Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am about to build my first swirl filter out of a 55 gallon barrel. And while there are a lot of photos and pictures w/video I do not see a lot of measurements.

I am using 2 inch PVC for input and output. Also using DIY bulkheads which saved me over $70.

I will also have a "poop valve" which will suck solids off the bottom and drain it into a 5 gallon bucket for re-purposing. This will be a one inch pvc pipe/bulkhead.

My big question is:

At what height should I have my water from the fish tank coming into the swirl filter? 24 inches up?

Thanks!
Andrew

bump

Ive never built one but Id assume as close to the top as you can. This way you won't disturb the settled solids. But Im only guessing.

If you don't know, a radial flow filter (RFF), is a proven better solid settling filter. If you can Id go for one of those.

But, what type of system do you have? Do you even need one?

http://www.aquaponic.com.au/Solids%20filtration.pdf

See pages 3 and 4

Doubt you would be building a vortex filter.

Hi
http://www.thepondforum.com/showthread. ... ond-Filter

cheers

Looking at this paper http://integrated-aqua.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Radial_Flow_Settler_Whitepaper.pdf - Their inlet came slightly below the water surface at about 20% of the total water depth. This looks to me to be as high as they could locate it based on the design they had, similar to what Charlie said. Notice too that their setup doesn't allow the flow to short circuit straight out of the separator as the design affects where the inlet is located.

Good link Sleepe

I haven't had much of a chance to read that paper scotty, and I know they are scientists, but it seemed like a very poorly designed swirl separator. i have a feeling that they are confusing it with a vortex separator.
I would have thought that the inlet should have been placed at least a third possibly a half way down the tank and angled very slightly downwards. Unfortunately I have to go to work so I will think about this some more.

Well they should have a longer flow path which will increase the retention time and should also increase the amount of solids settled out so I'm thinking the design is at least a decent one. I also wonder if solids hitting the sides as they enter makes them loose velocity and they become more likely to settle out along the wall. Just something to ponder

Busy day however.

In their design they seemed to use the same tank and it looked a lot like an RFF with the steeply angled cone and the notched weir. It may have been because of footprint size but entering the water at the top and causing it to go into a restricted passage I would have thought cause turbulence.
Back to basics, settling tanks usually long and big, water goes in at one end and slowly moves to the other as it does it allows solids to drop out, problem is it drops crap all over the place.
Swirl separators, water is introduced tangentially (not sure if that's a word) relatively slow flow which causes the water to move on a long path. Because of the swirl crap tends to be centered at the bottom. Water exiting needs to pass through a still or larger ie not so swirly zone.

Anyway these are only guesses between me doing hard physical work and atm having a few beers; I have my own theories about mechanical filtration and its going back to basics with a few twists.

Thank you for all the info and PDFs, I'm battling with the same questions and this came as if like a God sent... [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES][GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES][GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]