have you measured what the rate is?



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[Egon]

I understand. I have a drip too it just looked like a high flow rate in that one pic. Have you measured what the rate is?



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I just increased the flow for the pic

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[Sarmo]

i have almost the same set up as Egon (got the idea from him ).
the only problem i have had is that the water temp went way down cause i was adding to much water and my heaters couldn't keep up. i added another heater and turned the drip rate down.
my drip rate varies depending on the pressure in my pressure tank or if someone is taking a shower. i can set it and come back later and check it and it will be different. i think i fixed that by adding a valve on my 1/4" line to regulate the flow as well as the valve at the connection to the cold water line.

love the ease and my water parameters stay good

 

[Egon]

Do you have pics of the sump drain combining to the bigger drain pipe? Is it just a pvc join?

I have a clear pic from behind the tank before the lines were hooked up (first pic). The lower valve is for the sump drain and the upper valve is for the tank drain. The tank drain is not used often, mostly just for test fills and if I ever need to drain the tank for some reason. I already had the bulkhead so I used it....

Second pic is behind the tank. First set of valve you see connected to the 1.5" main drain with a 1.5" to 1" thread and then a barb to the clear pipe. Super easy to make the connection with only 8" or so behind the tank. If you look close you can see the next tank in the background is also fit to this drain set up.

Note: If I drain the tank "up stream" I need to close the sump lines on the tanks down stream or they will fill up and over flow. That's why I installed the valve on the sump drains. I guess I could of put a check valve there too....

 

[Conner]

by chance Conner does your 220g have an overflow ? What kind of filtration are you running on the 2 ?? Only reason I ask is because I built a custom stand for my 180g so that a 75g could be directly underneath. The 180g has an overflow so I have my drip fed into the far left of the 180g (overflow on the right) water flows down the overflow into the 75g on the right side and my drain line is on the far left side of the 75g thus perfoming auto water changes on both tanks

Hey Lopaka, sorry for the late reply. I've been really busy lately.

The 220g has dual overflows. I am not currently using them, as I have been moving and had to set the tank up quickly when I moved. I am running an FX5 and two Chinese Eheim knockoff canister filters on this tank (ready to throw away one of them, as I can NOT get rid of a vibration noise for the life of me).

I have a sump that I was thinking about adding as further filtration and water volume for this tank, but I'm still not sure if I really want to.

Its an all acrylic tank, so I was thinking I could just drill a small hole for a bulkhead and then run a 1/4" line from that as a drain. I could also use one of the drains and the return as a closed loop for some other kind of filter, and then use the other drain as the overflow drain if I wanted to. That might make sense, except that I could end up draining more water than I want to.

The 125g glass tank does run off a sump. Its a 30g tank, so I should be able to drill it for a bulkhead and add a drain. I just need to get the parts and set up an afternoon to do it. The plumbing isn't the easiest to work with on this tank, unfortunately.

I may start up my own thread on a drip system over the next couple weeks. We're still getting settled into our new house, and with a sump close by and a faucet nearby as well, doing water changes are easier than at any other house I've lived at.

 

[Conner]

Egon, I'm very jealous of you drip system. I will have to unabashedly steal that manifold design for my drip system .

 

[anarekist]

so if i set up a drip system i dont need filtration?