How to clean the Swirl Filter

[aquaarche]

I tried to improvise a Swirl Filter and believe it or not it is working rather well. I used gravel instead of coral (I have some on order). My water is clear occasionally during power outage (quite common here) the water will back up into the fish tank and flow onto the ground.

My questions are for those who use this type of filter.

How often do you clean it out? even for the smaller version I made this is a big job.

How do you preserve the water? Water here is a precious commodity. just flushing the water though a clean out valve seems like a waste. In my case I never put one in.

It is a very interesting. it is not a fast cyclonic action but the waste seems to settle to the bottom and sides quite easily.

I made some design changes my fill line goes over the top and then down midway near the gravel in the clothes basket. I only drilled one hole and that was near the top for the water to exit to the grow beds.

everything right now seems to have settled down we had some cooler weather. the fish cleaned out the float troughs and so I put them back in the fish tank. planted some new seeds transplanted some others. the tomatoes made it through the ordeal but still no real fruit. I will plant again in gravel cups and see how they do.

never did figure out why everything started dying but as soon as I cleaned up everything and replaced 30% of the water things balanced out on their own. chemistry is all the same and pH is at a steady 7.0

[urbanfarmer]

Can you post some pictures? I have wanted to build one, but I have not gotten the chance.

[aquaarche]

Is there an email in your profile that i can send pics too?

i wont place them in any online album as I would be giving free pictures to photobucket or other photo album sites for them to use. Once you delete a picture from photobucket or any online photo album the backup copy they have becomes theirs and you no longer have any rights to it. They will gather the best and sell them with no credit or payment to you. it is in their agreement and privacy statement. but it is in obscure language so you don't see it until they explain what that language means.

That is why I have very few online sites pages and photo's. My lycos/tripod page even if I erase my webpage they can't keep the photos but if I put them in their photo album it is under a different provision in their statement.

I can post some on my web page. give me day or so.

[davidstcldfl]

I have a drain in the bottom of mine. I collect and use it on my citrus trees and other plants. I try to do it every day. If I let it go, I have a sump pump and again, pump it to the trees.

You might try to siphon the solids into a bucket...let it sit for awhile, then collect/ re-use the cleaner water from the top. The solids...If you don't have any veggies (in the ground) or fruit/citrus trees, maybe you can give/trade it to someone who could use it ?

[urbanfarmer]

PM'd you.

[rfeiller]

there is nothing special about my pictures, they can have them, that is what is nice about digital cameras, thousands of photos. if they find anything special about my stuff they can go for it.

[urbanfarmer]

I doubt JCO would do anything like that whatsoever, but other sites I'm not sure...

[rfeiller]

Hey, if they end up in some way helping someone more power too them.

[urbanfarmer]

[aquaarche]

after watching this swirl/cyclonic filter. I have come up with an idea that may make the filter more effective. I will take the feed line almost all the way down towards the bottom of the barrel through a basket full of gravel and some 3D scrubber type filter along the sides.

The idea is to take the dirty water below the gravel and the filters and swirl it up through the gravel and filters so all the water going into the grow beds is filtered with no chance of unfiltered water and uneaten fish food waste or poop going into the grow beds before settling in the swirl unit. In this way all waste and dirt are trapped below the gravel.

I went to clean out my unit and found tilapia guppies in the swirl tank. I took care of that by adding a special net over the opening of my net filter in the fish tank. so I should not find any more getting into there. Actually it is nice to have then breading that is free fish. However, they will always find their way back to the fish tank via the float troughs eventually and being that small they will get eaten.

with the new design I am not sure if they will survive down under the gravel anyway. I wish DYI site could allow us to put pictures here, for this site I am not worried about not having rights to do it yourself Aquaponics. Then I could load up the new design if it works well for all to make.