# drip system a drilling into the sump question (freshwater)



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

So I'm finding that my bio load is being handled very nicely by my K1 filter but my nitrates get to around 80 even though i do a 40% water change every week so I'm going to install a drip system that iv'e already got hooked up under my sink. It will drip into the main tank and there will be a bulkhead in the sump at my optimum water level with a hose leading to my drain.

Questions:

-has anyone done this before?
-does anyone local have a 1" glass cutting hole saw i can borrow?
-about my ro system is it the charcoal that takes out the chlorine? or something else because its a 2 stage and i just want to fill both containers with the substance that gets rid of chlorine.

any bits of advice people can give me is more than welcome 


Jason


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

You are right. It's the carbon stage that removes chlorine/chloramine. Usually stage 1 is a sediment filter, stage 2 is your carbon and stage 3 is your membrane that removes most of the TDS.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I think you'll likely still want to have a sediment filter or your charcoal will end up getting all coated with gunk. However, I have no experience with this, but am planning to work on one in an upcoming reno. Hondas3000 is the only one I know on BCA with a continuous drip, I believe.


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

well I will jsut have to check it out when i see him today


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Now I'm curious. If you have a 100g tank and you have a drip that's set to swap out 100g per day, how does that compare to doing a full WC each day?


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

first thing would be 0 maintenance  and i figure on my 180g i will do a very slow drip probably not a 100g a day


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

tony1928 said:


> Now I'm curious. If you have a 100g tank and you have a drip that's set to swap out 100g per day, how does that compare to doing a full WC each day?


If you do that you'd be changing more than 100% per day since the 100 gallon tank probably would hold only 90 gallons of water with everything in it.  It would be more stable than doing a 100% wc since the change would be constant. It would actually behave more like a natural biotope. That's why in some ways, more water changes is better, but of course, you don't get the same nutrient transport.



MEDHBSI said:


> first thing would be 0 maintenance  and i figure on my 180g i will do a very slow drip probably not a 100g a day


I would assume you would want to shoot for 30 or 40 gallons a day in a 180 at least right?


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

i would like to drip as little as possible so that it doesn't effect my biological filtration just reduce my nitrate lvls. Now the more i think about it the more im thinking that might not be possible because i would lose waste water before its been changed to nitrates.hmmmmmmm. This is exactly why i asked the question because i jsut want to tweak it right.

maybe have the bulkhead in the pump chamber?


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## hondas3000 (Apr 22, 2010)

MEDHBSI said:


> well I will jsut have to check it out when i see him today


that mean I need more then one hour to go through with you and answer to all your question hehehe. Drip is good but you also need enough media for bacteria to live.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

MEDHBSI said:


> i would like to drip as little as possible so that it doesn't effect my biological filtration just reduce my nitrate lvls. Now the more i think about it the more im thinking that might not be possible because i would lose waste water before its been changed to nitrates.hmmmmmmm. This is exactly why i asked the question because i jsut want to tweak it right.
> 
> maybe have the bulkhead in the pump chamber?


Since the chlorine will be removed by the carbon, your bio is only affected in that the amount of available ammonia is removed. As long as you have an established bio filter in the tank to sufficiently manage the maximum load in the tank without water changes (the ammonia and nitrite part), it doesn't really matter how much water you change. When I first started discus, I changed 75% of the water every day. But I would then have to leave on business trips for weeks at a time. I never had a problem with ammonia, but the nitrate did build up. So the drip water changer is really the perfect solution. The other solution you may consider is an auto-water changer, which just drains the tank and then refills. It wouldn't be much different than a water changer except you will have to refill and drain at faster rate and it would do it at discrete intervals rather than continuously.


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

well iv'e got a 55g tank made into a K1 filter with about 50L of K1 media sooo it should be enough for a about a 900g tank  and I've got a 180.

K1 moving bed filter (fluidized bed filter) 55g sump - YouTube


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Yep, you got plenty of bio so I wouldn't worry about the drip system affecting the bio capacity. The bacteria grow pretty fast when needed, once it's well established.


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

yea i added 5 4" clown loaches and then i was forced to add 2 7" jack dempseys and an 8" parrot fish on the same day and ive been testing my water every day and i never got a spike and everyone is eating good


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## smccleme (Aug 20, 2012)

I just built a drip system for my 155g bowfront last week. It's drilled, and I've got a 46 gallon sump. I tapped into my house cold water supply, added a pressure reducer, took it down to 3/8s line, and added a float valve which sits in the sump. For my drain line, I have it going up and over my sump, and it siphons water into my drain (you don't need to drill your sump if your drain is lower than it). You just need to start the siphon one time. I added two valves to the drain line; one to control the drip rate, and one as a shut off. So the rate of water change is controlled by the rate of the drip to the drain. You can measure this by timing the filling of a 5 gallon pale. The rate of drip from the water line back into the sump is controlled by the float valve. It's a very simple system, that would only have a problem if the float valve failed. If the float got stuck closed, the drain line would only siphon water down a few inches before it sucked air. So when I occasionally vacuum the bottom, the float valve opens more and maintains the water level in the sump. I wrapped the drain line, and drip line together to help transfer the heat from the outgoing water to the incoming water. The whole system was under $100.


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