Hudson Water Valve Failures?

[msr0459]

This is my first full summer running my dual falls, pondless waterfall. I'm currently having to top off the basin every 4 to 7 days, and was about to rig up a water refill/top off system.

I can't use the Aquascape Hudson valve, as my pump vault is a diy, made from an 18" plastic culvert pipe. The outer rings would make it nearly impossible to secure said Aquascape valve.

I've purchased the standard Hudson water valve, a 100' roll of 1/2" tubing, and all the various pvc connections to simply drop the Hudson valve down into the vault. Since purchasing everything, more research has lead me to the fact that, it would seem, at some point the Hudson valve will likely fail, thus overflowing my basin.

So now I'm 2nd guessing the entire thing. Has anyone else rigged up a similar water "top off" system? Are the Hudson water valves actually likely to fail. Heck, I'm also now worried that IF the tubing were to split at any point in the 100' run, I'd never know it, and I'd be wasting tons of water and money. Ugh, I obviously never realized that building this beast of a pondless fall would create so much frustration after the fact!

 

[JRS]

Never used that type of setup myself. What about some type of steady drip irrigation/ trickle fill? Will keep you topped off, and will not lose much water if something did go wrong with the pipe or fill device. Drawback is not completely automatic unless you used a timer also.

 

[msr0459]

Never used that type of setup myself. What about some type of steady drip irrigation/ trickle fill? Will keep you topped off, and will not lose much water if something did go wrong with the pipe or fill device. Drawback is not completely automatic unless you used a timer also.

The timer aspect is something I hadn't considered. Even with the autofill aspect, at least it would shut off periodically just in case something fails. At least something to think about, thanks.

 

[Lisak1]

I’ll second the constant drip suggestion. We added a drip irrigation system to our front gardens and I dropped one dripper into our water feature. Haven’t had to worry about adding water all season. Adds about a gallon an hour. When the plants need water, the water feature does too. So it all works out.