# trouble with drip system



## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I recently got my drip system set up and started dripping. it was on a block of 8 20longs and they were dripping at 1/8th gallon per hour with adjustable valves. The water was coming from two holding tubs, had been dechlorinated with prime, and was run through a carbon filter. I turned on the drip before heading to work for a bit. My wife checked a couple of times while I was at work and didn't notice any problems. After work I went do to see the tanks and one tank containing 40 or so .5" fry, half the fry were dead. One or two seemed to be having trouble swimming. I immediately turned off the drip and did a 50% water change from my usual system and no fish have died since. I'm scratching my head....

I had a similar failed attempt dripping straight from the water line through the same carbon filter. which is why i went with dechlorinated water this time and I lowered the drip rate from .5 gph. The only thing I can think of is maybe the pH changed to drastically and the fry couldn't adjust? The tank was overdue for a water change. I unfortunately didn't test the water before starting the drip and didn't see the point after the 50% water change.

Any thoughts? I'm afraid to turn the drip system back on but can't figure out what happened. The other 7 tanks had zero losses in that time. and contained fish ranging in size from .5" up to a couple of 5" mbuna in quarantine.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Sorry for your loss on the fry!

Since you didn't experience any losses in the other 7 tanks, it is possible the fry were just sensitive to the water. What is the pH of the 'new' water compared to your other tanks?


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## Samadhikash (Jun 16, 2015)

Sounds like it's time to grab the test kit and gather some data. Maybe run the drip on one tank without fish (or on a tank of culls) and get some hard info. Check water at pre-system, at holding tank, in fish tank. Will at least give you some idea of how water is or isn't changing throughout the system. Since it has happened twice, you'd obviously want to rule out anything uniquely present on both occasions.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I know, I need to test the water...I just didn't think it was going to be an issue this time. my 180 is on a drip straight from the water line and that's been going for a few months now with no problems. I thought maybe something was weird with the carbon filter since that's the only thing that was present in both instances. The water quality of the tanks with losses may also have been the culprit. The reason I was setting up a drip system at all was with the arrival of my fourth daughter, and more hours at work I was not getting to water changes like I needed to. The pH coming out of the tap is 7.8-8.0, previously I had been buffering that to 8.2 doing water changes with buffered water. I decided that the higher pH didn't seem to be beneficial in any noticeable way so I stopped buffering and over a series of a few water changes brought all the tanks back down to around 8.0.

I'm thinking with them being fry and with the water in that tank being pretty overdue for a water change, the change in water parameters might just have been too much for them. I will definitely do a bunch of testing before I turn the system back on. I'd really like to be able to just clean sponges and vac the bottoms as my weekly maintenace and not have to wait for all the draining and refilling.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

What species fry?


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## joescaper1 (Feb 14, 2013)

Where is the tank in question located in linear order? (first, last, etc.)
Is everything for each tank the same as all the others? (valves, tubing, sealant, etc.)
Your system only added 5 quarts in 10 hours out of 80 quarts total, less than 6 percent.(your 50% was considerably more than that and you attribute that to saving them)
Were all the dead fry of the same species?

If I had to start somewhere, I would investigate the water delivery parts unique to that particular tank.

Joe


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

The fry were Aulonocara maylandi. The tank in question was the first tee on a irrigation tubing serving 4 tanks off a stainless steel valve from a pvc pipe. after the tee is another 4" of tubing a 1/4" ailine adjustable valve set to 1/8th gallon per hour, though I suspect it may have been dripping a bit faster but not excessively faster than that. the tank then drains via a 3/4" bulkhead.

I think what I will do next is set up the drip to an unused tank and do some measurements along the way to see what if anything is happening.


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