Settling chamber for mechanical filtration?

[David R]

A while ago while vacuuming muck that had got through the mechanical filtration and settled in the bottom of my sump, I thought 'why not have a chamber before the mechanical filtration for most of the muck to settle in?'. I've been toying with a few different designs for the sump for my next tank (300g+) trying to incorporate a settling chamber, at the moment they're just scribbles on scrap paper, but I'll try draw something up this weekend.

Is anyone else running something like this?

 

[knifegill]

So a sort of graduated baffle chamber with dead zones to allow particles to settle to the bottom for later removal? Sounds like a fine idea, but it might end up being less effective than we'd hope. Problems I see:
With adequate flow, particles will not settle
With weaker flow, particles will not arrive in sufficient quantity to make the chamber worth running. Particles will end up in your mechanical filter after making the round through the system again.

But it seems like your mechanical filtration could use some sealing up if particles are getting through, and that you already have a settling chamber in place.

 

[epond83]

It would take a few tries maybe, but i think the key is to have high flow but low pressure. As mentioned if the flow is high usually the particales will not fall out and two weak means a bad system.

If you have water coming out of a 1" line and going through a 1.5" line you have the same volume but half the pressure (aprox.)

So i think if you had some sort of chamber before the mech filter with maybe a short baffles that is completly under water to help stop some debri. Then have the water enter the mech in a way that had much more volume. This of coarse would only get the bigger stuff. Just have to vacume this out once in awhile. Easier then cleaning a foam filter plus might cut down on nitrates if removed before breaking down.

Here is an idea simular, http://www.naturestouchponds.com/settlingchamber.htm i think it is more for leaves and big stuff but might have some possibilities.

 

[dawnmarie]

You'all realize you are reinventing the septic tank ? not that that is a bad thing. Do a search on CHOMPERS bait shack, it should shed some light.

 

[TinyD]

I have quite a bit of experience in settling tanks and their design (I am a registered Civil Engineer). I built a special settling chamber for my exterior Koi pond that was basically an open tank, let's say 42" wide x 24" high in cross section. The business end of the settling chamber consists of hundreds of 1" thin wall PVC pipes laid at angle of about 1" rise per 24" run. I made the length of the pipes all 24" long. In theory, the particle has to only drop 1" to be laid to rest on the pipe bottom for it to be removed. It works quite well.

However, I would suggest an easier solution which I chose for my indoor 535 gallon Cichlid tank. Try either making, or finding a shallow pan say 3'x4'x 6 or 8" deep, or however big you can tolerate, and make a false bottom that can suspend an egg crate layer upon which you line with replaceable polyester fleece filter material. This is what I have, and it works fantastic, my water is crystal clear, I replace fabric about once a week. Of course, to keep noise down, the inlet to the filter box should be submerged, and the outlet pipes should employ Dorso type inverted elbows, again to keep noise down. Your assessment is correct about getting out as much detritus and waster prior to biological media, you'll rarely have to clean or rinse you bio media.

I also have a continuous water change system of about 50 gallons per day, but my ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, and nitrate about 10 -20. I hardly test any more because the community water supply nitrate is just about 10-20, so I don't sweat it.

I have a technical drawing I made on AutoCAD which I could send you as a .pdf if you like. Sorry, I didn't tank any pictures while building it, and a picture now really wouldn't help too much.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

I think I would concentrate on improving the mechanical filtration.

Just giving the bypass a place to settle is not a fix for the problem. The bypass will still clog your bio-media, And in large amounts will still cause Ph flucuations.

Are you using filter socks for the mechanical filtration?

Alot of people do and they allow alot of bypass when used as the primary filtration source. Because they clog easily and if properly set up will overflow all the time.

 

[KaiserSousay]

I must be getting dense, but I am not understanding your purpose.
Are you trying to save money on a media-less means of large particle removal?
Have you given up trying to find a good combination of materials that will remove all particulate before your water flows over your bio?
Or, is this just an exercise to see what you can come up with?
Just my thoughts, it probably could be done using a series of baffles, spillways, and water channeling chicanes….but, shesssh..what a hassle that would be to build.
Then the whole thing would need to be arraigned for easy cleaning.
If you do build something, I would sure like to see it and hear what your thoughts are.

 

[David R]

I must be getting dense, but I am not understanding your purpose.
Are you trying to save money on a media-less means of large particle removal?
Have you given up trying to find a good combination of materials that will remove all particulate before your water flows over your bio?
Or, is this just an exercise to see what you can come up with?

A combination of all the above really. A friend is currently building one for his 3000L tank as he has a lot of wood eating plecos and currently washes his filter wool DAILY and replaces it weekly. I'm going to see him this weekend to have a look at it. The idea is to extend the time between cleans for the mechanical filter pads by letting the heavy solids settle before they get to them.

I think I would concentrate on improving the mechanical filtration.

Just giving the bypass a place to settle is not a fix for the problem. The bypass will still clog your bio-media, And in large amounts will still cause Ph flucuations.

Are you using filter socks for the mechanical filtration?

That is what I'm trying to do, the settling chamber is really just another form of mechanical filtration, designed to remove the solid waste from the water. I could just add more layers of foam/wool/etc, starting with something coarse and going down to finer materials, but they all need washing and cleaning and replacing.

I'm a bit confused by this "bypass" thing? I'm not bypassing anything...

No I'm not using socks, haven't even considered it really.

Try either making, or finding a shallow pan say 3'x4'x 6 or 8" deep, or however big you can tolerate, and make a false bottom that can suspend an egg crate layer upon which you line with replaceable polyester fleece filter material. This is what I have, and it works fantastic, my water is crystal clear, I replace fabric about once a week.

So you're saying by having an area of 3x4' rather than the usual much smaller mechanical filter set up in a trickle filter it doesn't clog as fast and works better? I hadn't actually thought of having the mechanical media submerged, but it does seem like a good idea as the water flowing through it would be more gentle than a spray bar squirting onto it, I think if it was submerged you would find less waste gets pulled down through the media in the times between cleans. The tank is going to be around 3' wide, so that is a limiting factor, but the sump underneath can be made to pretty much any size that fits under the tank.
Have PM'd you with an email address for the pdf.

So i think if you had some sort of chamber before the mech filter with maybe a short baffles that is completly under water to help stop some debri. Then have the water enter the mech in a way that had much more volume. This of coarse would only get the bigger stuff. Just have to vacume this out once in awhile. Easier then cleaning a foam filter plus might cut down on nitrates if removed before breaking down.

Thats the whole idea, its just a matter of getting the flow right so that the water is still enough for the debris to drop out.

 

[JakeH]

The first chamber in my sump is kinda like a settling chamber... It works really well at keeping the big stuff away from my sponges. I use 49cent sheets of #7 plastic knitting mesh from the hobby store & cut it to fit the drawer, but the key is that each square piece of mesh is cut at about a 45degree angle from the next one, then I stack 4 or 5 layers on top of each other, alternating between angled & squared-cuts. That way the holes dont line up & its like having several strainers staggered on top of each other. The mesh sheets are only 2mm or so thick, so you can get a ton of layers in there & they space themselves about 1mm apart due to the recesses in the plastic. It may also work with egg-crate if you need to super size the concept... Throw a rock on top to keep the layers from floating out of alignment & BAM! Simple, effective & super easy to clean!