Drip Sytem Water Change

[Eugene]

Has anyone ever put a drip system on a bunch of tanks together say 10 that were fed at the beginning tank with an outlet from cannister pump and intake at the last tank.The tanks would be joined with some kinds siphon hose or pipe setup so water flows through all ten tanks from one pump.I'm thinking of this combined with matten filters in the corners where the siphon tube sucks from one tank and expels into the other.I know a large air pump and filters would be simplest but I wanna get away from water changes and cleaning filters cause I will eventually be home one week out of 3.

[jvision]

https://youtu.be/47mRCbUVksACheck out this guy's system

https://youtu.be/47mRCbUVksA

[syno321]

One problem with this type of system is if one of the siphons gets clogged enough to slow, or completely stop the flow.

[Psylant]

I'm in the process of moving my fish into MY first home, and I would love to set up a drip. My concern would be the drains. The only way I can think of doing it "safely" is to drill into the top side of the tank (or sump) and use a coarse screen over the hole to keep out large debris. The flow would be slow enough that nothing should plug it that way.

[jvision]

One problem with this type of system is if one of the siphons gets clogged enough to slow, or completely stop the flow.

And, in Edmonton, our water is not treated with Chlorine which easily dissipates from the water - we have Chloramine, which is a b*tch to get rid of w/o chemicals. I would definitely pass it through a carbon and paper filter first. I think there is one member here who also injected Prime to their auto WC system.

[cullymoto]

I think I should chime in.

In no way can I see syphon or individual pumps in each tank working. Drill and plumb the tanks if this is the way you want to go. Pumps fail, and Siphons, like pumps, if one is faster than the rest your in trouble.

I've done my aquarium and sump similarly to how you've described your rack, where gravity keeps the water equal between the tanks.

I do not do drip water change... In my opinion drip is .. No Bueno, but that's me.

everything is plumbed with 1 inch PVC, the aquarium is drilled to drain on the bottom, the sump is drilled to fill from the side and there is a pump in the sump pushing filtered water back into the aquarium.

A surprise was that the water took a lot of time to equalize, I had to add a second pump to the system to pull water from the aquarium, pushing it into the sump.

Both pumps are variable, I couldn't turn the sump pump down enough at first. It was threatening to overflow the aquarium. Now with the two pumps, controlled by a Neptune apex and float switches I can keep a specific water level and have sufficient gph for filtration.

Love my tank, was a lot of work and cost to get it running properly.

Some things I've discovered;

1. Double your plumbing. Not in size, but number. If one line plugs your in serious trouble and are going to flood. With 2 lines between tanks one can plug and your not doomed.

2. Water takes quite some time to equalize / flow from your filtration system. Your 1st tank in line will be threatening to overflow while the last tank is half full.

Jvision hit a problem as well, without a constant dose of de-Chlor a drip system will stress everything. R/o will remove chlorimine but it also removes everything else. ... Back to my above thought of drip sucks...

[KyleK]

What Cully said is the exact same thing I have found.. it wouldnt be safe to use tap water to run a drip system. and it would be just as bad to use RO water.

So you would either have to figure out how to constantly dose your tanks OR pretreat your own water and store it... and unless you have that kind of space (Who does) its a massive waste of time.

Even setting up something that would automatically drain each tank, turn the tap on and dose with prime would be a massive nightmare just for ONE tank let alone multiple tanks. however it could be done easier if they were plumbed together?

I dont think it is possible!

[jvision]

At work, I have a couple tanks beside each other - one is a 75gal, the other is a 90 with a 33 sump. The sump has an overflow that I've attached a hose to that leads to the drain. When it's time for WCs, I put that overflow hose into a drain, then drain 1/2 of the 75gal into the sump of the tank beside it. All of that water goes down the drain. Then I get a garden hose from the tap, dose the 75 w. Safe (concentrated powder Prime) and refill the 75; then I dose the 90gal w. Safe and put the hose in the 90. I let it run for about 1/2hr, dosing Safe one more time at about the 15-20 min mark - I figure I end up adding about 80gal in that time, so it works out to be a big WC.

[cullymoto]

Still thinking about this, sorry I'm long winded...

So you've got ten tanks, and need them to be semi autonomous while your away for 3 out of 4 weeks. Keeping that in mind, here's what I would do. (Water temp has to be the same between the tanks, if tank x needs diff temp than y, your boned)

Keep your idea of a rack that are all plumbed together, all ten tanks MUST be at the same elevation. A lower tank will overflow.

Drill the tanks, plumb them together with either huge pipe or two lines between each tank. This way you only need one VERY large canister for your water moving, canister pickup line in tank ten and split your return line one into tank one, one into tank 5 or 6. - helps with the equalization problem, and the problem that tank ten would have dirtiest water due to design.

For the drip system, you need a large water storage container. A good option is a large used aquarium, can be had fairly cheap. When your home you fill this tank, do your dechlor for that tank. This tank MUST be higher than the ten tank rack, Gravity is more reliable than pumps and siphons. This tank should have an air bubbler in it, will help to reduce bacteria growth.

This is your clean water for the drip change system. Drill one hole nice and low in this tank and run a line, with a valve (gate valve would be best, just like a garden hose tap. These have a great degree of controll over how open or closed they are) to the tank you want the drip to fall into, probably number 1, this tank also needs an overflow to the drain (power failure means tank 1 could overflow due to drip before the water can equalize) The valve is so that you can reduce or increase the flow out of this tank.

Your overflow to a drain would be in tank ten, and secured to the drain. Would be a big mess if it ever came away from your drain.

While away the large tank slowly drains "fresh" dechlorinated water via drip line into the rack, your canister provides both flow and filtration, and the overflow in tank ten handles excess (hopefully) polluted water. While overflow in one is only for flood prevention.

Setup this way you will see different water levels, 1 - 10, highest to lowest. Larger plumbing between each tank will minimize this though. You will need to invest serious time playing with drip flow, and overflow height to make it work.

Sounds like a lot, is a lot. Not overly technical as it needs to just work. .. Even my computer setup has failed and flooded my fish room before.

Would appreciate other builders thoughts here also.

[Eugene]

Thanks guys I already use my large water storage barrel about 80 gallons sits 4ft off the floor but will elevate the new one higher on its side.Imight setup 3 of them on there side stacked to gravity feed into tanks .I still wanna use my system of one filter pump for 3 4ft tanks and use 2......

1/1/2 J-tubes between tanks more if I need them. I think this will work if power cuts off nothing happens water levels out cause everything at the same level.Probably use some kind of block filter forming a triangular wall in corner around outlets to next tank.If I could find a fiter canister with multiple speeds that would help,there's a few more other things I'd like to refine like adding 20X8 inchwalls of sponge filters in corner with air tubes and bubble stones and there wiill be no filtermedia in cannister which is used as a water pump I might find an alternative.Everything is still in the planning stage.I definately do not want to drill and plumb the tanks which will be 3 to a level.Still want a drip system and drain though.Eventually there will be a second 8ft rack with 1 4ft and 4 smaller breeding tanks per level.My floor foot print is limited too 6ft deep 15ftlong and 7ft high I wanna maintain at least 3ft corridor down middle so no tank should be deeper than 12-16inches.Like I said though everything is just on paper sofar.Oh and I have a battery backup UPS for the airpump.