# Killies Import > Non-Killie Segment >  "I'm wet", "I'm coming..."

## RonWill

"I'm wet", shouted the floor. "I'm coming, I'm coming...", panted the mop as quickly as it could.

A common scenario for the careless and forgetful few, like myself, who neglects a running hose during water change. [BTW, what were you people thinking??? hmm...  :Twisted Evil:  ]

In the past week, I'm re-acquainted with the mop more often than I'd like to. Three times, on separate occasions, I overflowed the tanks in the study! Needless to say, after fuming and regretted ever having tanks inside the house again, *I've had enough!!* This is one project I procrastinated too long.

It was in an after-dinner discussion at Kwek Leong's home, when I brought up my 'wet wet' problem to James. I wanted something mechanical instead of electrical float switches (I have uneasy feelings mixing electronics with water).

We threw a couple of ideas on how these things work and here's what I ended up with...


Zul helped buy this valve and what big balls it has... ok, ok, a BIG float. Cost S$6.50 for the set. 

This was what I found at a plumbing shop, across the street where I work. It has a compartment that hides the float and comes with a sediment filter (very fine metal gauze)



9 bucks for the set.

Here's another...

Smallest gizmo I can find. $7.50 for the set and I should have charged the operator for humoring him. [When I told him the valves were for aquarium use, he asked if I wanted to flush the fishes!]

Ok, so back to my problem. The darn thing floats!

I attached the various valves to a DIY J-shaped PVC 'hook' (that rests on the tank's rim) , but once the assembly is in the water, the floats were buoyant enough to lift the 'hook'. In doing so, I was losing pressure on the shut-off 'rubber flap', so water continued to flow, albeit slowly. (Easier to understand with images. Will shoot some pics or draw diagrams later)

Wanted something semi-permanent but now I'm not sure how I should go about it, without having the tank look like a toilet cistern.

Tanks are not pre-drilled for bulkheads, so.... any ideas, folks? Your 2 cents, please. Thanks!

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## whuntley

Hang on Ronnie.

I solved this problem several years ago, but will have to search old files for the pics.

Basically, I made an inverse "U" out of pvc pipe, with a hose fitting on the long end. Weight of hose and pvc assembly kept it down. The short end attached to the float valve, and a friction fit polyethylene washer on the long piece caused it to hang on the tank at any height I wanted. Just slide the washer to set the fill height, and never have a wet carpet, again.

I know, hard to visualize. I'll have to find an old pic.

Wright

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## whuntley

So far the picture is eluding me. I have LOT to search.

Meanwhile, here is a copy of the original article, in which the pic is mentioned. I also updated the link to the valve source.

************
Is it worth $15 or so to keep your carpets dry during water changes? What is peace and relaxation worth?

The $9.50 Flo-Gard Float valve, and a few simple pieces of PVC can revolutionize changes. [See the feeding equipment in http://makeashorterlink.com/?D29D1280C for the horse-trough valve.]

You can fill tanks very quickly, and they will never again overflow because you were called to the phone or otherwise distracted.

I bought a Model 150PP a couple of months ago, and had to fiddle with it a lot before I was happy with it. The hose fitting is on top, and the clamps that came with it were utterly useless. Without any clamps, the hose tended to turn the valve over or flop it clear out of the tank. My first trial fixes were pretty awkward.
 
The picture shows my final answer. I bought a male and female 1/2" PVC pipe to 3/4" hose fitting (garden dept. at Ace hardware) plus a piece of 1/2" pipe, a couple of elbows, a coupling, and a union (all from the plumbing dept.). I found a stiff disk of polyethylene as an adjustable fill-depth stop (from my junk collection). A plastic jar lid would work every bit as well.

Pull from the hose is now basically downward, and the proximity of the longer leg to the body of the valve is adjustable by how tight the male hose fitting is screwed into the body of the valve assembly. The rubber hose washer allows quite a wide range of adjustment without leaks.

