I am requesting your advice and criticism of an idea that popped into my head today.
Here is the outline of my overall system thus far. I give this information for an overview of the whole setup to provide some sort of mental picture. My actual specific question/s are at the very end of this post.
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~1,000 gallon, above ground, rectangular, white poly containment tank to be used as my "pond" which will serve as my bait tank or live well for my fishing cabin.
Two 2" bottom drains (shower drains fit into the bottom of the tank) connected to 4" PVC pipe and gravity fed to the filter system.
First stage of the filter system is to be my DIY "muck dropper" settling chamber. Here, I will utilize an upflow baffle chamber to force the larger debris and sediments to drop out in the bottom of a 55 gallon drum tank. As the water flows upwards in this drum tank, a series of baffle plates with staggered holes will hopefully drop out progressively finer detritus as the water flows upwards through the plates. Purging or cleaning of this drum tank will be conducted by turning OFF the inlet and outlet water and opening a drain valve at the bottom of the drum. The exiting water will "wash" all the muck out of the tank as it evacuates. The staggered holes in the baffle plates will create a downward "raining" rinse action to purge the collected solids as the water leaves the drum.
Second stage of the filter system will be a sieve-type filter built into another 55 gallon drum tank. The filter media will consist of 300 micron SS mesh and ten 150 micron nylon filter socks. This will catch any of the smaller particles that the muck dropper allows to pass through. Cleaning of this filter stage will be simply removal of the filter socks and spraying them out with a hose in the yard.
Third stage of the filter system will also be in a 55 gallon drum tank. It will be a moving bed type filter with Kaldness K3 media. Forced aeration and pump circulated water flow within that tank will provide the energy for the moving bed action.
Fourth stage of the filter system will be a trickle down, biological-conversion system. It will utilize Matala roll media in yet another 55 gallon drum tank.
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The last stages of the filter system will be for final polishing of the return water. Here is where I am requesting your input.
I want to utilize up to four media here: Corosex or Calcite with B.I.R.M., Zeolite and Activated Carbon (or charcoal).
B.I.R.M. (Backwashable Iron Removal Media), is desired because I am using well water and my well has a high Ferrous III iron content.
http://www.clackcorp.com/downloads/ion_exchange_resin_and_filter_media/birm_2350.pdf
The Corosex or Calcite is a support media for the B.I.R.M. It will automatically adjust the pH of the water so that the B.I.R.M. can function optimally.
The Zeolite will further remove any ammonia ions or nitrogen that the bio-media fails to catch as well as some heavy metal cations, chloramines, organic hydrocarbons and some other contaminants. http://www.bearriverzeolite.com/water_filtratioin.htm
The Activated Carbon will simply be a consumable media for all that it can handle. I can obtain AC from work for free so I figured I might as well include it, too!
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The question herein lies with the B.I.R.M. and the Zeolite media. I am trying to create a convenient "filter chamber" to hold them both.
The Zeolite requires backwashing with a salt brine solution to rejuvenate it. Akin to a normal household water softener.
The B.I.R.M. media only requires vigorous backwashing with clean water to purge it of the iron that it traps. However, its iron removal function is reduced and the catalytic coating may be depleted when chlorine compounds are present - so no salt!
I see that I will have to keep the two media separated in regards to this issue - so that is another dilemna altogether, but I want to know if a pool sand filter would be a good container and mechanism to house these media. Instead of filling it with sand, I would fill one with BIRM and the other with Zeloite.
Here is the item I am looking at:
Now, I would not use the salt adding feature for my system, of course, since I am not maintaining a swimming pool. But, these devices would provide me with the ability to backwash the BIRM and the Zeloite media separately. They (the manufacturer Intex) has various GPH models available. I could pick up a 1,200 GPH model for about $150 from one source. If I had one for the BIRM and one for the Zeolite, I could maintain them separately.
I am thinking that, about the time that the media needs backflushing, I could drag out a few plastic barrels and store up maybe 150 gallons of pure, filtered fresh water or 150 gallons of a clean, filtered salt brine and use these supplies for backflushing the BIRM and the Zeolite systems when the time to backflush is necessary.
The two individual systems (BIRM and Zeolite) could be left idle when in filter use mode (meaning that I wouldn't run the pump that comes with them for anything BUT the backflushing and rinsing cycles). I would utilize a more robust pond pump to cycle the water through them during filtration use. It seems that the pumps for these pool filters don't have a long life span, so I would only operate them when cleaning was necessary. If that makes sense.
