My inexpensive drip system
- Thread starter rallysman
- Start date
1- Incoming water at washing machine valve reduced to 1/4".
2- Shut off valve in line. Has one on incoming, one on outgoing.
3- Adjustable drip emmiter on incoming at sump. Has one on outgoing as well.
4- 1" return line teed off for outgoing. Drains into washing machine drain. Plastic pressure reducers have been trashed, they leaked. Flow is controlled with valves and the adustable emmiters. Works fine. Water parameters have been very stable. Sorry for the large pics, seems like computer is still screwed up.
2- Shut off valve in line. Has one on incoming, one on outgoing.
3- Adjustable drip emmiter on incoming at sump. Has one on outgoing as well.
4- 1" return line teed off for outgoing. Drains into washing machine drain. Plastic pressure reducers have been trashed, they leaked. Flow is controlled with valves and the adustable emmiters. Works fine. Water parameters have been very stable. Sorry for the large pics, seems like computer is still screwed up.
Nice set-up hillbilly.
How long have you had the system up without the regulators? Just curious, I blew out a drip head going straight thru...good thing it was outside in the hydroponics test units. Near as I can figure ran 700-800 gal of water out before I caught it. Put a water alarm on it after that (and a brass regulator).
Thanks for sharing,
Dr Joe
Yes, I'm using an emitter on both the incoming and outgoing tubes. It can be a little tricky to get it adjusted, but it works great with my glass sump. The sump is made from a 55gal. tank that was already running, so I didn't want to tear it down and drill it. The system has been running several weeks now without the pressure regulators. I just turn the flow coming out of the faucet way down with a valve, seems to do the same thing as the regulator did. The credit goes to rallysman for giving me the idea to use the drip to start with. I just changed his system a little to suit my own needs.
So one drip in, one drip out, keeps the water level the same? What if one slows or clogs or blows out? I supose you have to keep a close eye on it.
Yeah, it takes a little tinkering to get the inflow and outflow the same. I've found if you adjust the outflow to drip slightly faster than the inflow, it stays at a constant level. Not sure why, I guess it must be a pressure difference. It drips so slowly, even if it did clog, I would have a couple of days to fix the problem. Only clean water drips in, and filtered water from my return drips out, so it has not been a problem. The emitters are cheap to replace, and come in packs of 4, so if one fails, I'll just replace it with another. There is so little pressure on this system, that a blowout would be unlikely anyway. I check all the equipment on the tanks everyday anyhow when I feed the fish. Always have. If I had only installed undergravel jets on this tank during initial setup, I wouldn't have to clean the gravel! Next tank will have drip, and undergravel jets for sure!
I run mine a little different.
I use one drip emmiter. This one feeds into the tank. I have a bulkhead drilled 1/2 down in the middle of the tank, using a kinda reverse p-trap outside to regulate the water lvl. This is my drain.
Simple system that is fail-proof. Even if the emmiter failed the 1-1/2 drain would easily handle the overflow.
Chris
I use one drip emmiter. This one feeds into the tank. I have a bulkhead drilled 1/2 down in the middle of the tank, using a kinda reverse p-trap outside to regulate the water lvl. This is my drain.
Simple system that is fail-proof. Even if the emmiter failed the 1-1/2 drain would easily handle the overflow.
Chris
I just drilled the sump where I want the water level. It's a 1/2" bulkhead. been working great for 3 months
