My equipment is used and my tank has a bit of debris in it. I went to a supply house and bought a 1" screen pipe and a cap to address this issue. I cut off the screen pipe to just stick out of my tank and I put the cap on the bottom end. I inserted my pick-up tube in it and I didn't get enough volume coming through the screen. I bought some additional parts today to fix the problem and I'm going to post some pics tomorrow.
I don't understand what you mean by 'screen pipe". Keep in mind, if this pipe actually has a metal screen, that SH will eat up just about any kind of metal. There is a company (PWP) and probably others, that sell a slotted pipe which is made out of PVC. I think it is orginally intended for well water pumps. People put a 90* fitting on it and lay it on the botttom of the tank. Check with suppliers that cater to well pumping materials or call PWP. Gary
Slotted PVC for wells is what I'm using. The place I got it from sells stuff for well drilling & utility construction and they call it a 1" screen. It comes in 5ft. lengths. What I'm going to do is cut one piece to fit lengthwise in my tank then cap both ends and install a tee in the middle. Then I'm going to insert the other piece in the tee and leave it sticking out the top of my tank so I can insert my pick-up pipe in it. I also have a third cap to seal off the top opening when it is not in use. That way I can just leace it in the tank when I'm not using it. I'll post pics this afternoon after I build it.
OK, that may be where your problem is. If you are placing your pick up tube inside the slotted pipe, there is more resistance for the solutiom to flow thru the slots than there is resistance for the pump to pump the slotted pipe dry and suck air from the top. I,would think you would want to "hard plumb" you pump inlet to the slotted pipe so it HAS to draw trough the slotted pipe. Gary
start a post, and at the bottom of the page click the block that says attach files. click on browse and select the pics from your hard drive. Click upload and submit and you're done.
Art; The pics were way too big, so I re-sized them. For some reason the forum will not allow pics to be loaded. I notified Chris T and hopefuuly he will have it fixed tomorrow. I'll try again then. Gary