Diy fractionator running

[duanes]

When I made my 1st ones, I thought venturi's were needed, but just as in the foam produced by waterfalls, river rapids, or wave action, its the cascading over the media that also fractures the air water interface, separating elements from the water.
If the pump slows there might not be enough agitation, so it is important to maintain enough pump pressure to fractionate.
On my pond units, I found I needed to back flash regularly to eliminate leaf litter and other junk that got in blocking and collecting in the media.

 

[Rhyno8]

I can’t comment on long term maintenance but when I pulled it apart for the photos zero gunk the feed pumps after the filter sock in my sump so minimal particles would ever go through the media. It would have to clog to overflow and clogging a 6” pipe would take some doing not saying it’s impossible but it would have to be a series of very unfortunate events to flood anything. I do have a 100mm cap glued to the bottom of that 150’cap drilled out like a shower head just so the water gets spread over the media.

 

[Rhyno8]

When I made my 1st ones, I thought venturi's were needed, but just as in the foam produced by waterfalls, river rapids, or wave action, its the cascading over the media that also fractures the air water interface, separating elements from the water.
If the pump slows there might not be enough agitation, so it is important to maintain enough pump pressure to fractionate.
On my pond units, I found I needed to back flash regularly to eliminate leaf litter and other junk that got in blocking and collecting in the media.

Yeah I was surprised how little difference it made when I tried injecting air just made loads of noise for no gain. I’d like to try mine with a bigger pump I feel like that would be the most likely to improve results. Side note the tank water seems to get that more polished look.