DRIP SYSTEMS Success & Failures

[valderi123]

Great thread! my set ups are almost identical to jk's . the filter guys are a great company. They refunded me 6 bucks on shipping that they very easily could have kept, and they're parts and service were perfect. On my water line i Don't use drip emitters i just use a valve, figured out the gph with a clock, a bucket, and some beers. On my 240 I drilled my sump for the drain. and on my 220 I use a standard diy overflow. so far I've had no failures. works great for big bio fish like ray's and aro's .

 

[JK47]

I will start out with my 65 Hex, the last tank I set up for automatic water change. This system went together very quickly, I think the whole thing took a couple hours at most. I have well water, so no prefiltration is used.

The first thing I did was set up the float valve. This valve (Eshopps) is fairly cheap ($29.99 @petsolutions) and is a very cool idea, but it has some serious flaws in the construction of the bracket. I have been looking for a better alternative, but I haven't found it yet.

The bracket clamps onto the side of the tank and holds the float valve in place. It is designed to let you set the water level between about two to three inches below the top of the tank - this is the first problem, in order to keep the water level in the tank full, I had to drill an extra hole in the bracket to allow me to mount it higher. No big deal, but annoying.. The second problem is that while the bracket looks quite sturdy (it is made of .25" acrylic) the glue joints are horrible. It is as if they assembled them with contact cement rather than acrylic solvent-weld. This is also annoying but fairly easy to fix by popping the pieces apart and regluing them with proper acrylic cement.

Once the valve was mounted at the right height I attached the included 1/4" supply line to a valve that I teed off of the cold side of my hot water heater.

The water removal is performed by an Aqualift pump. The inlet side is adapted from 1/4" O.D. (airline size) tubing to a piece of 1/2" I.D. black vinyl tubing, a 1/2" barbed elbow and another piece of 1/2" tubing pointing down into the water (sorry that the photos aren't clearer)bing is packed with filter floss as a prefilter to protect the Aqualift.

The exit side of the Aqualift goes into a 1/2" tee fitting - the downward pointing part goes to the drain, the upward pointing part loops back into the tank (but not into the water). This serves as a syphon break, so that the drain can't continue to syphon when the pump shuts off. The half inch drain line connects to another drain (from my 75) and then goes through a hole I drilled in the foundation. It is connected to the house drains/septic system.


This is all you see of the float valve from inside the tank:

This is the view of the Aqualift inlet tube:

I love how creative this design is. It does seem opposite to other concepts I've seen used. Thanks for the detailed explanation Dan!

 

[dxdx]

i Don't use drip emitters i just use a valve, figured out the gph with a clock, a bucket, and some beers.

hmmmm... I may just have to try this method.

 

[Egon]

Subscribed.

I too have a drip system. I just added my fourth tank to this system. Basically I have a 1.5 inch drain pipe that runs on the floor behind all my tanks and one end runs out to my yard. Then I have the 1/4" clear hose (pics later tonight) coming off a manifold with a needle valve for each tank. Each tank gets a little bit, more or less, depending on the tank and occupants. The extra water overflows out the drain to the yard.

I went with a large drain to drain the tanks before the drip system was known to me. So 1.5 inch pipe is unnecessary but nice because I can still drop the level in my tanks if needed to work on something.

Anyway pics later tonight. The system works great and would never go back to the "old way" ever again.

 

[JK47]

Subscribed.

I too have a drip system. I just added my fourth tank to this system. Basically I have a 1.5 inch drain pipe that runs on the floor behind all my tanks and one end runs out to my yard. Then I have the 1/4" clear hose (pics later tonight) coming off a manifold with a needle valve for each tank. Each tank gets a little bit, more or less, depending on the tank and occupants. The extra water overflows out the drain to the yard.

I went with a large drain to drain the tanks before the drip system was known to me. So 1.5 inch pipe is unnecessary but nice because I can still drop the level in my tanks if needed to work on something.

Anyway pics later tonight. The system works great and would never go back to the "old way" ever again.

Sweeet! I was just going to ask where's Egon??? Can't wait to see the pics later tonight.

 

[Egon]

Sweeet! I was just going to ask where's Egon??? Can't wait to see the pics later tonight.

This is the manifold while I was building it. It services 4 tanks.

And the manifold installed

 

[LOPAKA]

^^^ nice Egon, but most of us out here need some pre-filter such as Carbon...... same idea this manifold would just come after the Filter Guys carbon filter

 

[JK47]

This is the manifold while I was building it. It services 4 tanks.

And the manifold installed

That is filtration sexy in every sense of the word...

 

[Egon]

This is the incoming water to one of the tanks. I like to keep the water pouring in for two reasons: First I can easily see the flow and more important it keeps fishy water out of my home water supply. Kinda like a syphon lock you would have on your irrigation for your yard.

 

[Egon]

The drain on each tank is on the sump, as far away from the clean incoming water as possible. I don't want any chance of draining clean water. All my sumps are set up the same. I have a bulkhead with a PVC 90 pointing up then a piece of pipe that I can cut to set the hight of the water. I just pul the pipe out if I need to drain the sump for what ever reason.