Building a Muffler for a Drain Pipe

This system is in my friends bedroom, and he asked me to make the drain quieter.  Heres what I did, and it worked really well.  After building this muffler, you cant even tell when the water is draining unless youre watching the water level in the fish tank.

This was the sketch of my idea.  The drain pipe would point down into the fish tank, but would not be submerged in the water.  A larger diameter pipe would sit around the drain pipe, with the bottom end submerged.  The larger pipe would be held onto the drain pipe with a wooden dowel through both pipes.  The larger pipe will muffle the sound of the splashing water.  To reduce the noise further, you could plug the top of the larger diameter pipe with cloth, foam, saran wrap, etc.

 I ended up using saran wrap, and the larger diameter pvc pipe wanted to float, so it started leaning to the side.  This may help the muffler, because the water runs down the side of the pvc pipe rather than splashing into the tank.  Im planning on replacing the saran wrap with something better looking, but I want to test some options.

Our tilapia Zeus seems to miss the splashing water, though.  He used to like being splashed with the draining water.  Oh well, it needed to be quieter.

And the garden is looking good.  The growth has been slow, because the water was pretty dirty.  I did a partial water change, and cleaned the filter and plumbing.  I hope that helps the plants a bit.  After the water change, the nitrates are still high, and the pH is about 7.5.  I added a little pH down to get the pH closer to 6.8.

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What is Perlite A Brief Idea About Perlite Uses in Gardening and Horticulture

What is Perlite?

Perlite is a generic term for naturally occurring siliceous amorphic volcanic rock. But unlike other volcanic glasses it expands from 4 to 20 times of its original volume when heated above a point(800-900 deg C). Perlite is mostly made of silica or SiO2(about 70-75%). The rest is the mixture of Aluminum Oxide or Al2O3, and Oxides of Sodium, Potassium, Iron, Magnesium and Calcium. 3-5& moisture are also present in Perlite.

Perlite is mined through out the world. Countries like Greece, USA, China and Turkey are the fore runners in this.

When perlite is heated above 900 deg C the moisture trapped inside the rock vaporized and escapes and causes the huge expansion of the material. After the expansion the bulk density of the perlite reduces significantly(0.03-0.15gm/cm3). The expansion also creates the most distinguishing feature of perlite its white color. While the unexpanded perlite rock may range from transparent light grey to glossy black, the expanded perlite ranges from snow white to greyish white.

Perlite Uses:

Because of its low density and low price, perlite has many commercial applications. Among which main uses are building and constructions uses, horticultural uses, fillers and filter aids. 

In gardening and horticulture, perlite is used for number of reasons. 

Advantages of Perlite soil in gardening and horticulture:

Perlite encourages quicker germination than any other growing media with quick seedling growth. It can be used by mixing with peat moss or coconut coir and used as a potting mix or it can be used solely provided it kept wet all the time.

Perlite is inorganic, inert and sterile and naturally contains the different minerals which are essential for the growth of the plant. Being inorganic it is free from weeds, diseases and pests.

Perlite is non-toxic and there are very few fire hazards. 

Unlike peat moss, perlite does not decompose very easily(if at all) so you can store and use perlite for many years.

It improves aeration and drainage of the soil mix if mixed with other growth media, or soil.

Perlite are almost pH neutral. So it can also help to reduce acidity of the soil.

Disadvantages of perlite soil:

There are couple of disadvantages also of using perlite as growth media.

Perlite holds water by having a large surface area and within the nooks and cervices of vast pores. But being porous and made of volcanic glass it allows the excess water to drain away much quickly than any other media. So in case you have really thirsty plants, investing in perlite might not be a good choice. 

Perlite is a non-renewable resource. Which means you can not increase its availability as per your likings as in case with coconut coir. 

Other Perlite Uses:

Perlite as an excellent filtering agent. Beside horticulture, Perlite filters are used in many places to filter beer before getting bottled. 

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Brief Video Update

We have green life!  The system is cycled and growing small plants.  Zeus, our tilapia, is doing fine.  Were probably going to eat him soon, and put in some ornamental fish.  Id like to have a bit more plant growth before making the switch.

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