Setting up a trickle "manifold" for my three tanks

[Egon]

I just set up a 120 gallon tank in my living room to add to my existing 360 and 450 gallon tanks. They are all on a central drain system that runs out to my yard. The two older tanks have been running on a trickle for water changes for a few years now and I love it. I wanted to add the 120 to this system and also update my plumbing.

The old system is a copper pipe coming from my laundry room that is behind the fish tanks. The pipe Y's into two hose bibs and I ran a hose to each tank and adjusted the flow with the hose bib knob, very simple but hard to maintain a constant even flow.

 

[Egon]

The new system will have a manifold that can adjust flow to each tank and also I wanted to keep one of the old hose lines connected so I can fill a tank if needed.

 

[cockroach]

Nice work. How much water will you be changing a day?

 

[tyjo1334]

you are going to have some fast growing very healthy fish good inspiration

 

[Egon]

Running these small poly lines was easy. This is a few shots of my 120 getting it's trickle set up. I like to add the new/clean water to the tank and I put my drain in the sump. That way all the clean water just doesn't flow out the drain, it has a chance to mix before it gets to the sump. Also if I ever have a power outage the water is still flowing. LOL it's not much flow but it still flows into the tank down to the sump and out to the yard 24/7 365 days a year

Also, I do not filter the water, I use straight unfiltered tap water for my fish. Probably risky on my part but I've been doing this here in AZ for 6 years now with out issues.

Let me know what you guys think?

 

[Egon]

Nice work. How much water will you be changing a day?

I think I'm set up for 1 gallon an hour, 24 a day, 168 a week for the big tanks. The 120 is half that.

you are going to have some fast growing very healthy fish good inspiration

Been doing this from day 1 at this house (two years) and three years before that at my old house. I love it!

Edit: The fish love it too

 

[mustang93svt]

Egon, I have some questions about your drain line.. pm'd

 

[Egon]

Egon, I have some questions about your drain line.. pm'd

Ask away. The drain is the other half of a trickle system. I will be happy to answer any question here. Also my 450, 360, and 120 threads have detailed descriptions and pictures of the drain.

 

[Sarmo]

hi Egon,

i use to use that same poly pipe as a chiller in the sump of my reef tank. i just ran water through the pipe and since it was cold, it cooled the system good enough for the couple weeks we hit the 100's.
i did have a problem though, the pipe got brittle and cracked and leaked. i'm not sure if it was the lights or the salt water that caused the poly pipe to break down. all i'd suggest is to watch it to see if it starts getting brittle..... mine turned white before it broke. now i use black 1/4" pipe for landscape driplines. also i quite using barb fittings as they failed fairly fast. the speed fittings don't seem to have that problem for me.

i noticed that you used brass fittings? no problem with them adding copper?

 

[mustang93svt]

Egon I tried pm'ming you but it was full. My main question is if you use pvc for your drain line? I wanted to use soft line for a drain because it would be easier to run behind the three tanks that are already set up. However I'm afraid of the soft line filling with water and stopping flow, causing the wet/dry or tank to overflow. i want to run one drain for a 420,300,280 gal. Would I be better off using pvc? I have plans on using a drip irrigation setup for supply on a timer. Thanks Ken