Maurice! Fines filtration

[bekko]

I needed static K baskets for two different applications and stopped alongside the road in Kailua to check out a washing machine someone had put out for the bulky rubbish collection (as per B.Scott's approach). The drum was slightly too large for one application and too small for the other application. The sign at the local dump says "no scavenging", but they will usually turn a blind eye for a few bucks. However, it seems the drums in all the washing machines there were the same in-between size.

I ended up making baskets out of heavy 1-1/4 inch plastic mesh. This stuff:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...d/3139/cid/962
This basket was lined with small 1/8 inch plastic mesh. The heavy stuff provides strength and rigidity while the small mesh contains the media.

Have you guys noticed how quickly the cost of plastic materials increases as the cost of a barrel of oil increases? You would think there would be a longer lag time.

The static K works as advertised and I'm very pleased. Thanks Maurice.

-steve hopkins

[B.Scott]

Steve the way you did it is what I originally had in mind. Trouble is i can't get that plastic mesh here in Holland. I've seen it in the UK but not on the mainland. I was also planning on taking an old stainless kitchen countertop and cutting it into strips/bands with which to reinforce the plastice mesh. I could put it all together with some small bolts or stainless pop-rivets. In that case I would have made it all a tad larger than it is now. But all in all I can't say I'm unhappy with the results. Every time I was the basket out i am quite please with the amount of crud it releases.
B.Scott

[ranskye]

can i suggest you guys try setting this system up so you dont have to do so much work or even be there when you drop out your bead water.
take a timer if you are running a pump into this system; have it run for all but 2 minutes of the day. now while that pump has its power shut down by the timer itll stop ok.
buy one of those emergency power relays and stick it inline to your pump power supply so that it will trip another power source to come on as your pump shuts down for the two minutes.
this will then make two things happen- if it is hooked to two things.
your earator to clean your media will turn on and if you run a solenoid type valve as a tap on the bottom of your cone it will open up thereby releasing all the shit in the bottom of your swirl cone at the same time, by the time it has all dropped out your beads will be clean..
within 2 minutes your tank will be empty and then your system cleared out and ready for the pump to come back on, your earator will then turn off and your solenoid valve will shut off closed.
in time off a blackout your tank would remain open but your main pump off anyway so your fish will not run out of water in the main tank..

if you gravity drain then all you need is a rise up with a stand pipe first if your using things like this so that your main tank wont drain dry,

you can also run a dc system on the aireator and the solenoid if preffered.
this is a technique/system that in case of a blackout a solar power battery earator or an O2 bottle can also be triggered for the main pond.

i imagine if you, maurice are able to go away to ningaloo reef, you either have something like that on his heavliy stocked tanks or a auto starting backup generator system./

[kntry]

Do you have any pics of this or a diagram?

I'd love to add a self cleaning system to mine.

[ranskye]

here is a pic of the solenoid, they come in two types, they work by magnets and you want one that is closed until power is added.
this is a 24 volt one that runs off a standard 24 v garden timer.

[ranskye]

here is a picture of the bottom of the tapered tank.
i cut off the bottom of an old red plastic drum and siliconed it into place after i hole sawed out some 20mm holes and cable tied some gutter gaurd gauze over the holes.

[ranskye]

the tanks came from the tank making place just down the road from our farm. they cost 200 bucks each but this one was a factory second so was 100 bucks and i had to get the guy at the shop to plastic weld a new bottom in it, which is why you see a white seam.
the silicone tube to the side was just used to secure the red section in place.

[ranskye]

as for my sytem i do not use an earator. so have not gone to the trouble of running a relay to turn on an earator below my bio balls.
i dont need to have the kaldness as a fines catcher.
i threw a small amount of old stone fruit hail netting in there and it does ok and dont seem to clog up long term.
though i do not throw kilos of food per a day either. it is just a guppy tank to hold fish indoors over our winter.

my swirl tank is large ( maybe 300 litres) which the water level is just under half way up.
the top section above water is used to hold bioballs which my main pump feeds water over.
the junk sloughs and falls down to the settlement trap area.
i have a small pump that picks up settled waste from the middle of a flat bottom culture tank and deposits it via a hose about 3.4 way down the swirl tank.
my main pump gets its water from halfway up in the main culture tanks.

you guys that have a tapered tank or even just a sump section built into a concret bottom or linered bottom could make use of the whole culture tank as a pretty good settlement area. and have that tapped off to a solenoid timered tap.
make an elbow up after the solenoid to just below culture water level so that if it fails and stays open you do not drain your whole tank out.

[ranskye]

i havent got any diagrams but i can make mention of the devices out there that you can put in something into practise.

first up you can have a timer run your main pump so it shuts off for a couple of minutes every time you want an automatic flush out.
you stick in a relay that detects when power is lost in the pump electrical feed line and that will then send power to your 24 volt transformer to turn on your earator for your fines and open your solenoid tap a the same time.

there is another device on the market that would sense when pressure is lost in the air line of a main earator and turn your fines trap aerator on as well as the solenoid tap.

another way is to have one shut off solenoid on your main aerator line and one that opens up the air line to the fines air feed as well as one solenoid that opens your tap. that way you need only one aerator.
now that is three solenoids, two that open when your 24 volt timer kicks on for a couple of minutes and one that closes your air feed to your culture tank so that air is simply diverted.


or you can get a bottle full of compressed gas with a solenoid valve hooked to the top of the gas bottle that feeds air into to the fines aereator line..
a pressure or an electrical sensor opens that bottle up when you want. a simple way for this is to use the same timer that runs your solenoid tap and that would do the trick vigorously too.

[ranskye]

this will give you an idea on some gizmos available.
http://www.aquasonic.com.au/xtras/section9.pdf