ado_84 Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 .Hi all I’m wanting to know if anyone has used and had much success with swirl filters? I’m looking for a simple way to remove a good proportion of solids before the water hits the sump. Without using media that will clog.. these are widely used in aquaculture from what I’ve found. I will be setting up a large sump soon likely a 6*2*2 connected to a 4*2*2 thinking I could use a modified 200l drum as the swirl filter and install a valve at the base to remove solid waste easily any suggestions/experiances? Sump will have a good flow rate about 20000lph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tech Den Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Used a larger one and was about 1000 liters and it ran pretty slow to allow the solids to the bottom and worked well but do not know if the 200l drum and if you had too much flow if it would allow the solid and smaller particles to drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ado_84 Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 umm,, thanks john, 1000l would take a bit of space.. aquasonic sell one not much larger than a 44... would you say it was worth your while? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquaholic99 Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I've played around with swirl filters extensively. They are often confused with radial filters or vortex filters. To separate solids from water column you can either slow the water velocity down enough that particles drop out or speed the water velocity fast enough that particles are spun out and collected to the sides. If slowing the water, this takes quite a large space footprint and a conical design will improve efficiency. Diameters of 2m or bigger are recommended. See KoiPhen fish form for some excellent builds of these. If speeding the water up, a 200L barrel is fine but requires investment in additional water pump and running costs. I used a gravity fed surge tank to periodically flush ( accelerate water) to avoid the pump but not very efficient if your system is over ten tonnes water. The best particle filters will remove waste right out of the water column so you should look at cetus sieve as well. Collecting waste but leaving it in the water column means your bio filter is working much harder. A nice working compromise is to use floating media such as K1 statically. Just pour the dirty water through and it screens out the waste. When it's time to clean, flood the barrel and fluidise the media to dislodge the trapped dirt then open bottom drain to waste. You can automate this if you want to get fancy. Winston Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tech Den Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I was not a bad option as there was a lot of space and it needs to be slow to do a good job and this was also in use with a settling tank a main head unit that worked with gravity feed, if you get a chance have a look at the Earthan Group DIY they show a static and fluidbed running side by side as a good option and that might be your best option as Winston mentioned above with the flushing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ado_84 Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 (edited) Thanks guys i will done some more searching. ''looks like his site is down has been for a couple weeks.'' Edited November 6, 2014 by ado_84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
