building a 55 gal biological filter

[DrCase]

jameskoi you can get a flat 2"hose and hook it up to your to your ball valves to go to your drain...When the drum is full it is a real rush of water when the valve is opened,out side its ok , inside you need to keep it under control .

 

[DrDave]

Both of DrCase's ideas are great! Make sure you have some way of controlling the loose end when the ball valve is opened. I positioned my ball valve about 6" up from the bottom and was able to make it tight enough. I did worry about getting it to seal. I used a strap wrench to tighten mine.

 

[jameskoi]

jameskoi you can get a flat 2"hose and hook it up to your to your ball valves to go to your drain...When the drum is full it is a real rush of water when the valve is opened,out side its ok , inside you need to keep it under control .

I never thought about 2" flat hoses. I gotta look into that. I currently bought plumbing to pipe it all the way to the basement drain, not a direct route so I can make it permanent. NOw that I think about it, I think i'll stick to the 2" ABS plumbing. No need to disconnecting hoses or anything, just turn valve, and "FLUSH".

Thanks guys for the bulkhead help. I'll try all those tips. The rubber gasket is pretty hard too, I'm going to slip in a piece of the rubber pond liner. So it'll be bulkhead|gasket|liner|barrel|nut

 

[jameskoi]

I bought a metal clamo used for removing oil filters or twisting large pipes and a strap wrench. Works great!

 

[D&RW]

I use my strap wrench a lot.

 

[jameskoi]

Oh boy... I think I used over 40ft of plumbing. Taking a break now and waiting glue to dry a bit. Going to test "FLUSH" the beasts very soon!

I took someone's advice to bag the scrubby pads. I too found mesh bags at the dollar store.

I'll post pics of my setup when I find time to upload the pics to my basement pond build thread.

 

[jameskoi]

Just an update that the dump system works great! The dump doesn't slow down one bit with all the elbows I added. Flushes faster than a toilet. I added a vent just in case too.

When drilling 1" holes into barrel lid, the 1" bit created nice cone shaped spirals. I think I made 2 gallons worth of this stuff. Nice spiral bio balls. Not even the scrap is wasted. Amazing...

I have nothing lying around to raise the barrel lid 4" off the bottom, I just used 4 pieces of 2" plumbing as legs and tied them with plastic straps i picked up at the dollar store.

 

[DrDave]

See what happens when you take good advice! Congrats on getting the dump/flush system going. You will not regret it. Every time I demonstrate mine, I get praised and asked if I can build them one.

 

[DrCase]

Let every one know how it cleans the water ...Give it a week

 

[jameskoi]

See what happens when you take good advice! Congrats on getting the dump/flush system going. You will not regret it. Every time I demonstrate mine, I get praised and asked if I can build them one.

I'm already using the dang system. I filled up the barrels with water and scrubby pads in them. I fed the barrels with big air stone. I think I still need to soak and 'purify' them a little more. Dumped the water when I got home from work today. Was quite interesting watching 2 barrels drain at once in under 1 minute (well, couldn't really see anymore but could hear it). LOL!

I'm glad I listened to your advice. I didn't want to at first. It ain't cheap setting up this get no hands wet and time saving feature. I haven't even cleaned my system yet and I too now enforce it. I support dump/flush 110%.

 

[jameskoi]

BTW, and I was thinking not to pipe water directly to drain but use buckets. Sure... if that was the case, piping would be installed whether I'd like it or not. lol!

 

[DrCase]

It would be a lot of water to move with a bucket..

 

[DrCase]

I added a 3rd drum this spring for my mid water fall...and i changed my old drums set up...I have 1 for my high water fall, And lowered my 2nd drum filter to increase my water flow , to lower outlets,........with the 3 drums running i am filtering 1350 gal per hr water stays in filter for 7.5 min

 

[DrDave]

Great photos! Do you have or can you provide a diagram that shows the flow from intake to return?

 

[Julius Leonid Maestral]

What kind of a water pump do you use to pull up "dirty" water from the pond to be filtered therein?