Having water system problems!

[BAD Morphs]

OK so I keep having issues with my water system. Can you have too many sippers hooked up to one jug? Right now what seems to happen is the top sippers on 2 of my racks stop producing water. I have the water lines run like this http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat...ing_rack.shtml if you scroll down to where it is in red showing how to run the water lines. So I did that with both my racks. Here is a video of hows I have the lines run,YouTube - Update on the new rat rack build . I am thinking I need to put in another jug for the other side of the room cause I never had a problem with it untill I put the 4 tub rack onto it and I am sure that running the water tubing higher than the bucket doesn't help but that doesn't explain why the rack next to the bucket is having the problem with the top 2 sippers that stop working. Any help would be appreciated!

[Jay_Bunny]

There might be a blockage in the hose or sipper. As long as there is no blockage anywhere, water should flow just fine, and not only to certain levels. I would check the sippers and hose for something in it.

[het.pied]

ima use that rack layout when i need to build a huge rack, cause i know i eventually will. what i though of already is to use a a t joint coming out of the bucket and running two different lines(one for the top couple racks and one ofr the bottom racks). thats just me cause i feel if you have one really long line its not going to be as effective as if you have two seperate lines of the same length. you could try that out.

and also i dont know the benefit of runing the water down first then winding it back up the rack system. i think it would put some extra un-needed "stress" on the watering system.

[het.pied]

ok i just watched the video and saw how you have it set up. maybe a second bucket would help out.

[BAD Morphs]

thanks guys I will let you know what I come across. But I am sure there is no blockage as I let it flow and drained it out some.

[pliskin]

I don't see any benefit to running it down and then back up either.
I can't speak with nany experience firsthand since I don't have a watering system like that , but if I was going to build one I'd just put in a "T" from the main line at each level. That way the water is always being assisted by gravity. when you run it back up , you're working against gravity.

sounds to me like you'd get the problem you're experiencing when the bucket is low on water.

Try filling the bucket and see if that fixes it , if it does then you'll know that its low water pressure which is causing the top ones to run dry.

[suzuki4life]

make sure you didn't pinch anything with those clamps....

once the water reaches equilibrium, your pressure will fall off. Pressure needs to stay below the bucket.

[tomfromtheshade]

A second bucket will help your cause tremendously.

Also, you might want to try to find a way to get your bucket higher than the top level of the rack. Gravity is what feeds this system and if your bucket is not much higher than your top level of your rack then you will have problems.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

A few comments:

1) I am not sure what benefit, if any, running it down and then back up would offer. The sippers at the bottom always have the most water pressure anyway due to the force of gravity on the water column in the tubes. There would be no need to put them first in line as a result.

2) I would suggest not having those two racks hooked up to the same water jug. That section where you run the tubing along the rafter appears to be higher than the water bucket, I'm not sure that's a good idea.

3) If your water source is small and only a few inches higher than your top sippers, they will never receive much pressure. Get that water bucket up a little higher compared to the top sippers.

That's all I can think of. Nice setup, and I love those gray rats. I have to get into some of those.

JonV

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm actually shocked that the rats on the other side of the room get any water at all. It would be really simple to get another bucket for that side of the room and you wouldn't have any issues with water pressure. I think the problem is that your tubing goes above the bucket before it goes to the other side of the room. My homemade racks are pretty much a catastrophe (because I have no carpentry skills), and my tubing does go back up about a foot before finishing at the bottom tub, but all my tubing is below the bucket so it still has good water pressure. You could try lowering that tubing up on the ceiling and see if that fixes the problem before you go crazy trying to figure out what's wrong.

Awesome rack set up by the way!!! Your racks look fantastic!