Changing on Drip

[jjgallow]

I would like to set my tank up on drip, but I'm worried about the chlorine.

I would be using maybe 80% RO and 20% chlorinated Tap. The water wouldn't really have long to age.

How well would this work and would I need to treat the chlorine? If so, how would I do this? Tablets?

Any suggestions would be appreciated! I don't have time to change 50% per day and I think Drip could be my answer.

I run mine through a chlorine filter( activated charcoal), and then a sediment filter....from there it goes to the first tank...just before the first drip nozzle, i add a "T" to the line so I can continue the water line after the first nozzle...I've got 4 tanks hooked up this way...I've got angel fry growing out in one of the tanks and I've had no troubles(from the dripper anyway...lol)

David,

I assume you mean you run it through the sediment filter and then the carbon... No point clogging up the carbon with garbage in your water.

Dave

you trying to bust my balls, clubine??!!! :o hahahahaha....
yes, thanks for the correction(i just went and double-checked--hahaha) sediment first and then carbon... :)

[ronrca]

If only using 20% tap water, is it nesseccary to dechlor it? I would think that it would be so diluted making it unneccessary to dechlor! ???

[jjgallow]

Thanks everybody!

I use the waste water from the RO as tap....and I believe that this is also dechlorinated. Either way it would also be diluted.

So.... I start drip today! Now they get the equivalent of 100% water changes daily and I don't have to do NUTTIN! :D

Thanks again!
:P

ron:(re: 20% tap) The tanks that i drip water into are on straight tap-water(no RO) I was relating my experience...I'd imagine there would still be some chlorine in the water even at 20%, and he did mention there would be very little time for aging...there's probably even a little chlorine left in MY drip water... the filter says it removes 97%...

[jjgallow]

Thanks again,

Made the switch yesterday. So far everything's good and the fish seem quite pleased with the fresher water. ;D

[Smokey]

Hmmmm. just a drop of chlorine can kill the bacteria in your bio-filters. The carbon filters, two in series is better, will remove the chlorine, by my test kits they do. Why take unnecessary chances.???

Smokey

[jjgallow]

I believe there is just one carbon filter in my RO kit.

I probably did take a bit of a chance there!

However, the fish are all smiling and appear much happer than when they were getting my infrequent water changes. Better color, more activity, more flirting, greater appetite. ;D

What's more, I did the drip in such a way that no hole in my tank was needed. Do most people using drip cut holes in their tank? I'd almost prefer the method I have now.

[ronrca]

Im curious about your method without holes! Any pics perhaps?

[jjgallow]

Don't have the digital camera today, but hopefully this illustration works.

Ingredients:

-Coffee Cup (with a hole drilled in the side)
-Syphon Tube
-Silicon

:D

that's great if it works, but i just wouldn't feel comfortable doing that with my tanks....if it loses syphon you could have an awful lot of water on the floor... :)
at least with drilled bulkheads you know that as long as the water level is rising, the excess will be running out the hole in the tank...

[jjgallow]

The siphon actually goes to the bottom of my tank, unlike my illustration, hehe.

But yes, it is a bit riske. I bet there are some good flood stories on this forum even with drilled holes, though....just an inherant risk you assume with any sort of drip system.

I promise to post with pictures if I flood ;)

I guess you can get comfortable with anything. I use a purchased filter box on my wet/dry that works on the same premise as the diagram. It works great, has never failed. But the risk is there. Mind you I would also be worried about what happens in a power failure, regardless of how you're overflowing the water... you'll be pumping cold water into your tank and your heaters will be dead.

Dave

jj: That system work. I've been using it for over 20 years. Some modification you can do to prevent accident.
1. Cut the siphone tube above the tank and connect it with a clear plastic tube. So that you can clearly see an air bubble being form in the tube and that will defeat the siphoning effect.

2. Connect a tap with on/off switch on the highest point of the system to allow you to use a syringe to draw air bubble out from time to time.

3. Extend the tube inside the tank to the bottom to avoid fine air bubbles generated by the filtration system to enter the system and break the siphoning effect.
HTH
Jimmy.

[jjgallow]

Thanks, Jimmy!

20 years is very encouraging for me! I'm absolutely in love with finally not having to change the water. I love my discus, but I don't love water changes and they don't love how infrequent they were.

The tap idea is superb! I seem to have pretty good suction somehow...when I primed the tube, there was a rather large air bubble. It has since dissipated. If i do start to see them forming, I'll go for the tap with syringe.

cheers! 8)

p.s...so happy to be free of water changes! And WOW are the fish ever showing some great color and activity!

[WrxAnt]

Damn we are in a drought in southern Australia at the moment....

We have been told all the usual stuff. 2 minutes max for a shower. Don't water you gardens with sprinklers, don't wash your car, blah blah blah

So I somehow doubt this will be happening at my place for some time.

BTW guys how long is the plumbing for this or do you just happen to be close to a faucet and drainhole?

Mmmm I wonder if my wife will let me run 15ft of hose into the other bathroom...

Regards
Antony

[jjgallow]

Sorry about the droubt, Antony!

I think about the water usage all the time with quite a bit of guilt. We don't even have a water meter, we can use as much as we like. :-[

Particularly with RO water, 2/3ds is waste and I just don't have that many plants to water! If I grow up fry, I'll use this water for them.

If I can justify the water use in any way....the real damage is done by polluted waste water....RO is actually more purified for downstream use!

I keep my tanks in the basement with two 30-foot hoses, one for in and one for out to the drain. Needless to say the basement is not finished.

