I Have been running the drip emitter system on my turtle tank for the last couple years, and it makes maintenance a snap. I just have to clean out the filtration once a month or so and scrub down his tank now and then. I run the drain line into a floor drain as well, but I have had the same thought that turtleman had. I don't think it would be too hard to create an artificial sump with a bucket that you could drop a basement sump pump into to shoot water into the drain of your choice. I know when I set mine up the recommended pressure for the drip emitters was lower than what my home supplied, so I had to buy a regulator to get it down the the recommended pressure. How much running at a different pressure effects it, I don't know, I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry and the regulator only cost $10-15.
I've seen drip lines, emitters, and such at hardware stores, but most of the emitters were 1gph+. If I remember correctly when I bought my 1/2 gph emitters they ended up at around 26 cents, so I bought ten. When I setup my system I just put a garden hose Y on a cold water line off a slop sink in the laundry room and ran 1/8" pex tubing for my feed and drain lines. I've had problems with my drain not working correctly, so I would say it would be wise to run a larger drain line so that it's less restrictive. I had to run a good distance, so I went for the cheap and easy route and used most of a 100' roll of pex.
If anyone can track down Jimbob, he had the best auto water change system I've personally seen. It consisted of a lot of 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tanks, sprinkler valves, and probably a lot I missed. He had his tanks all drilled, but they were only drilled as drains, and were all run on separate filtration. His system would simply flush the tanks with aged water from the 300 gallon rubbermaids at the push of a button. I remember him stating that they were not automated so that there would be no unnecessary water changes, and/or floods.
