1999 Air Nautique Existing Ballast Pump Configuration - Is this normal?

[Joshua J Rowe]

Ballast is limited to stock hard tanks right now, I believe they are 200 lbs each. Fill time is longer than it should be for what these pumps are rated for, 800gph. Should be about 5 minutes, takes about 15 now.

I have been looking into additional ballast and have not seen this configuration anywhere. Is this normal? Fill and drain pumps in series. It is set up like a reversible pump. Wondering if that may be causing too much resistance.

Also, there appear to be check valves on the vent lines at the top of each tank. The way this system works the air needs to flow back into the tanks to let them drain, hence the vent line valves. Wondering if these check valves might be causing resistance as well.

The tanks fill and drain as is, but I am going to add a bag in the rear locker which I would like to tie into the same pumps which will take forever to fill if I don't figure out this issue.

Any thoughts?

When the tanks are full water barely comes out the vent hole. I feel like it should be shooting out as much or more than when the 500gph bilge pump kicks on.

Assuming either pumps are wearing out or something is set up wrong.

Thanks

[swatguy]

I have never seen anything piggy backed like that. Havin to suck or pump through another aerator pump would kill your full time like you mention. Somebody at some point added those pumps that way , because Tsunamis are relatively new . I am guessing the tsunamis didn't fit in the older locations because they are a bit bigger , and this was his solution. , but this makes zero sense.


check valves on av bent line are pointless with hard tanks.


Personally I would start back over and yank all that crap out and re plumb everything , Whomever re did That system really did more
harm then good.

[charlesml3]

Well the pumps you're taking about didn't exist in 1999. These are really just bait-well pumps and yes, they were plumbed up this way. In-line and one filled, the other drained.

No it isn't even remotely efficient but you have to remember the 1999 Air Nautique was really a Sport Nautique with tanks, tower and graphics. It wasn't initially designed to be a wakeboarding boat. This is pretty primitive compared to today, but it was state-of-the-art in 1999.

People who've kept these boats and wakeboard regularly have mostly changed all this out. Added multiple inlets in the hull, separate fill/drain paths, etc.

-Charles

[Joshua J Rowe]

From what I can tell the boat did not have any pumps from the factory. The method of filling the tanks was to get the boat moving about 20 mph and open the valves. To drain all you did was open the valves when either stopped or moving at low speed. I feel like this was a poorly thought out way to add pumps.

I'm going to start over.

Have not decided on reversible pump or aerators, open to suggestions/opinions on that. Currently leaning towards aerators due to what I have heard about maintenance on the impeller style pumps.

Keeping stock tanks and adding a 600 lb bag in rear locker on top of them with quick connects so I can remove it to have storage when needed. Also going to add another 600 lb bag in the ski locker.

[Quinner]

Do you have the knob valves up near the helm? iirc they were below the throttle on my 99'. Pumps were optional in 99', they were aerator pumps, 1 for fill and 1 for empty, both in the same line, 1 pump was under the rear removable floor section and the other was near the intake gate valve below/adjacent to the motor. 3-way toggle controlled pumps, toggle was also below the throttle iirc. As you stated, fill and empty could be done without pumps, the pumps simply sped up the process. My factory setup worked OK, the helm valves were not very effective so I would use the gate valve if I wanted water to stay in or out.

[Joshua J Rowe]

Do you have the knob valves up near the helm? iirc they were below the throttle on my 99'. Pumps were optional in 99', they were aerator pumps, 1 for fill and 1 for empty, both in the same line, 1 pump was under the rear removable floor section and the other was near the intake gate valve below/adjacent to the motor. 3-way toggle controlled pumps, toggle was also below the throttle iirc. As you stated, fill and empty could be done without pumps, the pumps simply sped up the process. My factory setup worked OK, the helm valves were not very effective so I would use the gate valve if I wanted water to stay in or out.

Yes. Each tank has a knob style valve that opens the vent tubing to allow air in or out. The valves and the toggle switch are under the throttle. The reason I was thinking the pumps were added later is the installation. I will add some pictures. The switch mount is a POS and is secured to the side of the valve assembly with a self tapping screw. It does not match up with the build quality of the rest of the boat.

I need to get in the boat and look around more. There are 5 thru hulls above water on this boat. The two in the rear corners seem like they should be for draining the ballast tanks, 1 for ballast tank vent, and 2 for the bilge pumps.

[DLafont]

When you fill or empty, do you hear any gurgling sounds from the vents? This indicates air going out/in and same for water. I know that on my boat I can hear the gurgling pretty well when filling the tanks. Maybe everything is slow because of improper airflow in the venting. I'm pretty curious about how your pumps are configured in the picture, looks odd to me. In my boat, both pumps are in line on the same fill line, but not hooked up to one another directly.

[Joshua J Rowe]

When you fill or empty, do you hear any gurgling sounds from the vents? This indicates air going out/in and same for water. I know that on my boat I can hear the gurgling pretty well when filling the tanks. Maybe everything is slow because of improper airflow in the venting. I'm pretty curious about how your pumps are configured in the picture, looks odd to me. In my boat, both pumps are in line on the same fill line, but not hooked up to one another directly.

The only time I noticed a sound when I opened the valves was one time I had the drain pump on for a while and forgot to open the valves. When I did open it I heard the inrush of air.

Spent the evening in the boat. Drain pump is failing, fill pump sounds good. Tubing was poorly run and in bad shape. There was a kink in one of the lines.

[Joshua J Rowe]

Some Pictures

[Joshua J Rowe]

Finished up and tested today. All good. Fill time did not change as much as I had hoped. I may end up changing the pump configuration some time.

[DW SD]

larger diameter hose might make a difference for you. The high throughput systems use 1" or 1 1/8" hose with impeller pumps.

Doug

[CoryJr]

Joshua Rowe,

hey there sir, i saw your post on the page and was wondering if you could help me out to understand my system. I bought (new to me) a 1999 sport(air) nautique with only 378 hrs on her. I am slowly learning about the boat but I am having a hard time understanding the ballast system. I was trying to figure out the knobs and lever that I have found in the boat but I almost flooded the thing. Luckly my bilge pump works quite well. So i do have the fill/emtpy switch along with the knobs "left/right) under the accelerator handle, i have a lever in the engine bay as well. please help me understand the system.


Thank you for your time
Cory Romito