Drip system finally up and running

[lilscoots]

So, I've been working on this thing for a while now, but I finally got my drip system up and running.  It was a lot of trial and error, some parts that didn't perform like there were supposed to, a lot of tweaking and a lot of water on the floor (I'm glad it was in my concrete basement and my wife is understanding).  I'll get some pics/video up later tonight or tomorrow.

[lilscoots]

I mostly followed a write-up from another site to build my own version of the system.  As of right now, I have 5x 40 longs, 6x 20 longs, and my 180 on the system.  Plans are to get two 150's on the system as well as a few 10 gallons once that half of my fish room is set up.  the 20's get 0.5 gph (about 40% water change daily - more than I want, but .5 gph are the smallest drip emitters I could find and I'm not going to put a timer on this thing), the 40's also get 0.5 gph (about 25% daily, 90% weekly).  and my 180 (with 60 gallon sump) has 5x 0.5 gph emitters for a total of 2.5 gph (about 20% daily, 80% weekly).  I had to install a whole house filter with a carbon filter to remove the chlorine as early tests of the system wiped out a batch of fry.  Overflows are very simple PVC and vinyl tubing which all drain into a hole in my floor and out into the ravine.  Plans are to set-up some kind of collection system to water the garden, but that will have to wait until spring.  So I still have to vacuum crap out of my tanks, but I don't have to worry about keeping up with water changes anymore!  which will save me a ton of time each week.

Here are some pics.

The whole house filter which for now is sitting in my fishroom "sink" until I can mount it somewhere.


The pressure regulator just before a gate valve....this is the second pressure regulator I installed, it's an agricultural grade one as the one from HD didn't work as planned.  I also put this gate valve in to further restrict flow as even with the regulator, the pressure was still blowing out the drip emitters, the gate valve let me dial in the right pressure to the system.


One of the manifolds - this is for the tanks I haven't set up yet, and end in closed adjustable drip emitters for now.  Each branch of the system also has a ball valve so I can make modifications to the branch without having to shut the whole system down.


The other three manifolds


A close up of the overflow:  It's very simple, very cheap and works.  The vinyl tube you see in the tank is the output, the height of the T fitting in the PVC determines the water level in the tank, this is the part that took a lot of adjusting and led to some tank overflow onto the floor.....


Three of the 40's overflows piped in


a pretty crappy shot of one of the drip emitters

[linuxrulesusa]

Wow, looks like a lot of work but I'm sure the time savings long term will be worth it.  Good job.

[jcunningham0295]

Very cool.  Please demo how it works.  Would love to see it.

[Regalblue]

Nice!

[four_by_ken]

Excellent!

[Steve]

What exactly is a drip systems purpose? Does it add water at a certain rate to cut down water changes or what does it do? I've never seen one myself so I'm a bit lost on what it does. How does the water get removed from the tank at the same rate as it comes in?

[lilscoots]

What exactly is a drip systems purpose? Does it add water at a certain rate to cut down water changes?

Yes, it adds water at a certain rate so I don't have to do water changes, I just have to vacuum crap as it builds up.

How does the water get removed from the tank at the same rate as it comes in?

The water exits via the vinyl tubing which goes into a PVC pipe and then into a drain.  The water in the PVC pipe and the tank are kept "even" via a siphon in that vinyl tube. as the water level in the tank rises due to the addition of new water, the water in the PVC tube also rises via the siphon tube.  When the water in the PVC rises above the T in the PVC it flows into a drain.

I can get a video explaining it up sometime next week, I'm working this weekend, and my niece is currently sleeping in my fishroom.

[Steve]

Okay I think I get what your saying, so the water is somewhat constantly going in and out of the tank just at a very slow rate? That's pretty slick

[four_by_ken]

.

[Ron]

Cool thread. What is the reason for not wanting to run a timer? Cost?

The overflow idea is really slick.

[lilscoots]

Yeah, working on a pretty tight budget, didn't want to add the expense of a timer.  I'll be able to shoot a video tomorrow evening to show it working. 

[merritt]

Great job and well thought out. I've been thinking about this concept for a long time and hopefully plan to use it in the future. I s there a way to figure the flowfate in conjuction with the ecoosystem? I mean like fish life varies. Also the water pressure. The guys on youtube say they still perform water changes but at a broader length of time. I'll be looking forward to your video

[lilscoots]

update, most of the fish are doing well now that i have a house carbon filter installed in the line.  My Julidichromis however did not fare as well.  Two different species, marlieri and ornatus, died after the installation of this system.  I'm not sure why as I hadn't had them that long, possibly the percentage was too great a change?  When I noticed the first Juli swimming strangely I shut the system down, but the damage had been done I guess.  All four of them (2 of each) died a few days after.

Everyone else, including cyprichromis, paracyprichromis, lamprologous, telmatichromis and all my malawi are doing fine.

I am finding that I need to "flush" the overflow tubes every so often to remove random detrius that gets into them or the tank will overflow as it restricts the flow of water.  Perhaps larger pipe and tubing would help in that.  I may try that as it's relatively inexpensive to cut new pipe and tube. or I can just flush the tubes with a powerhead for a few seconds every couple of weeks.

I wasn't able to get a video as my fishroom is in great disarray and I was trying to figure out what was going on with the Julies.

[lilscoots]

Alright, here's a couple of videos
The first one shows an overview of the system:
http://youtu.be/W989srecN_o

The second shows how to prime the siphon for each overflow and how to flush the overflow if it gets clogged:
http://youtu.be/Iv5Ws4_OqP4

Let me know if you have any other questions about it.