Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => DIY => Topic started by: kodyboy on September 14, 2012, 10:15:47 PM
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I have set up a central air system in my classroom. The manifold has 24 valves and is about 20 feet long. The question that I have is about "bleeding excess air to prevent air pump diaphragm damage", how do you know if you need to bleed excess air and exactly how do you do that?
Thanks
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Well, depends...linear pump, large individual pump, small blower (which I assume is not the case)...need more info to give proper advice.
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Sorry I did not include that. It is an ap40 supreme diaphragm air pump (about 68lpm) running about 18 air lines with air stones. No tank is over 24 inches deep. The supply line is both 1/4 silicone tubing and 1/4 PVC manifolds. The three manifolds are from jehmco and about 12 inches long and contain 8 air valves each.
Thanks for the help.
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I would say if the manufacturer's recommended maximum number of outlets are close to what you are utilizing, do not worry about bleed off.
If it seems you are having to keep the majority of the valves nearly closed to keep them from blowing water out of the tanks, then use one valve to bleed off excess.
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I would say if the manufacturer's recommended maximum number of outlets are close to what you are utilizing, do not worry about bleed off.
x2!
If you're less than recommended, what I'd do is get all of the tank lines running with the valves fully open, then open another valve to bleed. When you open the bleeder, if you see the furious nature of the air driving the filters decrease, adjust the single bleeder so the tanks are bubbling steadily at perhaps 80-85% of their maximum ferocity. If the single bleeder had no impact on the system, open additional valves until there is a decrease in performance of the tank lines and adjust the last one opened so the tanks are bubbling nicely.
As you add more tanks/airlines, eventually you'll need to start decreasing the amount of air being bled as the system needs greater volume to drive the tanks.
To help eliminate the hiss of air being bled you can attach large air stones to the lines being bled and place them somewhere out of sight. This does create some back pressure, hence the noise reduction, so you might need an additional bleeder after adding air stones depending on the situation.
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Thanks everyone for the help!
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I say change this thread title to " Question about bleeding a central air system " & sticky/pin it. ;)