Automatic drip systems question and concerns

[Jboy1128]

Hello friends I was wondering if anyone on here has extensive experience using a drip system in their fish room, As my fish room continues to expand and my biggest tank being 600 gallons spending all day Saturday doing water changes waiting for my hot water tank to fill back up has become a pain. I’ve been extensively researching these automatic drip systems the only part that truly confuses me is the Irrigation timer and solenoid situation. What if I just completely avoided that part and ran a drip 24/7 through a water treatment filters straight from my cold water line? If dripping 3 gallons a hour 24 hours a day equals 72 gallons a day thus being 504 gallons changed weekly on my biggest system seems reasonable. to be fair some water is wasted it seems I’d be doing atleast a 60% water change weekly and I feel as if my heaters would be able to keep up with the small 3 gallons of cold water dripping in per hour my other smaller tanks would only need probably 1 gallon per hour dripped in. But since the first tank getting water would be my 600 at 3 gph would my other tanks down the line that drip in 1 gph be receiving non creditable amounts of water per hour since the first line is the biggest if that makes sense? Maybe I am totally over thinking this any input would be greatly appreciated

 

[Midwater]

I have got drip systems on all my tanks. Never do a water change, life is easy.

... Irrigation timer and solenoid situation ...

Don't make it over complicated.

I just drip from my mains (it is dechlorinated already). I use a needle valve in line with a gate valve to get the fine control over flow. Large tanks need greater flow, so I calculate about one tenth of the volume of the tank per day.

I have a waste water outlet high up from the settlement chamber of the sump, so there is no messing with the water level.

Every few days I look at the speed of the drip, and might tweak it up or down a little.

 

[Jboy1128]

I have got drip systems on all my tanks. Never do a water change, life is easy.



Don't make it over complicated.

I just drip from my mains (it is dechlorinated already). I use a needle valve in line with a gate valve to get the fine control over flow. Large tanks need greater flow, so I calculate about one tenth of the volume of the tank per day.

I have a waste water outlet high up from the settlement chamber of the sump, so there is no messing with the water level.

Every few days I look at the speed of the drip, and might tweak it up or down a little.

Yeah setting up the system seems pretty straight forward to me. My fish room is in my basement and I conveniently have a floor drain within about 12 feet of all my tanks, has your water bill suffered greatly after starting your drip only system ? my water bill remains at about 100$ a month and i am wondering how badly this system will affect it

 

[jjohnwm]

I am jealous of all who can do the continuous drip system. I would love to have my tanks on a system like that, but have no way to dispose of all that waste water through the cold months.

If you are on a municipal sewer system you are gold. But bear in mind that if you are on a septic system, an addition of several hundred additional gallons of water per week will definitely impact the lifespan of your weeping tile bed...and fixing that is a huge and expensive PITA. Rather than speeding the demise of your septic bed, you will need to route the tank waste water via a separate drain line to a location far enough from your house to not cause problems with flooding of the lawn in summer or skating-rink creation in winter. If you have a fairly steep grade near the house, this should be doable. If you live on a 1000-mile-wide billiard table like I do, it can become much more challenging.

wednesday13 has a lot of experience with drip systems and can probably help.

 

[Midwater]

has your water bill suffered greatly after starting your drip only system ?

No, it is the same. A ten percent drip per day is the same water volume as a seventy percent water change once per week. Just keep an eye on the flow rate. Let a cup fill up from the drip for one minute, weigh before and after, and multiply by ... whatever.

Continuous drip and sumps full of pumice, keep my nitrates at unreadable.

Does help a lot if you have oxygenated/dechlorinated mains water, and municipal waste line close by.

 

[wednesday13]

Ive been doing a cold water drip 24/7 for around 10yrs now. I dont treat the water as i have no chloramines. Chlorine is fine in small amounts. It gasses off on its own.
No need for anything fancy or complicated. I use ice maker kits to tap into my copper house pipes. I modify them a bit for higher flow and also regulate the pressure with a ball valve and pressure guage. I use drip emitters and there rated to around 40psi. House pressure is 80psi. Most of the time u need a regulator to monitor or cut down the house pressure for drip emitters.

U should be replacing 100% or more of ur tank volume in a week. My personal rule of thumb is 1gph for every 100gal. Plus or minus depending on stocks. You just test ur water and add more drip if needed to get ur nitrates down.


As for drips costing u more… thats plausible. If ur on city water ur also paying for sewer. Sometimes u can get an additional meter put in just for the fish water so ur not paying for sewer like when u have a pool. Im on septic system so i dont pay for sewer and i also pump my fish drain water 100’ out and away from the house to bypass the septic.