The side of the tank is trapped between the pipe and the valve body, and the disk is slid to the desired final depth setting. It just sits on the top trim of the tank. By drilling the hole in the disk slightly undersized, it has plenty of friction to set the valve depth firmly and to resist hose drag. Downward hose pull discourages any tendency for the whole valve system to float upward as the float is lifted by the water.

If you fail to include the union (darker gray part in the top, horizontal, section), you can not get the thing apart for maintenance or other use of the valve without sawing the pipe. I felt the convenience was worth the extra $2.50 or so for the union. You can leave it off with little functionality lost. Just use a few inches of 1/2" pipe. Your final assembly with the PVC cement better be right, though!

The upper, horizontal leg was deliberately angled to put the long vertical leg down the side of the tank as near the action center of the float as possible. This just avoids any tendency to twist or tilt as the float lifts upward on the valve assembly when closing.

One final refinement was addition of a plastic gate valve at the entrance to the PVC pipe assemby. It allows turning the water off to move the fill assembly to the next tank, without going back to the source. [My fill pump, in a trash barrel, is on an X-10 remote switch, so I can actually turn the pump off from anywhere in the house if I wish.]

I needed 75' of flexible hose to reach every tank in the house, so my fill rate is considerably less than the 150 G/H of the valve's spec. I don't much care, for it is now a set-it-and-forget-it system until I get around to moving it. Believe me, it has taken a lot of the strain and anxiety out of water changes, so I do them more frequently, now. I can be puttering with another tank or feeding, without straining to hear the splatter of water falling on the floor. Heavenly!

I have side-by-side trash barrels of carbon-filtered tap and RO water, so I just lift the pump over into the one I wish to draw from for each fill. For evaporative top-off (which I now do much more often) I just use straight RO water. Most of my fish do well in my 270 ppm tap water, but some, like my new Chocolate Gouramis, get mostly RO with just enough tap to provide stabilizing buffering.

When you have lots of tanks, and are easily distracted, this system really turns water changes from a big pain into a genuine pleasant chance to tinker with my fish. I recommend it to anyone with 5 or more tanks.

Next month: the Simple Simon Siphon System for automating the drain portion of water changes.
****************

Note the price is down on the valves -US$6.50. Special sale, I think.

Wright

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## whuntley

OK. The pic is posted at:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?I22E1480C

It is in my gallery if that doesn't work. I have never been able to show pics here, maybe because I need an outside web site for them to be posted to.

If the kind moderator could put the pic in the original post above, and eliminate all this foolishness, I'd be grateful.  :Very Happy: 

Wright

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## RonWill

> OK. The pic is posted at:
> 
> http://makeashorterlink.com/?I22E1480C
> 
> It is in my gallery if that doesn't work. I have never been able to show pics here, maybe because I need an outside web site for them to be posted to.
> 
> If the kind moderator could put the pic in the original post above, and eliminate all this foolishness, I'd be grateful. 
> 
> Wright


Wright, the gallery and hotlinking does work, as it will also from Photobucket.com, so here it is...



Image is kinda small but I get the idea. Problem is, this installation method is only applicable to the 2nd valve (with sediment filter) because it has a flat side to press against the side of the tank.

Our top-up hoses are similar, fitted with an inverted PVC U-pipes and ball shut off valves. I have unions for 15mm PVCs, so that's not a problem either.

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## RonWill

Wright,
Thanks for sorting my random thoughts in order. It was like an idea standing at the edge of the cliff and all it needed to take off... was a good kick in the rear!  :Laughing:  

Folks,
Desperation is an effective motivation not to wait for the 'round tuits' and FWIW, this shut-off valve *(SOV)* has gotta be the best sub-$20 project for the buck, period!

