water pressure has me all confused

[frasertheking]

i am building a filter for my pond and i am really confused,

if i have a barrel above the level of the pond and i have a pump feeding the barrel.
im confused as to how i should feed the water into the barrel
1, i could have a bulkhead coming into the barrel on third up so it fills up then flows out another bulkhead at the top.

2. i have a line running up to the top of the barrel, onto a tee then a pipe going down one third of the barrel.

both give me the same result but i vant get my head around this feed.
if i go with option one which would be cleaner looking but how much flow would i loose if anything if say im pumping 1000 gal into this thing will plumbing into the barrel so it has to fill the barrel up to the bulkead at the top loose me much compared to letting the thing pump water to the top of the barrel then drop through the pipe to one 3rd of the way down the barrel?

 

[dawnmarie]

What is in the barrel ?
What is the required flow pattern in the barrel ?

 

[frasertheking]

What is in the barrel ?
What is the required flow pattern in the barrel ?

right here is my attempt to show you my idea

will i get less flow from option 2 or will the extra head loss for a be the the same as the extra pressure added by option b trying to fill the barrel ?

 

[frasertheking]

cmon someone must understand my autistic drawing

 

[thepede]

physics...you get less head pressure in plan A. Plan B you are fighting the greater head pressure of the water above the in line. Plan A allows for more filtering options if you do trickle type filtration at top. Any particular media set up in the tank itself??

 

[frasertheking]

yey i was thinking along this line but was not sure of myself as most filters seemed to feed from the bottom.

this is planed to be one of two barrels . it will be a settling chamber feeding water in one third of the way down the tank then have it flow up into a section with some floating media feeding from there into the next tank.
its basicly a settling tank but with a little extra filter thrown in to help force solid settling.

 

[thepede]

good idea. keep in mind to put spigot type drain in bottom side of tank to allow for drain off of said muck. this second tank will be great for biomedia, but as you know, muck will still enter and find a way to the bottom. (just a note...take a look at how canister filters are designed. they are lower than the actual tank. you are reversing this arrangement, albeit on a larger scale, but the pressures of water and gravity still apply. you will now have less help from gravity getting the water into the tank-hence the increase in actual head pressure, but the "suction" or siphon created by water leaving the tank will help off-set this. You'll have to post pics as i'd like to see finished project.

 

[frasertheking]

i will try mate i have most of my plumping now ill pm you with the finished thing i just gotta find two buckets to fit into each other
ive never plumbed before so should be fun
i have 2 sexy 1.5 inch ball valves ive been playing with for about 2 mins
1 1.5 gate valve not 100 % were this is going
and a 2 inch out put for the second barrel.
im using plastic pickle barrels off ebay for the tanks.
i am also planning air bubblers in the media so i can blow the media clean hopfully

 

[dawnmarie]

If I understand correctly you are building a septic tank with an extra filter on the output.
Assuming that all of the solids settle to the bottom, how will you clean it effectively ?
Will the barrel be pressurized ?
Is the filter on the output for mechanical or Bio filtration ?

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just trying to understand it.

 

[frasertheking]

haha nah its fine im no artist the barrel will be open water will be pumped over and down to 1 third of the depth then allowed to flow up int othe basket filled with media, in the centre of this basket will be a pipe with slits in it to allow water to drain out, then around this pipe i will have media floating around the basket,
in the bottom of this basket i will have air lines so i can fire a full blast of my future air pump to bubble and dislodge the waist,

and yes i have actualy just finished getting the drain ball valves and bulkhead fitting joined. it is 1.5 inch fittings with pressure pipe so im hoping it will gimmie enough pressure to dislodge the **** on the bottom.
cheers for the help