Cecil,
With your mechanical filtration do you have to backwash and discharge water to clean the filters?
Brian,
Thanks for the info.
I don't backwash. My filter (clarifier) consists of 55 gallon drum packed with deer fence netting cut into sections and two filter pads on top of that. Water comes into the bottom of this via u-tube 2 inch PVC siphon. A small mag drive pump sits on top of this and pulls the water up through the filter material. The pump then directs the clarified water to another 55 gallon drum which is my biofilter (moving bed bioreactor (mbbr) or a rotating biocontact filter (rbc) in a tank, both homemade.
Cleaning the clarifier is relatively easy. I pull off a pvc extension and temporarily cap the siphon in the clarifier tank. I then open a valve on a hose connected to the bottom of the clarifier tank. The water in the clarifier tank drains out and goes to a raised garden. Once it's drained I pull the pads and filter material out and spray them off with a garden hose, holding them in the tank to allow the debris to stay in the tank and place the cleaned material temporarily into a clean garbage can. Then scour the bottom of the now empty tank and drain.
Next the clarifier tank is filled with fresh water and once the water level rises to the end of the siphon tube, the u-tube siphon is uncapped and and the extension is fitted back on. Filter material is packed back into the tank and pump placed back on top, and it's ready to go. It sounds like a lot of work but it isn't. I've been told this simple filter removes particles down to 60 microns.
This accomplishes removal of suspended solids and a water change at the same time. A totally external stand pipe connects to the center drain. It's kept empty until a gate valve is pulled, whic causes water to violently gets pulled into it and up is my settleable solids filter. It pulls any debris around and in the center drain in the circular fish tank. That water and solids is also directed to the raised garden. Only uses about 2 gallons per purge and I usually do that twice a day.
The clarifier filter works so well it will filter out fine precipitated iron from well water (when I first fill the system) to make the water gin clear. In fact, I use the same principal to make my own separate iron filter, with two drums side by side if I have fry and need to remove the iron in a strictly RAS system. Of course I will welcome the iron in the aquaonics system.