A trial fit of the SOV, 15mm OD (Outer Diameter) PVC pipes and elbows, to my existing top-up J-hose.
 *All images clickable for larger resolution*

Since I needed the J-hose for other smaller tanks, I rigged up another set and marked the connections, so later I can correctly re-orientate and permanently glue the separated sections.


Wright was using a stiff disk of polyethylene as an adjustable fill-depth stop but my version was still wobbily. Instead, I fitted two 15mm OD pipe brackets and made it more frictional by tightening the grip with cable-ties. This image shows how the brackets are resting on the front brace and top of the light cover.


Height of fill-depth is adjusted easily by sliding the pipe brackets to the desired position. Since it was possible to remove the SOV without dismantling, I opted not to use a union connector. (Notice the difference in distance from pipe brackets to top U-section?)


Here's the unhindered view of the SOV jig. Mine has screw-in connectors at two points (red arrow) so that I can work on the other 2 valves. I needed the flexibility but is not a requirement. Adapt and adopt what fits you best.


Have fun DIY-ing, *remember to let the glue set* and be stress-free during your next water change!  :Wink:

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## whuntley

Nicely done, Ron,

I was lucky, in that my float valves had a 3/4" hose fitting right on the top of the box that protects the float. That eliminated a whole "J" section.

Since I wanted the outside longer PVC section close to the lift center of the float, I had to use the union to be able to take it apart for repair or maintenance. Your solution looks more complicated, but actually is probably simpler.

Your excitement over this project prompted me to go ahead and order a new float valve so I can build one for myself. I have no idea where my old one went, having moved three times since I needed it. Probably gave it to one of my BAKA friends.

As a precaution, it might very slowly leak if tied to the high-pressure water mains, so don't leave it and go out to dinner until you are certain it will turn 100% off. I was using very low pressure from a little fountain pump, so it was very reliable about stopping at the correct level.

Wright

PS Thanks for fixing my botched attempt to lighten the pic. I managed to break the link, but Ronnie repaired it. You can now see the box around the float a little better. It wasn't the original pic for the article, but it was all I could find. Not too great, I know. [Probably one of my early digital camera failures. I had about 3 or 4 before I discovered the DSC-D770 by Sony. Early P&S cameras were pretty awful.]

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## RonWill

Yes, Wright, I noticed the top connection on the horse-trough valve but I'll fiddle with the 1st and 3rd SOVs, to see if a horizontal connection is possible (instead of a connection from below). Looks neater, I think, and if so, I'll rig up 2 permanent SOV jigs for the tanks in the study.




> As a precaution, it might very slowly leak if tied to the high-pressure water mains


 The new jig is mounted onto a pail and it did stop at a predetermined level. I left the mains on and if there's any 'slow, undetected' leakage, I will know when I return home later.

Also, when your new jig is completed, upload those _bigger_ pics. I'm especially interested to see up-close, how this trough valve looks like.

For others, intrigued by what we're doing and tempted to rig one up, do upload your finished projects, plus end-user observations, so we can exchange more ideas.

Kwek Leong said that 'the next wave surpasses the one before' (or something like that  :Rolling Eyes:  ), so I'm sure someone will come up with better and more well-thoughtout designs.

Keep 'em rollin' in.

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## RonWill

An update...

Left overnight in a pail, I returned to find a puddle of water heading down the stairs. Apparently, there's a leak that went undetected.

  

Found the source of the problem and everything works fine and dandy now. You should see the smile on my face!  :Wink:

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## FC

IMO, the first/last types seem to be the most practical. They need just straight connection (no "J" required), forming an inverted "U". Thereafter, adjusting the "water level" knob to desire top-up level.

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## RonWill

Folks,
I've been trying to figure how to 'mount' the valves and this method has worked reliably, without overflowing, for the past few days.


Water to this _sturisoma_ tank is gravity-fed (non-pressurized) from a upper-tier tank. The clip fitting is what I normally use for my glass partitions and while not the best looking thing around, it is adaptable and easily transferred to other tanks.

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