Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, since I had those huge feed hoppers hanging around, I used the one for the BSF bin (though I have not really tended or fed that so it isn't doing much at the moment.

The other hopper I decided to test out as a swirl filter.



Now the initial observation I have, the solids that make it through my pump are pretty well blended and they stay suspended rather well in the swirl so I don't think it is doing much good as is.

What are some relatively simple ways to improve this admittedly simple set up.

Ignore the 1/2" pipe sticking out the far side from the outlet, it was just the simplest way to plug up the hole pre-existing on that side of the hopper.

He hopper is sitting on a 5 gallon bucket as a stand. The solids clean out comes out the bottom of the hopper, out the side of the bucket and has a ball valve.

I have a 1" inlet with the elbow to get the flow swirling.
The overflow outlet is several inches above the inlet and is 1 1/2"

Just put this one in. Ignore most of the PVC outlets. The one on the right I have now connected to a 200ltr drum of bio-balls. Can't really tell how much solids are in the bottom because the water is green. I put a couple of air stones inside so I can put some fingerling in later. Was thinking of putting a screen in front of the outlet to stop fish going into the bio-balls. It is connected to same pump that does the GB's 15min every hr. And later when I vacuum the pool it will go in here first.

A larger diameter drum may be one way - flow in swirl would be less and solids easier to fall to the base

Another idea could be to put a mesh divider above the inlet and place some sort of media on it:
Water enters and starts to swirl, as it rises through the media the solids fall out back to the base (hopefully)

Put a solid divider above the inlet with 2-3" hole in the centre so that the water goes through the hole up into the top section then out of the swirl filter - water in the centre is traveling slower and the theory is that the solids will stay in the bottom half

Do these help?

...or even extend the outlet pipe in towards the centre of the swirl filter rather than extract the faster swirling water from the drum to see if that works

If you can get it to gravity feed from the fish tank into the swirl seperator, the solids will not have been broken up by the pump.

might be pretty hard to do this with a dug in pond though...

+1 for LKB's idea. Thats the way that oil seperators work.

But why do you need a swirl filter TCL?

I have a similar setup, but combined with floating beads:

more pics:

Partially I did it because I have that hopper and it just seemed like the thing to do with it.

But I also find that the catfish like more flow through their tank than the sand filter provides at the pressure I have available for it so I usually have to give some bypass water from the pump to the catfish which has not been filtered. I thought perhaps I could stick a swirl filter in there to allow better flow to the catfish while removing some of the solids. Then when I move the aquarium out to the main system, it can tank the small flow from the output of the sand filter.

So, I will likely try a few ideas to make some better use of this swirl filter. I had been thinking along the lines of some sort of screen/or filter level above the inlet but below the overflow. Will see what I can work out with materials around here.

and more:
I have the pump in the sump so the solids stay solids and are not shattered to peaces
pump capacity is more than the overflow can handle, but run it only 10 minutes every hour, so the level in the fish tank and subsequently in the settling/filter tank rises by about 10-15 cm with each cycle, then falls back again
one of the possible problems with beads is clogging
I hope that the rise and fall will solve this as the output pipe breaks up the layers of beads with each rise and fall
If not, I will add a screen somewhere at level of the lowest beads at high level.
they will be forced through that with each fall and rise and most probably (hopefully) unclog
I have about 40 minutes of settling time between each cycle
maybe I should raise the outflow knee a little not to disturb to much what has already settled.

greets

frank

TC

Try getting some eggcrate fluro light covers. Place one below the inlet, angle the inlet pipe upwards very slightly. Place the second just below the exit.
Gravity fed works better as you won't trash the solids but since you are, introduce media like Frank, slows the flow and you will get benefit from biological reaction. I will probably try soft drink bottle caps, slightly bouyant. (courtesy of CG).
Frank, it looks like you have a venturi on the inlet, I can understand why you may want it for the bead filter but dosn't it create a problem with too much lift for the solids?
BTW nice looking system

I don't understand your question, Sleepe
I have an overflow system on the fish tank that sucks the solids from the bottom
the duckbill non return valve you see on the pictures is there for easy priming only as it goes over the side of the tank
how can you have too much lift for the solids?

frank

Sorry Frank, thought it was a venturi to introduce air into the vortex filter, where you certainly do not want lift.

It was not as silly a question as it might have seemed, Sleepe:
this is one other advantage of this setup: as the beads are floating freely to the surface unlike in other floating bead filters where they are contained, they are aerated with each cycle (or at least the top layer is)
the only thing for me to figure out is how to achieve efficient mixing without extra power.
maybe a simple inclined plate or two somewhere together with the rise and fall will do the trick

frank

A sphere would be ideal, but difficult to fit in with the plumbing.