Comment

Comment by Jim Fisk on August 3, 2014 at 6:05am

Hi Cheri, great job.

A couple observations. I originally also used the T and double 45s for the swirl but on subsequent builds I opted for just a 90, upon entering, faced to the side. Just as good a swirl and so much simpler and cheaper. Also I would go with a T at the exit with the top above the outflow, so that any floater buildup, and there will be believe me, stays trapped as well because the water is coming from below the surface. The top of the T acts as a safety overflow and anti siphon just like in the FTs should something block the under water exit. Hope I made that clear. I will be drawing up a revised sketch of my changes soon. I think you will find cleaning your filter pad a bit horrendous and smelly.

I like your funnel and I might do something similar to mine although it is another anaerobic potential spot in the sand. It takes months sometimes for the uglies to show up. Let us know how it is doing after a year or so.

Here is a pic of the 90 and the T and you can see the floaters are trapped as well without using a filter pad. A month later it did not look so pretty as the floaters started breaking down as they should. I also put a backwards facing 90 (in terms of swirl direction) at the bottom of the exit T that tends to keep the waste that is in limbo suspension from leaving as well. Waste is a multi dimensional item that changes over time. It does not look nearly so pretty in there now some months down the road but it is doing a great job. I also have one of these swirl filters inside my 30 gal biofilters so they do both separating and breaking down the waste as well.

Comment by Yusuf Mario Germino on August 3, 2014 at 3:47am

wow. this is cool. what did you use as a funnel at the bottom. I like the idea of putting some sand to fill in the gap...looks really great especially that blue drums are easily available here in Saudi Arabia, but to find a specially made one for this purpose is next to impossible, so we need to improvise... thanks for sharing

Comment by Cheri Bower on August 2, 2014 at 1:15am

This was my answer to having a floating bed and media beds in the same CHOP system.

I used a 55 gal food grade drum.