Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nice to see some pics Frank ... .... nice work....

TCL.... try slowing your inflow and your solids may settle out better....

Hum, you are probably right on that count Rupert but the hole point was to increase flow for the catfish and waterfall so I will try some other things first.

So I had this net bag laying around. Basically a mesh laundry bag. Who knows how long it will last in the sun but still seems pretty good even after months hanging on the sand filter out there.

Well I stuck that in last night. Kinda a mistake since the mesh got sucked into the overflow and stopped it up a bit. Had a bit of an overflow issue on the swirl filter but no major disasters ensued.

So, to deal with that and get the overflow to take from the middle more, I added a little pvc and a T with some netting over it to keep the bag and leaves from flowing in. I figure with the T it gives twice the surface area before real clogging happens.

So I my start tossing plastic drink caps or other floating stuff into there as well to help trap solids and provide a little more surface area.

Will see how it goes. I probably need to get a screen top on this to keep leaves out. I don't want to put a hard lid on since that would allow it to become depleated of O2 during a power out. The main thing I don't like about the sand filter is that it probably is pretty depleated of O2 any time the flow is not going through it. I've noticed a terrible stink any time it has set idle and then be turned back on. If it were easier to get into, perhaps I would but a bunch of iron into it.

Anyway, I'll keep updating on how the very simple swirl works out.

Put a brick or large stone in the center of the net bag to weight it down and stop it from being sucked into the outlet pipe

On the outlet to mine I used a PVC screen to keep the floaties in. Don't know if they make it for the smaller size PVC but you can still connect PVC to it because it is stepped.

One must clear the solids out of the bottom of these quite regularly I think as the odor of the gunk that comes out the bottom is pretty nasty. BSF larva should love the stuff though.

Mine has a tap underneath but I have not let anything out yet. Maybe after I try to vacuum into it.

I have the tap installed on the bottom of mine and opened it yesterday and ooooooh
It was a rank odor. Definitely need to do this often or the anaerobic bad stuff could become a problem.

I plan to install a very small peristaltic pump for continuous or intermittent solids extraction to replace the tap:
http://www.rietschlethomas.com/rtpumps/ ... 6B006FFF62
very reliable and easy to service

Frank

My latest design for a vortex filter, not to scale, sorry about the crap drawing. Initially air pump to drive geyser on timer, hope to get it working automatically on ambient temps (tricky). Some media, not shown, bottle caps.

excellent idea, Sleepe
One suggestion: you don't need the upper screen if you use a screened outlet pipe like in my design
that gives the (floating) media the freedom to float up if your pump is on a timer and back down when the pump stops, hopefully breaking up any clogs that might form
the "off" time of the pump also gives the solids more opportunity to settle down
the peristaltic pump will pump less water and more concentrated sludge and the fact that it is electric allows for timing it's functioning in correlation with the system pump: i.e. (in a 30 minute cycle) system pump on 10 minutes (beads rise slowly upwards say 5-10 cm), rest 18 minutes (solids settle while the beads slowly move back downwards), peristaltic pump on 2 minutes (pumps settled, concentrated solids), system pump on 10 minutes, rest 18 minutes, peristaltic pump on 2 minutes, ...

Only wish I had a nice conical bottom
(on the tank )
any ideas on how to transform a flat bottom to a conical one?

frank

First thought, pinch a road cone, cut the base off, cut the bottom off the bucket, ram the cone down and seal with silicone (actually that nice polyethelene glue would probably be better).

Was hoping to keep constant height in the vortex filter and bury it to 1/3 of its depth. Will have to test with and without screen to see how media reacts. The dome in the design above should avoid having to have a conical bottom, and makes the air resevoir for the 'pump'. Have a polycarbonate? sphere, think from a HPS street light which should do the job.

If you can find a low pressure normal off solenoid, you could just run a syphon over the top of the filter, to solenoid, and dump on a timer. I have found the peristaltic pumps to be relatively hard to turn (by hand) so I'm not sure how much power they pull. BTW they put those pumps in some of the old expensive heat exchanger aircons to dump the condensate (got a little 8lph out of one, its a "SBS Feintechnik think the model no is M-V-1).

sounds very consequential to me
the peristaltic pumps I pointed to are very small
I used them to dose a portion of liquid soap or sanitizer in automatic dispensers, so they can handle viscous products
here is the reference:
SR10/30 24VDC N:2,5 90-150 mA
yr 2000 price 27 €/pc, bough per ten pcs

better put your solenoid on the air supply line: much smaller (cheaper) valve and a clean medium

if you compare energy consumption you should add that of the blower.

the geyser solution will always keep the disadvantage of wasting a lot of water and diluting the solids

frank