Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have contacted several producers/venders of rotary drum filters and have so far been very disappointed. If they reply to an email, it is weeks later...but the norm is to not respond at all. It would seem that many of thoes who supply our industry are not as professional as their websites would lead you to believe.

Has anyone had good success with a general aquaculture/aquaponics vendor? What about specifically for RDFs or other large scale supplies and equipment?

I appreciate any recommendations you may have from your practical experience.

Pentair is a well renowned company for aquaculture supplies. They do a series of drum filters including the smaller Faivre Rotary Drum Filter.

http://pentairaes.com/faivre-rotary-drum-filters.html

Thank you for this suggestion, I too had a high opinion of them until I tried to communicate with them. From my initial point of contact, they did not respond for 1 full week. After nudging them, I received a response. Unfortunately, it has now been 2 weeks since I respond to their questions and I have, again, not received a response.

If it's this hard to find answers to my pre-sales questions, before they have my money, I can only imagine the problems I will have with after sales service.


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Fair call. Shame they don't have the costumer support.

If I was in the market for a RDF Id be calling them directly, get some info and prices then go from there. One thing Ive learnt over the last few years is people get to hung up on emails and txts. Make the call, talk business and make the purchase.

Cheers.

I completely agree! When I am in the US, I do business as close to in person as possible. Unfortunately, this project (and myself) are located in rural Africa and calling is a less desirable option due to time differences and connection issues.

Hopefully I will have a good alternative.




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Pent air does not value emails, you have to call.

Is Pentair really the only serious option? Shame they make you conform to their preferred communication method.


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There would be a few suppliers for the Faivre, including direct from Faivre which are located in France or the UK. I think 'Fresh by Nature' supply them in Australia and Im sure there are others.

There are multiple brands and suppliers for other drum filters but a lot of them are designed for large scale waste water treatment, mining, glucose or pools etc. Faivre do small versions. What size are you after? Do you know what brand you want? What size system is it going to be for?

Other brands are..
Xinhai
BOEEP
Longer
DAHUI
Netech
eWater
Lanlingshuizu
Blue eco

And they are all out of China.

I am currently in the market for a filter for a 50m3 system. The actual flow would be less than that, perhaps around 25m3/hr.

Regarding brand, I am really looking for a recommendation. It will be located in a rural corner of Africa so dependability and long life is a must!


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Ok, quick update. As suggested above, I called Pentairaes and talked to a real person. They have recommended that I don't use a RDF for this size of system, but fathers a bead filter for solids removal..which I have no experience with. Do any forum members have some thoughts/experience with this recommendation?

As an alternative, they also recommended Eco-traps for each drain, or their particular brand of swirl/vortex filter. Any experience or thoughts on these recommendations?


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Ever run a decent sized pool sand filter? It's basically the same thing but instead of sand, they use small plastic wagon wheel/hex media. As the water moves through the filter, solids are deposited and trapped on the media. Then every once in a while, you will back flush by turning a valve. This sends water down the center and into the bottom and stirs up the waste and sends it out through the waste out pipe. Some models have air assisted cleaning which can cut down on water waste.

Hope that helps!

I was just wondering how a pool sand filter would function in this setup!

Does any one else have experience with using a pool sand filter for removing solid waste? What do you use as the filter media?


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