Re: [Killietalk] PVC air manifold vs. lots of airline tubing

[Dennis Heltzel <killies at fishroom_net>]

Before I switched to a Linear pump, I was using several diaphragm pumps. 
I found that the commercial gang valves are severely deficient. They 
restrict the airflow too much and rob you of a lot of capacity. I used 
some short lengths of large diameter PVC with end caps and drilled in 
some of the brass valves used in those 
"drill-the-pipe-and-thread-the-valve-in" setups. It worked pretty well, 
I got a lot more air than the pumps were "supposed" to deliver. The key 
seemed to be a very short run from the pump in to the PVC to reduce the 
the amount of flow restriction to a minimum. Then the larger size of the 
air reservoir inside the PVC pipe allowed it to work efficiently like 
full room systems. If you put one of these near each group of tanks with 
the right size pump it works pretty well. Do not hook up 2 pumps to the 
same "system", since one will be stronger and create back pressure on 
the other one. One larger pump works much better. Another advantage of 
this is when you do convert to a full room system with pipes running 
everywhere, you can reuse the brass valves from the old system.

Dennis

matt kaufman wrote:
> So, if you were going to plumb around 20-30 air taps and drive it all with a couple diaphragm pumps (yes, yes, I know about linear piston pumps and GAST blowers and so forth, but I have the diaphragm pumps already and might as well use them till they die), would you run a manifold of PVC pipe? What diameter? Assume the deepest tank is maybe 12 inches deep. I once had a big manifold + blower setup (1.5" diameter pipe) and plumbed it with those drill-the-pipe-and-thread-the-valve-in setups like you see in big fishrooms and pet shops, but frankly, I think that was overkill and I don't have the room for 1.5" diameter pipe in my killi closet.
>  
> So, I'm thinking of a manifold of 1/2 inch PVC pipe with a few holes in it, with short lengths of rigid airline tubing that's been glued into place with hot glue or maybe aquarium silicon. The rigid tubing would then be attached to some good-quality gang valves (the old whisper ones, with the clear bodies and the black rubber valves, seem to be the best ever made and of course aren't available anymore). Would this result in better use of the air than simply just snaking airline tubing directly without any manifold at all? Is there an advantage to distributing the air via a manifold in such a small setup?
>  
> Inquiring minds with nice warm small killi closets (thanks to all for the DeLonghi heater recommendation) want to know
>  
> Matt in the PNW
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