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    Thread: draining settlement chamber 50% or all the way???

    1. #1
      sjk's Avatar
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      draining settlement chamber 50% or all the way???

      Hi

      I'm designing my SC and have a question. I'm able to run my BD to a spot that allows draining of the SC by gravity, but only 50% of the capacity. I'm also designing my SC to be shallower and wider to achieve this (28" high x 80" wide). I'm wondering if this is ok. Both a shallower SC, and ability to drain 50% at at a time. See attached illustration.

      Thanks,
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      It's okay, but not optimal. When I had an SC I had to drain it all the way and use the hose to spray the settled junk. It would stick to the bottom. For a half way drainer, you might have to turn off the pump, scrub the junk loose, let it settle for a few minutes, then pop the drain valve and let it get sucked out.

      steve

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      definitely not optimal to have a settling chamber that you can't drain completely.. and it looks like you have a flat bottom in mind... so the whole bottom surface will have heavy solids settled on it.. looking at your picture, could you put a pump on the outlet to drain it completely so you can hose it out and get it really clean.. that would be better than partially draining it and leaving bad stuff behind
      DAN







    4. #4
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      You may have to pump all the water out in the winter and blow out lines to keep it from freezing and busting your pipes. Depending on your location.

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      thank you for help! How often do you need to do the FULL clean out to get all the gunk out? I will create a sloped bottom, but would like to do the 50% draining MOST of the time, and pump it out occasionally (monthly, and at end of season?)

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      it depends on what you are trying to achieve, your pond size, turnover rate, stocking level, how much you feed, and what else you have for filtration...

      If you slope the bottom of the chamber to the bottom clean out pipe and the slope is enough so that when you drain the tank half way you are getting most of the solids out then you may not need to do a total clean out as often... I do a total clean out on my vortexes at least once a week and in the summer every couple of days with a little swirl and drain of the cone on other days... if your goal is to only have to pump it out for a total clean once a month then you will have to have a pretty good slope to the bottom pipe and should flush that often... In my vortexes with a cone shaped bottom if I open the valve to drain them, a lot of the waste doesn't really move into the drain unless I do a gentle swirl.. if I swirl too hard and get the stuff too much in suspension, I end up just draining the whole thing and rinsing with the hose... much better clean out... and i don't know your pond size but maybe draining this chamber could be part of your once a week 10% water change..
      DAN







    7. #7
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      Here a picture of a drained settlement tank. As you can see most of the waste is still in the tank needing to be hosed out.
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      And if you design it right, you don't have to "dump" the entire volume to waste...
      With valves between the BD's and SC, if you shut them off and can leave the
      pump on, you can pump some (I can do about 40%) of the water back to the pond, till the pump is going
      to suck air... then just shut the pump down and dump the remainder to waste.
      --Steve



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      I don't have enough slope in my yard (basically flat) for a settlement tank that can be drained so I use a sump pump to pump out the stuff from the bottom . It works well and my water has good parameter readings and is clear most of the time (except recently when the fish spawned).


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      Wouldn't a taller SC work better?With a conical bottom or sump?
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      I think your best set SC empty all the way down that easy for cleanning.

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      I would drain my S/C completely and then flushed each bottom drain to clean them and that was part of a weekly water change for me.
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      I can pump about 25% of mine after closing the bottom drain. Then I turn the pump off and drain completely, rinse out the prefilters in the SC, purge the bottom drain line to fill the SC up about 1/4, then hose everything out clean. I add dechlor and fill the SC and I know exactly how much water I am adding.
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      Quote Originally Posted by Spaun View Post
      Wouldn't a taller SC work better?With a conical bottom or sump?
      yes. it seems like that should be the direction I go in. Or, I may build a radial flow filter that can be much smaller ( 1 minute dwell time compared to 20 minutes), but I might have to clean it more often.

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      Quote Originally Posted by Sp00ks View Post
      I can pump about 25% of mine after closing the bottom drain. Then I turn the pump off and drain completely, rinse out the prefilters in the SC, purge the bottom drain line to fill the SC up about 1/4, then hose everything out clean. I add dechlor and fill the SC and I know exactly how much water I am adding.
      This is interesting. So your outlet pipe on your SC is just above or at the pond level, correct? And it's 25% below the top of the SC. I thought the outlet pipe was supposed to be near the very top of the SC to capture the cleanest water. Or is the 1/4 ok?

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      The outlet needs to be low enough to prevent air going down the pipe. Mine are several inches below the surface, and if I am trying to lower the pond level, I can rotate mine closer to the side of the pond lowering the elevation of the inlet to the outlet pipe.
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      Quote Originally Posted by beanbone View Post
      This is interesting. So your outlet pipe on your SC is just above or at the pond level, correct? And it's 25% below the top of the SC. I thought the outlet pipe was supposed to be near the very top of the SC to capture the cleanest water. Or is the 1/4 ok?
      The outlet usually starts fairly high, but is perforated down to a lower level also...
      Mine is designed the same (but not as pretty as Sp00ks's ), but here's a little drawing that might help explain:
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    18. #18
      sjk's Avatar
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      The outlet usually starts fairly high, but is perforated down to a lower level also...
      Mine is designed the same (but not as pretty as Sp00ks's ), but here's a little drawing that might help explain:

      Ahhh. Now that makes sense. Do you ever have issues pumping the waste barrel or accessing it for clean out? It would be well below ground in my case.

    19. #19
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      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      The outlet usually starts fairly high, but is perforated down to a lower level also...
      Mine is designed the same (but not as pretty as Sp00ks's ), but here's a little drawing that might help explain:
      What Steve said minus the pretty part.... I close the bottom drain line until the water level drops below the top of the pre-filter, before it starts sucking air.

      My bottom drain line enters about 1/3 from the top. The pre-filter to the pump actually exits about 1/3 from the bottom. My SC's are square. The BD line enters so that the in-flow creates a vortex, spinning the water clockwise. This gives the suspended solids time to drop the heaviest particles to the bottom. The pre-filters catch the majority of the smaller particles.

      I entered the SC high (1/3 from top) so as not to stir up the trash on the bottom, allowing it to settle.

      FYI, when I used a 55 gallon barrel for a SC, I entered from the BD line a little lower and had a 45 degree fitting inside to create the vortex effect.

      If you look closely in this pic, you can see the 4" line coming through the floor of my pit and entering the 275 gallon tote.

      Last edited by Sp00ks; 05-24-2013 at 06:40 AM.
      Jerry

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      Quote Originally Posted by beanbone View Post
      Ahhh. Now that makes sense. Do you ever have issues pumping the waste barrel or accessing it for clean out? It would be well below ground in my case.
      No, I just leave a waste pump in mine all the time... it has a float switch on it, so it just comes on automatically and
      it has a line that runs out to the woods.
      My waste pump decided to die, so I got a new, bigger one... so I've got to plumb it in, so I'll try and take some better pictures, but here's
      one that shows a little bit of it... it's over on the right side, the 55g barrel dug into the ground:
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