Brine Tank Maintenance

Many  have BRINE  tanks on Brandy Lake for water purification or softener systems.    I clean mine once a year.

What happens  ..dirt accumulates at the bottom and prevents the brine from being sucked up the tiny hole….   The principle was invented by  Giovanni Battista Venturi.  Hence Venturi.  Basically two converging cones…big to small..small to big.  This increases the speed of the fluid between them.  This speed creates a vacuum thus sucking brine from the tank through a pipe connect to the high flow speed area.   This same pipe is used for fill

My tank has a raised bottom maybe 60 mm preventing salt particles from clogging the pipe.    A high level float level switch prevents tank  overflow on fill…

The only trick part is removing  pipe from the tank.   Do not overtighten….just snug when installing

Note..the white flange/pipe , in the end of the long pipe… that needs to be pulled out before nut will come off.  It is maybe 15 mm long.  Inside the nut is another grommet that prevents leaking.    See picture

Usually let the salt run low….then scoop it out and save it for winter ice.    The residue  water would have high salt concentration so make sure it goes over ground before hitting the lake…if at all.

Thoroughly wipe the tank with a safe solvent…that’s it.    To fill the tank..fast forward through the settings  until you reach ..:”REFILL” and let that go.  I measure my level with one bag of salt…..so I have a mark inside tank

JULY

Great to see many on the lake… having fun through 95% of July until cold moved in…… .,         ,,,is it fall again…

Seemed like an  abnormally  wet July 2020 with 108.8 mm of rain.   2019…  20 mm   2018  had 83.4 mm .   June even had 143 mm  according to  stats.  Did I read it wrong?

Had a few warm days,,34 C, ish,,,,however 1978 it was 37.2.  HOT... Don’t like the heat… good thing not  cottaging in southern USA probably  tickin under 40C most days,

Good nights sleep at 11C..

Lake level is close to its normal level (You can verify this as it is just under shore  tree line..the last line of defence…(not cypress trees, they don’t grow up here).   So….Brandy Lake has had several external events over several decades…that have caused flood levels….if a cottager happen to move here during one of the events…..you would assume this is low.

For many years, the entire 5 ish meters of flat rock underneath this point was  …..a hang out.   It changed when  the 118 bridge was moved and the engineers raised the  base  or bottom ..under the bridge….higher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://muskoka.weatherstats.ca/charts/precipitation-monthly.html

Summer Phosphorous Results

Thank you to the Lake Partner Program. 

Find Phosphorous Level link mid way down

I get a kit early spring to do a monthly phosphorous test on Brandy Lake ..Here are the results.  Note lakes withy tannin usually have higher phosphorous  than lakes without.   This is free…data

The link is massive….you can see several years of data from Brandy Lake Muskoka.   We are line number 3133.  I am not sure where FOCA get the 2nd data from.

Last year are numbers were:

May – 25.8 ug/l (Micrograms per Liter)

June  – 30.8

July – 25.8

Aug  – 36

Sept – 28

There is a test online showing Nov. 41.4