Thoughts on a drip system

[davejep]

I am planning on setting up a couple of 75 gallon tanks. I was thinking of going with a drip system. My thoughts were to run a line off my cold water supply. Here in Vancouver the water is very soft so no need for RO. I was thinking to run this through a sediment cartridge and then a carbon block cartridge to remove chlorine. I then was thinking to take a 1/4" poly tube (irrigation style and wrap it around my hot water heater about 20 times and then cover this with one of those insulated hot water tank covers.This shoud harvest some free heat from the hot water tank. I would then run it up to the next floor where the tanks are (wrapped to maintain the temp) and use irrigation style drip head at either 2 or 4 gallons an hour into the tank. I will drill the tanks and install bulkheads to handle the waste water.
I think this would automate the water change system and make it pretty simple.
If I went with 4 gallons an hour it would turn over almost 100 gallons a day.

What are your thoughts on this?

[White Worm]

You would be better off with a drain and fill setup because you are not turning over 100g of dirty water with clean water when you use a drip system. You might be turning over maybe half or less since the new clean water mixes with the old and they both get drained. You should maintain low nitrates as a guide with your water changes.

[davejep]

I was hoping to eliminate the need to store and heat a bunch of water.
If I could turn over a 100 gallons of water every day don't you think this would be sufficient? I understand that it is not a perfect 100% all at once change but
shouldn't this be sufficient to do the job? I really like the fact that if I am away I don't have to rely on getting somebody to do it. It will happen whether I am there or not. I thought this would eliminate a repetitive boring task and free me up to enjoy the tank more.

[White Worm]

If you are going to put in bulkheads, put them half way down the tank with a valve. Open valve, half the tank drains....Install your water line minus the drip portion for fill. Turn on faucet and fill up. It would probably take you 15 minutes probably less and would be simple to explain to someone while you were gone. A large clean water change is better than drips of clean water IMO. Storing water for wc's is not absolutely needed for everyone. I do 50-80% wc's with straight tap and prime. If no one is around, then any water change system is better than nothing.

[Moon]

I too am installing a drip system for all of my tanks in the fish room. I got drip emiters from Jehmco. They are 0.5gph and 5gph. The larger emmiters for the larger tanks. I am on well water and no need for any treatment.
I've positioned the drain on one end of the tank and feed the other end. This way the mixing of new with old water is minimized. Still working on the system. Hope to have it running by the weekend. I will report on it soon.

[davejep]

I too am installing a drip system for all of my tanks in the fish room. I got drip emiters from Jehmco. They are 0.5gph and 5gph. The larger emmiters for the larger tanks. I am on well water and no need for any treatment.
I've positioned the drain on one end of the tank and feed the other end. This way the mixing of new with old water is minimized. Still working on the system. Hope to have it running by the weekend. I will report on it soon.

I would love to hear how it works out for you. Let us know what works and what doesn't work.

[Ibanez540r]

This should help you out... And don't listen to that, a drip is amazing. The water is constantly clean and consistant. I don't understand why more don't use it unless due to bad water quality. I love it. Only care needed is to do a vacuum as necessary to keep the bottom clean!

http://www.angelfish.net/DripSystemcalc.php

you will need to multiply your GPH x 24 to get a days drip rate. Just make sure your drip in and your return are on opposite sides of the tank to help eliminate removing clean water.

[Don Trinko]

At least one of our sponsers has a drip system. He has tap water going thru a carbon filter ( to remove clorine) then into a heated storage barrel. Then it goes to the drip on each tank. ( he used water sprinkler system parts. ) He actualy has 2 carbon filters, once a month he switches to the other filter and changes the old one. I think after the initial setup this is the only maintanance. Probably not the most economical for water ussage but auto WC and almost no maintanance. Don T.

[White Worm]

Yeah, good thing the clean water stays on one side of the tank and the dirty water keeps to itself on the other side of the tank. :crazy:
I should say that you could use a drip system but in order to keep the water clean for discus, you would want a pretty consistent and continuous flow. Plus, you need to calculate exactly how much you are actually gaining from the drip system. A 4g drip an hour into the tank does not mean you are changing 4g an hour. Yes, the water will be cleaner than doing nothing but I still think the overall consensus is that large w/c's beat drips. You get an instant clean tank of water. This is more important when growing babies or juvies. Nitrates are a good measure...If they are low, then you are probably doing ok.


