DIY Vortex Tank

[Louis]

O.K. here goes the start of some ideas i used in my pond....

I understand the concept of a vortex tank to settle and confine
solids out of the water volume. It's pretty simple, turn the water
in one direction, at a rate, that allows solids to be directed towards
the bottom and held there. (Like losing contacts in a circular pool,
just have everyone walk in a circle, and sooner or later the contact
ends up in the middle on the bottom)

A special tank would make the DIY unnecessary, not to mention
the $ factor. so i used two plastic barrels, the same, that could be
locked together, lid to lid, with the lid locker that held the original
lids on, i needed to smooth the 2 surfaces to mate properly
(little hard to splain... see pic) this was followed with auto
body epoxy (can-tire) to fill and seal the gap between the 2 barrels.
Hey the barrels leaked... required a piece of liner and some 6000
silicone sealer, the water preasure is actually pressing the liner
for a better seal. The liner was conered with silicone and placed
across the gap between the barrels.

caveats, i picked from the bottom of the barrel, approximately
where i wanted the water to enter... well i should have taken
into consideration the level the pipe comes from the bottom DRAIN.
I dug down 4" to place the vortex, and didn't realize the water
level until i started filling the pond. Needless to say this is my
overflow now.. it overflows 3" from the top of the pond. I
was hoping for the water level to be the exact same as the
capping stone. (i now realize this to be stupid, lost 1 fish with
it too high already, heavy rain, slow overflow, within 1")

I did not install a valve of any type on this setup, if winter
condition permit it should be done, and a bottom drain in the
vortex, for flushing.

I run 3600 GPH with amazing settling, once a week i syphon
the bottom as part of my water change.


the final pic is it in the ground, behind the fence..

[Gerard]

Hi louis

This whle vortex filter thing looks great will you assist me with further informatio0n on how it is made.

I didnt do nearly enough research before i built my pond now i have found that my chamber style filter should have had a bottom drain built in for filter flushing but i didnt


Will the vortex style filter before the chamber filter assist in retaining a lot of the dead solid waste, heavy sluge algea etc...


Gerard

[Louis]

i am actually suprised how much small stuff settles out, i'm running 3600 gph through a 4" pipe. there is a point where the water flow is slow enough to allow the settlement, but fast enough to keep turning in a circle. the stuff comming out is grey/black cloudy water(fish crap) and sunked leaves, I would add a bottom drain for flushing,

i'm going to add a way of syphoning out the crap easier.

[Ian]

Hi Louis, looks like a good idea. We used a submersable pump and pumped the waste to the gardens but the leaves and big items had to be netted out. They do make pumps that will grind up leaves and pump it$$$. A nice benifit for the plants and gardens.
A self prime pool pump riged up with a bigger leaf basket and use it like a vaccum. Hook the discharge to auto lawn sprinklers :grin:
I have installed a barrel below our waste chamber/vortex and use it as a sump pit. This places the bottom of that sump barrel 8' below grade and is below the floor of the filter pit. The discharge valve at the bottom of the vortex I tie a mesh net laundry bag and catch leaves, fruit,kids toys, lumps of algae, ect, ect ,ect. This way a cheap house hold sump pump with a float valve will discharge all water and waste to the gardens. Every couple of weeks we have to empty the mesh bag o goo into the composter, sift through to remove any action hero's that may have drowned.

[Gerard]

Hi Ian need to find a way to remove as much sluge from the water before it reaches the chamber filter this set up you have done will it work for me and is there any chance i can get a diagram of this on set up etc...

regards gerard

[Ian]

Hey Gerard, We have a lot of stuff on backyardpuddle.com with pictures and a bit of how to do it also. What is your set up like now and do you have a bottom drain in the pond to the filters? A little more info and we will help out as much as we can.