Quote:
Originally posted by DevilBoy
I might have missed it, but what is a water break? And should you run this tower all the way to the bottom of the sump? what size pvc should the tower be?
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No problem. The diagrams I threw together to illustrate:
(1) The left most drawing is a simple bubble tower with no water break . The fast moving water from the drain enters the bubble tower at the top and carries the bubbles generated in the drain and at impact with the water surface down under the bottom of the bubble tower. This narrow stream of water doesn't spread out when it enters the bubble tower, it continues in this narrow column to the bottom of the sump. This is undesirable since it doesn't filter bubbles as well as it could. This tower configuration however does eliminate the drains sounds and helps minimize salt spray.
(2)The right most drawing illustrates adding a water break. A water break is nothing more than some obstruction or mechanism to change the flow of the water entering the bubble tower. Slow the water down so to speak. It ideally should spread the flow so that the whole water column in the bubble trap moves down in it's entirety. This is the slowest the water can move for a given input flow rate. And therefore will provide the best bubble filtering.
This illustration provides the same level of quieting, but adds better bubble filtering and therefore lessens salt spray than the previous drawing.
The make the bubble tower effective the water column should be as wide as you can make it. It also should be as tall as possible. That being said, the water column height can only be as tall as your sump level. So yes the bubble tower should go down to the bottom. Add some teeth on the bottom (see previous sketchup diagram) for the water to exit out all sides.
I used 4" PVC from my 1" drain pipe. I'm have run this up to approx 500 GPH. I have not maxed it out to see what it can do.