This should help you out... And don't listen to that, a drip is amazing. The water is constantly clean and consistant. I don't understand why more don't use it unless due to bad water quality. I love it. Only care needed is to do a vacuum as necessary to keep the bottom clean!

http://www.angelfish.net/DripSystemcalc.php

you will need to multiply your GPH x 24 to get a days drip rate. Just make sure your drip in and your return are on opposite sides of the tank to help eliminate removing clean water.

[Ibanez540r]

Yeah, good thing the clean water stays on one side of the tank and the dirty water keeps to itself on the other side of the tank. :crazy:
I should say that you could use a drip system but in order to keep the water clean for discus, you would want a pretty consistent and continuous flow. Plus, you need to calculate exactly how much you are actually gaining from the drip system. A 4g drip an hour into the tank does not mean you are changing 4g an hour. Yes, the water will be cleaner than doing nothing but I still think the overall consensus is that large w/c's beat drips. You get an instant clean tank of water. This is more important when growing babies or juvies. Nitrates are a good measure...If they are low, then you are probably doing ok.

"Just make sure your drip in and your return are on opposite sides of the tank to H-E-L-P eliminate removing clean water."

:argue:...pretty sure it will HELP compared to having the drip directly next to the drain. You probably don't have time to read this though with all those WC's... ;)

[rfeiller]

the up side to a drip system is that the fish are not subject to drastic changes in water chemistry, as they experience with large exchanges of water.
another consideration is the time you have to make water changes, with a drip system at least some of the water is being constantly exchanged.
the down side is the dilution factor. the contaminates will continuely increase with a drip or flow through system to the point that your flow rate would have to be increase to much more water useage then what you would use with large changes to get the same water quality.

[Ibanez540r]

the up side to a drip system is that the fish are not subject to drastic changes in water chemistry, as they experience with large exchanges of water.
another consideration is the time you have to make water changes, with a drip system at least some of the water is being constantly exchanged.
the down side is the dilution factor. the contaminates will continuely increase with a drip or flow through system to the point that your flow rate would have to be increase to much more water useage then what you would use with large changes to get the same water quality.

I agree with rfeiller.. and additionally if you go to the link I previously posted in post #7, you can see the dillution mathematics. It's not as bad as one would think. If you do a 1.5 GPH drip emmiter on a 55 gal tank, it dilutes to a 48.03% water change in one day and 72.99% WC in two days. Not bad.. also you have to factor in the fact of doing daily/every other/weekly vacuuming of the bottom which is a more "large" water change. I think with all of this it outways the negatives and is very convenient. And don't forget, you can still do manual water changes as necessary or whenever you want! The drip just keeps things low maintenance and consistant as previously discussed

[KDodds]

If the drip is installed at one end of the tank, lengthwise, and the drain at the other end, there is little to no chance of "new water" mixing with "old water" and going down the drain as it fills and overflows. With that said, the water does mix in the tank, of course, and the next drip will, of course, send some of the "new water" from teh previous drip down the drain with the "old water" that remained in the tank. I think this is the point that Worm is trying to make. Using such a system, with a constant flow will, mixing considered, yield about a 60% water change, daily. By the end of the fourth day, you will have less than 10% 3 day old water. Effectively, there will be virtually no water in the tank more than 4 or 5 days old, ever. That's a pretty good schedule.

[Don Trinko]

Both methods (drip and % change ) work. A drip does use more water for the same effect as a large wc but so does doing several small wc. With a drip the water parameters are more consistant.
many breeders use a drip in Asia where the water quality is good and the price is cheap. Many of the discus in your tank were raised in a drip system.
Do I use a drip system? No, I do not need it for my situation. Don T.

[pcsb23]

There are advantages and disadvantages with both methods. With a drip system you will use more energy (heating etc). If the water company doen't mess with the water then stability is a real plus. If you want to use ro, or a blend of ro it gets complictaed. Complicated = fails ime :o

With drain and refill if you use a storage tank then you can protect against some of the worst excesses of the water companies, and with experience stability is easily maintained. It's also simple and fool proof - probably why I do it this way :o

[davejep]

I too am installing a drip system for all of my tanks in the fish room. I got drip emiters from Jehmco. They are 0.5gph and 5gph. The larger emmiters for the larger tanks. I am on well water and no need for any treatment.
I've positioned the drain on one end of the tank and feed the other end. This way the mixing of new with old water is minimized. Still working on the system. Hope to have it running by the weekend. I will report on it soon.

Just wondering how the drip system is working out?
Any disappointments?
Any advice?