Kelly, be patient with me. I may have to break my thoughts over a couple of posts, but I will add them all to this post.
As I said, I don't take this boat off the property, and living in a rural area, and I don't mind helping neighbors with pond issues. For those smaller cow tanks, I use the regular 25 gallon tank with a 12 volt pump. I also have a 60' heavy black chem hose with an adjustable stainless steel gun. The hose and the gun weren't cheap, but they've lasted years with good care. I've also stocked close to 400 adult LMB to my neighbors as well.
Kelly, I appreciate the issues you brought up, and yes, I sat down and tried to correct the issues you mentioned as well as I could with the first round. I haven't tested this run yet, but I'll test it using a 50 gallon tank for clean water. That would test for clean water leaks. Using this siphon, there's only one hose fitting in the boat that could leak chemicals. The chemicals coming out of the tank is on a draft, and no pressure is on it. That worked well on the old rig, and it stayed clean as well.
The 2 clear ribbed hoses you see are ribbed on the outside. The inside is smooth, and they weren't cheap either, so I kept them for this round.
Over the years I ran over the first kit, there was only one "burp", or restriction. What was an initial issue was the sometimes high viscosity of the chemicals I was adding to the tank. For some reason, 3 gallons of diquat with 2 gallons of Captain wouldn't always flow evenly when I turned down the venturi control. They didn't seem to be thick, but my solution was to fill the rest of the tank with water, and that worked well. The added water let me open the control up, and all went well. The venturi connection was exactly 11 inches under the tank, and mother nature also added help with the flow. Landscapers use the same venturi system I use with the liquid fertilizer on the ground, not elevated. Much like siphoning gas out of a car to a gas can on the ground, the gas ran up out of the tank, and then down out of the gas neck to the ground. That's exactly how this works. I also add a bilge pump to the tank to keep the water and the chems mixed evenly. That was my initial thought, and I wound up keeping the chemicals to no more than 5 gallons per run.
OK, break time.