[midnight1]

even with a drip system don't you have too remove the fishes solid waste from the bottom of the tank?? if you do does this draw down (water removal) in the tank break the syphon??? i like the idea of a drip system since if it didn't break the syphon removing the extra solids then i wouldn't ever have too add more water manually - the drip system would fill up the tank from the waste removal too the level where the overflow system would start too work again - right?? thanks

paul

[jjgallow]

My Drip syphon is too slow to pick up solid waste.. I don't know about others but I have a separate syphon for that, which is hooked up directly to the drain and controlled by valves.

For sure, it's nice as I just remove the waste, and the water returns to the original level on its own!
;D

Depending on the cost of water and the quality of your water you will come to love or hate a drip system. Few come to rely solely on it. You can't assume that dripping 1gph into a 24g tank will result in a 100% water... it's actually changing about 63%. That results in a lot of waste. And if your tap water has a high level of dissolved gas you may find that your tank looks cloudier then it used to because it is constantly degassing, which can also cause your pH to fluctuate a bit (but if you drip 24/7 pH irregularity probably won't be an issue). My main concern with dripping was that if there was ever a drastic problem with my water supply I wouldn't notice until fish started dropping. For instance, there was a water main break in our neighbourhood and after they cleaned it up the water lines were full of crap. My holding tank suddenly turned brown when I was refilling it. I stopped the water flow, emptied the tank and waited for the water to clarify. I'd hate to be doing that in my fish tanks instead of a holding tank. Similary by dripping water you make it harder or irrelevant to test your water supply. I can test my holding tank for chlorine, nitrite, nitrate etc. and choose to discard the water... not possible on a drip system.

I abandoned mine because I found that even when dripping the equivalant of 1gph into a 24g tank for my tanks I still had to change some water to get the same cleanliness as I had when I drained & filled 50%. The time saved by a drip becomes very little indeed if you siphon the tank bottoms daily. I hook up siphons, they drain the tanks while I siphon, then I refill the tanks and clean some filters, feed fish, wipe glass while the refilling occurs. I spend 25 minutes in the morning doing 1/2 of my tanks and 25 minutes in the afternoon doing the other 1/2. I doubt I'd save 5 minutes each time if I was dripping. But those are only my observations. The bottom line was that I hated to see water flowing down the drain all day and the constant flow of cold water caused my cold water line to form condensation and drip all over my basement. That and the cloudy water caused me to abandon the drip.

Dave

p.s. my RO unit flows much of the day as well and that flow down the drain drives me nuts too but I don't have an alternative. And the flow is much less then the flow to my tanks via a drip was so there is no problem with condensation on my cold water line.

-david- and Daninthesand: Here is the pic of my home made overflow system. I hung it in front of the tank to show what it looks like at the back of the tank. The output is connected to the drain. That what I meant the tap with a syringe. The height of the output determines the water level inside the tank. It's adjustable.HTH
Jimmy.

[daninthesand]

Thanks Jimmy.

I can tell you work in a hospital. Those 3 way stopcocks look very familiar ;) So it is adjustible by changing the length of the outside tube height right?

Daniel

Right. and the input extended to the bottom of the tank to avoid bubbles comming inside the tube.
Jimmy.

[Discusgeo]

JJGallo here is the one I built and they work fine. You don't have to worry about it draining to much water from your tank because you adjust the PVC tube to where you want it.
http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1168563
http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1168562
This one was made very quickly so I didn't make all the measurements correctly, thats why it's leans to one side.
http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1168561

[jjgallow]

Thanks for the Great Pics, DiscusGeo and JimmyL!

They're both a lot sturdier than mine. I really should invest in making mine a little more permanent. Having that tube going all the way down to the bottom of the tank like JimmyL's is really prudent.

DiscusGeo, did you have problems with the bubbles like JimmyL and others have?

They've only been up a little over a week but I've had no problems so far. It might be my water, or it might also be that I use much smaller tubing at the highest point, which makes for a faster flow of water, carrying any bubbles with it.

I also still age my water. Hopefully most of the bubbles are dissolved before entering the tank. I just run the RO mixture into my aging bucket, which then drips into my tank using a hole-cut drip.

[Discusgeo]

The unit you are looking at JJGallo is the overflow. There is no incoming water to create any bubbles. Once I fill it with water the siphon never stops. As long as water is entering the tank the old water is going out. If the incoming flow of water stops the overflow stops also.

[jjgallow]

Okay. Earlier in the discussion, JimmyL and some others noted that in their Overflow, bubbles would gradually form and they would lose suction. Thus, the tank could flow over.

I was just wondering if you had the same problems, but obviously not. I'm guessing it just depends on the type of water you have.

Fine bubbles can be created by sponge filters or power filterls.Dissolved Co2 and O2 will escape from water contiunously. by extending the tube to the bottom will avoid breaking the siphoning effect in massive water change over 90%. Just a fail safe system. Bubble doesn't created overnight. Only when you are away for your holiday or weekend. Murphy's law.
Jimmy.

[jjgallow]

One thing's for sure, I Like Drip now!

After two weeks of drip, my discus started spawning. And they're doing an excellent caretaking job for rookies. Another pair looks ready to spawn as well. Meanwhile, I've put way less effort in.

The biggest thing I like about drip is the effort, but I believe the discus are also benefitting from extremely consistent water. It is fresh and always the same ph, hardness etc. Every day, all day.

Thanks for the input everyone! Glad I switched, the fish look great.