DIY Radial Flow Separators

I've been fascinated by vortex settling chambers for a long time. Always wanted to try to build some, but the more you read into them the more impractical they seem. What DOES seem practical are radial flow separators. They are a VERY simple concept, so I thought what better way to find out if they'd actually work then to build a couple and try them, so I did.

I used a pair of plastic 55 gallon drums. I have (4) 2" drains coming out of the tank which I ran into (2) 3 inch drains. A 3" drain goes into the side of each radial flow separator (RFS). I used a pair of 3" 45s on each RFS to get a gradual curve , and centered this drain in the middle of the drums. I used a round water softener drum cut in half for the tube that directs the water back down. The crap settles out of the water when the water changes direction to go back up the outside of the softener tube and into the pair of 2" drains at the top of the RFSs. This is my first stage of mechanical filtration. Water then goes to the filter socks.

Now typically my socks plug after about a week. Now this system has been going about 3 weeks, so I figured this was long enough to see what they caught, and IF they're even worth having. I assumed they must be as the filter socks haven't plugged yet. I was shocked to see how much crap was sitting in the bottom of these things.......

These were just thrown together to see if the idea was even worth messing with. My conclusion is this could really change the way we filter tanks.

I planned on using a pump in the bottom of each RFS and running drain lines to the drain in the floor, then these things will just be sucked out on a regular basis. Thought about a simple ball valve drain on the side but the water has to end up in the drain so rather then carry buckets why not just pump directly to the drain? There's several more improvements to be made, but the fact that they seemed to work right away out of the gate has me pretty excited.

1st pic is the RFSs behind the tank, then what they look like with the lids off, then the crap they caught...... And a quick vid of after the first clean out......

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Reedmaster16 said:

Eureka lol, they look to be working great so far!

Real nice job bro. The dual chamber design looks like a good compromise over a larger diameter container.

Are you running your pump/pumps flow rate at 100% still?
Maybe playing around with dialing back pumps a tad and using powerheads in main tank to keep waste stirred up flowing to the overflows.

Looks like they are settling out a nice amount of waste regardless. Well done.

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My only complaint is this is the filter equivalent of an open headered big block. Unbelievably loud. I believe my drains are struggling to keep up. Notice the foot and a half standpipes on the drains? I actually had water traveling up and out of those standpipes when they were about 6 inches tall, and still higher then the top of the tank. I have air bubbles coming through the drains into the RFSs. However, even with the current flow rates they seem to work!

I have not tried dialing the pumps back. I wanted to keep it full tilt to insure nothing was going to overflow. I did install ball valves after the UVs to be able to dial it back, so will give that a go in the future.

I'm currently running a pair of Baldor Dart hybrid pumps. I don't remember the rating but I want to say like 4300 gph each? There's also a big Korilia in the tank. I did plum in a 3rd Dart for recirculation to the moving bed wet/dries ( ) but given the drains struggling I don't think I'll ever get to use any of it for additional return.

IF I knew these were going to work so well I would have redone the overflows in the tank. I'd like to hack up at least one of the overflow boxes a few inches off the floor in the tank so it pulls water from the bottom of the tank. What I think would be really swell is to set the tank up river style and dump all the water in one side and drain on the other, pulling mostly from the bottom, but with overflow boxes already in play I will have to wait to try that design with my first DIY tank.

Anyone interested in seeing the rest of the filter?????

DIDYSIS said:

standard Darts are about 3600 gold are a little higher they say thats a good amount of flow. Any yes to seeing all the filter details.

Sent from Note 2 mini computer

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There's a "normal" Dart on the left..... The "Hybrids" I have not only use Baldor motors but they also use a larger impeller. Pretty sure they're rated at 4300 each, and I think they were around 150 watts. Haven't found a more efficient pump that doesn't cost 2-3 times as much.

I could see a huge difference in the water being pushed out the return jets when I was using one normal Dart and 1 Hybrid. Took me half a year to find another Hybrid. Not too easy to come by.... lol

David R said:

Very interesting!! I think this kind of pre-filtering needs to be explored a lot more in the hobby, my very simple "settling chamber" at the start of my sump catches a ton of crap from my plecs, and I'm sure there are other far more effective ways of doing it.

I'm trying to get my head around how this works, is it something like this; http://www.earthangroup.com.au/diy-solids-filter/

Water flows in through the bottom and that central bit has a sort of "cap" that directs the flow downwards, then as it comes back up it leaves the heavy waste behind?

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Yup, you've got it right. In the beginning of the vid it shows the lid of the barrel which I cut off, after cutting the lid off I removed about an inch around the top of the drum so the lid fits down inside the barrel. The water softener "barrel" is basically a larger version of a 5 gallon bucket. Think of a 5 gallon bucket flipped upside down and placed over the drain coming into the RFS. The water hits the bucket and is forced down towards the bottom of the separator, it then runs up the outside of the bucket towards the 2 drains. The water changes direction but the heavier solids/waste don't, they just stay on the bottom of the barrel.

I'll likely end up wiring some pumps up to a switch, and plum the pumps to a drain. That way I can "flush" the crap down the drain with the flip of a switch. I'll use a very small power head to blow the crap over to the pump and by letting the pump run for a half minute or so when I do the morning and evening checks on the fish I think that will keep them plenty clean.

Obviously a conical shaped container would make this work wayyy better, but I needed to be sure the design worked well enough to justify buying conical shaped containers, as those things are NOT cheap! LOL Would also be nice to have enough height to just use valves and get to the drain, but the way my stuff's set up I couldn't even get a bucket underneath where I wanted to put drains, so figured I'm stuck using pumps.