I used to drip 37gph… around 880gal a day to my fish room and it was def. An expense. Ive gotten rid of alot of tanks in my older years and only drip 16-18gph now, 400gal a day for a pretty consistent bill of $130 a month for water.

 

[wednesday13]

Another option is a mixing valve to supply ur drip water. U pull from ur hot water line and cold water line. You can save alot of $$ by heating ur tanks this way. Ur tank heaters become a backup and dont need to run. Downside is if ur dripping alot of water u can expend the life of ur hot water tank quicker. Gas is always cheaper then electric.

 

[Jboy1128]

Ive been doing a cold water drip 24/7 for around 10yrs now. I dont treat the water as i have no chloramines. Chlorine is fine in small amounts. It gasses off on its own.
No need for anything fancy or complicated. I use ice maker kits to tap into my copper house pipes. I modify them a bit for higher flow and also regulate the pressure with a ball valve and pressure guage. I use drip emitters and there rated to around 40psi. House pressure is 80psi. Most of the time u need a regulator to monitor or cut down the house pressure for drip emitters.

U should be replacing 100% or more of ur tank volume in a week. My personal rule of thumb is 1gph for every 100gal. Plus or minus depending on stocks. You just test ur water and add more drip if needed to get ur nitrates down.


As for drips costing u more… thats plausible. If ur on city water ur also paying for sewer. Sometimes u can get an additional meter put in just for the fish water so ur not paying for sewer like when u have a pool. Im on septic system so i dont pay for sewer and i also pump my fish drain water 100’ out and away from the house to bypass the septic.

I used to drip 37gph… around 880gal a day to my fish room and it was def. An expense. Ive gotten rid of alot of tanks in my older years and only drip 16-18gph now, 400gal a day for a pretty consistent bill of $130 a month for water.

Definitely makes me feel better about applying this system my final question would be is I am currently using city water and every once in a who knows how long we get a water quality report my water contains chlorine not chlormine thank god but I am wondering if heavy metals and fluoride will play into account as it seems my supply contains trace amounts of both for years I’ve just used prime and safe with 0 issues should I be concerned about the heavy metals and fluoride in my water? I have found water filtration filters that hook up to those blue filters that I’d guess are used for house water filtration that claim they remove heavy metals and fluoride or yet again should I just not worry since the drip is only so much daily and just install a sediment and carbon block

 

[wednesday13]

Definitely makes me feel better about applying this system my final question would be is I am currently using city water and every once in a who knows how long we get a water quality report my water contains chlorine not chlormine thank god but I am wondering if heavy metals and fluoride will play into account as it seems my supply contains trace amounts of both for years I’ve just used prime and safe with 0 issues should I be concerned about the heavy metals and fluoride in my water? I have found water filtration filters that hook up to those blue filters that I’d guess are used for house water filtration that claim they remove heavy metals and fluoride or yet again should I just not worry since the drip is only so much daily and just install a sediment and carbon block

Glad to help … it seems overwhelming at first and hard to set up but its really easy. I had a friend coach me through it back when also. Theres really no wrong way to do it parts wise. Whatever u can come up with that works for u, works lol…

As for the pre filtration… those screw on/ro system type containers ur talking about are what u want to use if u do go that route. Easy to run in line and u can get different filters for the same housings. Sediment, resin, carbon… dig around online u can get them fairly affordable.

I have flouride, lots of sediment build up and chlorine. IMO its “drops in the ocean” theory. Ive kept an erray of different species and even bred rays in my unfiltered tap water. Ive had a few instances where theres water line breaks and i dripped in mudd water but everyone was fine. I usually cut the drips for a day if/when that happens. It cant hurt to be more prepared than myself. U might need it one day, you might not.

 

[Flaring Afro]

I've had water dripping into my turtle's tank for years and have never had to change the water. I just have the cold water pass through a Filtrete under kitchen sink filter. Make sure the drip is high up because if the tank water reaches it, the tank water will get inside and contaminate your home's water supply. Also not all under sink filters are equal and you'd want to make sure yours tackles chlorine. Using this also helps prevent metals etc from building up, which can be a problem with regular unfiltered water changes anyways.

I have never been on septic but I'd expect the drip system to actually be better for it if you are still changing the exact same amount of water a month. I'd think doing a large water change all at once would be harder on it than the slow drip, but I really don't know that much about septics so do your own research on that.

Cost is again going to be the same, as long as you measure it and make it the same amount in the end. Actually, I believe it would be cheaper from an energy use standpoint since you won't be emptying your water heater.

I'd never have a freshwater tank without one again. Especially with sand and creatures that stir it up. My turtle is in a stock tank so no glass and all I do maintenance wise is rinse the filter sponge once a month and twice a year replace the drip system's filter.