Catching ray poo without media??? Yup.

DB junkie

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I've been toying with these things for a few months and couldn't believe the results, so I waited longer. At this point they've been running several months, and there's no denying the results...... :WHOA:

Some of you might be like me and enjoy building stuff like filters. Well, this concept blew my mind. Radial Flow Separators are simply a vessel that changes the direction of the flow of water. When the water changes direction guess what happens to the solids? They keep falling, in this case they fall out of the water column and sit on the bottom of the vessel.

I built mine out of a pair of plastic 55 gallon drums, and a water softener barrel. Concept is the water flows in through a 3" bulk head fitting in the side of the drum at the bottom. From the fitting there's 2 45 degree elbows then a standpipe about a foot tall, this pipe is dead center in the middle of the drum. So now you have water flowing straight up the center of the drum. Now the drum lids were cut off, and the water softener barrel cut in half, and the lid re attached. Each of the water softener barrel halves were attached to the lids of the 55 gallon drums. Water is then forced to travel back down to the bottom of the 55 gallon drums because of the softener drum, then back up the outside of the water softener barrel to the drains that are in the side of the 55s towards the top (sets water level). The poo is heavier then water, therefore will not travel back up the RFS drains, but rather sit on the bottom of the drum. I simply remove the lids of the drums (which the water softener halves are attached to) and siphon out the poo every week.

Now I had little to no faith in this concept working so that's why there's no valves in the bottom of the drums, otherwise a simple valve cracking would clean all the crap out. Now that it works next step is conical bottomed drums with valves on the bottom. You could even get fancy and run automated valves on timers and you could simply flush the crap out as often as you wanted.......

This design blows vortex settling chambers out of the water. So much more efficient. I believe this is the answer for the stringy ray poo that wreaks havoc on most means of mechanical filtration..... These things in my eyes are the ideal 1st stage of mechanical filtration, and prolong the life of filter socks a bunch.

I made the mistake of skipping a week and believe it or not there was enough crap in the bottom that it actually plugged the siphon to the point where I ended up using a pump to pump the crap out......

It's crazy what comes out of these things, and I'm not even running the desired lower flow rates. I'm running a 4300 gph pump per 55 gallon radial flow separator. I'd love to see what a properly tuned thought out design would do. I didn't put much time or thought into mine, cause like I said, I didn't think it would work that well. I was dead wrong. Again.

Here's a vid of what came out of one after a week.

[YT]Q1JfUzPhfiw[/YT]
 
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jeffers

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wow... that's a lot. now when you say one that is fine tuned what would you say a good gph per 55 gal barrel would be? more or less than what you are currently running?
 
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DB junkie

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wow... that's a lot. now when you say one that is fine tuned what would you say a good gph per 55 gal barrel would be? more or less than what you are currently running?
I'd guess 1500 gph/55 gallon drum would be ideal......

All I know is if I'm catching this much at these flow rates then I bet with enough work you could eventually get to the point where socks could last several weeks, even months.

BUT here's the real benefit...... Any mechanical media is going to trap crap and leech nitrates. The best way to remove is in solid form, which isn't going to happen with socks or pump fed filters like beads. The crashing water is going to pulverize, smear, and at least break the crap up making it smaller and harder to catch. IF you're lucky enough to catch it it's still going to sit there and break down till you change the socks.

IF these things are built with valves then honestly, how much work is it to crack a valve for a few seconds everyday or even twice a day??? Solid crap gone, no media to clean, no Nitrate leeching into the water.

What's really neat is the ray poop is stringy, so it sticks together, the crap in the bottom of these reactors is like a mass that just grows, catching more and more crap passing by. Hard to explain, but once you see it, it makes sense.
 
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Blkpiranha

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Neat concept but not too practical for home use unless you live in a warehouse or your tanks are in a garage or dungeon basement. I will keep to my filter socks and understocked tanks to control my waste as I have a finished basement that I can watch all my tanks,entertain guests,watch the big screen and drink beers without 55 gallon filtering drums being in the way!!
 

vamptrev

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Sounds cool and everything but if you are making socks last 3 weeks instead of 1 week then even the small amount of crap that is in the sock is just going to be in the tank longer making water quality worse. Seems you should still wash your socks once a week...





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corn fed

Jack Dempsey
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Please post a video of the set up. I just can't quite grasp the set up. What size tank are you running this on?

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DB junkie

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Neat concept but not too practical for home use unless you live in a warehouse or your tanks are in a garage or dungeon basement. I will keep to my filter socks and understocked tanks to control my waste as I have a finished basement that I can watch all my tanks,entertain guests,watch the big screen and drink beers without 55 gallon filtering drums being in the way!!
Maybe you're still within "practical" but after moving a 750 gallon tank into my basement and planning on filling it with rays and some of the most predatory fresh water fish on the planet I pretty much tossed practicality out the window.....

I thought most people serious about fish kept filter rooms? I see no need for any TVs in my filter room. I have a living room for the big screen TV and entertaining guests, but honestly if my guests want to be entertained they prefer the "dungeon basement" (see I caught your dig? ;) )

IF you don't have the room for big filters now how are you going to manage in the event you get a big tank?
 
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