It sounds more complicated than it is... my drip systems are fairly cheap, plugg and play, and easy to install. Sure, theres more than one way to skin a cat...and theres also always room for improvement with any system imo. I started with a $12 "ice maker" kit from home depot and went from there. I had plenty help from fish friends on here also. Couldnt have done it without them. Basically i use "saddle valves" from the ice maker kits and 1/4" poly tubing to get my clean water from my houses copper lines. After that i use an assortment of push connect or barbed fittings into drip emitters to make certain gph's per tank. My rule of thumb is 2gph for every 100gal for starters. Some of my tanks handle this ratio fine... other tanks use double or triple that if needed depending on stocks or if im getting lazy and dont feel like cleaning filters ill just up my drip lol... i order my emitters from dripworks.com but they can be had almost anywhere online with a quick google search for drip emitters or sprinkler type supply stores.. i just T off the main 1/4" line with as many emitters i need to make a desired gph. some tanks have 1 emitter...others have 3-4. U can do this any way u please also tho. I like being able to change things around as needed and the 1/4" poly tubing makes it easy to add/subtract in a pinch. Over the years i keep tweaking my drip lines when issues arise, learn...and move forward. I now make my own pressure regulator to manage/view the way the lines and house water pressure are flowing and keep them at a consistent gph. Most everything i use comes from the hardware store aside from the emitters and liquid filled pressure guages. If i could go back and start over i might run a larger "feed" line for clean water but again i kinda like the ease of the 1/4" poly tube. Ive had to modify the saddle valves i use to attain a constant 40-50psi in a 1/4" line but as i said earlier, live, learn, and improve. Drip emitters are usually rated at 60psi... took me a while of popping them to realise i needed to regulate my house water pressure down to accomidate as its usually high around 80-90psi.. this took well over a year of them running tho before i had problems. Now i can watch my pressure guage drop or rise when a toilet flushes in the house and compensate lol... Had a fun one last week when a city water line burst. my guages dropped down to 10psi and i knew to shut them off for a cple days while the city did repairs. Pretty amazing a $8 guage let me know there was a problem and to call the city. I drove around and found the break 2 miles from my home. My tap was also discolored.
That brings up another point about drips in "pre filtration" since u have a whole home filtration system ur crossing off another expense during setup. I fly by the seat of my pants using just city tap water. After this last incident im looking into carbon and resin filters in case anything happens again.
and the rant goes on lol.... once u setup or figure out how to get fresh water into ur tank comes the part of draining dirty water out. Ur half way there also with the sump pump ran to ur storm ditch. other than that u just need a hole/bulkhead drilled in ur sump to set the water level or u can also drill a hole at ur tanks water level to use as the "drip drain" if u have no sump filter. I have both styles running in house and have ran tanks with just sponge filters and auto drips that worked great as well as canisters/drips and sumps/drips. I basically have 100' of 1.5" pvc pipe that runs around the permitter of my fishroom/basement into the sump pump. I "T" off the main line of pvc and my drip drains go into it. no biggie.
Do alot of reading if needed, dont get confused or over think it, its not hard to setup even on a budget. I spent $150-200 initially to supply/drain 12-15 tanks at any given time. I learned quickly with pieces/parts to play with in real life but thats just me. U may be able to plan everything out better on paper or research alone. I needed to dive right into installation to grasp it fully, observe, and then make improvements. Def...most def. the best fish improvement i made in 15yrs of keeping. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Even if i only had a 10gal tank id still use autodrip. Eleminates stress from water changes, improves stability in ur system and the quality of life in house for my fish improved greatly. Makes for a happy spouse also hahah...as u have more time for "real life" with no more w\c's....and most importantly more time for u to enjoy ur fish/hobby rather than be a slave to it.
That brings up another point about drips in "pre filtration" since u have a whole home filtration system ur crossing off another expense during setup. I fly by the seat of my pants using just city tap water. After this last incident im looking into carbon and resin filters in case anything happens again.
and the rant goes on lol.... once u setup or figure out how to get fresh water into ur tank comes the part of draining dirty water out. Ur half way there also with the sump pump ran to ur storm ditch. other than that u just need a hole/bulkhead drilled in ur sump to set the water level or u can also drill a hole at ur tanks water level to use as the "drip drain" if u have no sump filter. I have both styles running in house and have ran tanks with just sponge filters and auto drips that worked great as well as canisters/drips and sumps/drips. I basically have 100' of 1.5" pvc pipe that runs around the permitter of my fishroom/basement into the sump pump. I "T" off the main line of pvc and my drip drains go into it. no biggie.
Do alot of reading if needed, dont get confused or over think it, its not hard to setup even on a budget. I spent $150-200 initially to supply/drain 12-15 tanks at any given time. I learned quickly with pieces/parts to play with in real life but thats just me. U may be able to plan everything out better on paper or research alone. I needed to dive right into installation to grasp it fully, observe, and then make improvements. Def...most def. the best fish improvement i made in 15yrs of keeping. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Even if i only had a 10gal tank id still use autodrip. Eleminates stress from water changes, improves stability in ur system and the quality of life in house for my fish improved greatly. Makes for a happy spouse also hahah...as u have more time for "real life" with no more w\c's....and most importantly more time for u to enjoy ur fish/hobby rather than be a slave to it.