I just like the way they are constructed for the backwashing and rinse and operating cycles and it resolves my troubles of figuring out how to construct something DIY to do the very same thing.
So, I am just wondering if anyone has any comments or suggestions or citicisms on this idea.
Please provide your feedback! Thanks!
Gordy
Here is the outline of my overall system thus far. I give this information for an overview of the whole setup to provide some sort of mental picture. My actual specific question/s are at the very end of this post.
***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
~1,000 gallon, above ground, rectangular, white poly containment tank to be used as my "pond" which will serve as my bait tank or live well for my fishing cabin.
Two 2" bottom drains (shower drains fit into the bottom of the tank) connected to 4" PVC pipe and gravity fed to the filter system.
First stage of the filter system is to be my DIY "muck dropper" settling chamber. Here, I will utilize an upflow baffle chamber to force the larger debris and sediments to drop out in the bottom of a 55 gallon drum tank. As the water flows upwards in this drum tank, a series of baffle plates with staggered holes will hopefully drop out progressively finer detritus as the water flows upwards through the plates. Purging or cleaning of this drum tank will be conducted by turning OFF the inlet and outlet water and opening a drain valve at the bottom of the drum. The exiting water will "wash" all the muck out of the tank as it evacuates. The staggered holes in the baffle plates will create a downward "raining" rinse action to purge the collected solids as the water leaves the drum.
Second stage of the filter system will be a sieve-type filter built into another 55 gallon drum tank. The filter media will consist of 300 micron SS mesh and ten 150 micron nylon filter socks. This will catch any of the smaller particles that the muck dropper allows to pass through. Cleaning of this filter stage will be simply removal of the filter socks and spraying them out with a hose in the yard.
Third stage of the filter system will also be in a 55 gallon drum tank. It will be a moving bed type filter with Kaldness K3 media. Forced aeration and pump circulated water flow within that tank will provide the energy for the moving bed action.
Fourth stage of the filter system will be a trickle down, biological-conversion system. It will utilize Matala roll media in yet another 55 gallon drum tank.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
The last stages of the filter system will be for final polishing of the return water. Here is where I am requesting your input.
I want to utilize up to four media here: Corosex or Calcite with B.I.R.M., Zeolite and Activated Carbon (or charcoal).
B.I.R.M. (Backwashable Iron Removal Media), is desired because I am using well water and my well has a high Ferrous III iron content.
http://www.clackcorp.com/downloads/ion_exchange_resin_and_filter_media/birm_2350.pdf
The Corosex or Calcite is a support media for the B.I.R.M. It will automatically adjust the pH of the water so that the B.I.R.M. can function optimally.
The Zeolite will further remove any ammonia ions or nitrogen that the bio-media fails to catch as well as some heavy metal cations, chloramines, organic hydrocarbons and some other contaminants. http://www.bearriverzeolite.com/water_filtratioin.htm
The Activated Carbon will simply be a consumable media for all that it can handle. I can obtain AC from work for free so I figured I might as well include it, too!
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
The question herein lies with the B.I.R.M. and the Zeolite media. I am trying to create a convenient "filter chamber" to hold them both.
The Zeolite requires backwashing with a salt brine solution to rejuvenate it. Akin to a normal household water softener.
The B.I.R.M. media only requires vigorous backwashing with clean water to purge it of the iron that it traps. However, its iron removal function is reduced and the catalytic coating may be depleted when chlorine compounds are present - so no salt!
I see that I will have to keep the two media separated in regards to this issue - so that is another dilemna altogether, but I want to know if a pool sand filter would be a good container and mechanism to house these media. Instead of filling it with sand, I would fill one with BIRM and the other with Zeloite.
Here is the item I am looking at:
Now, I would not use the salt adding feature for my system, of course, since I am not maintaining a swimming pool. But, these devices would provide me with the ability to backwash the BIRM and the Zeloite media separately. They (the manufacturer Intex) has various GPH models available. I could pick up a 1,200 GPH model for about $150 from one source. If I had one for the BIRM and one for the Zeolite, I could maintain them separately.
I am thinking that, about the time that the media needs backflushing, I could drag out a few plastic barrels and store up maybe 150 gallons of pure, filtered fresh water or 150 gallons of a clean, filtered salt brine and use these supplies for backflushing the BIRM and the Zeolite systems when the time to backflush is necessary.
The two individual systems (BIRM and Zeolite) could be left idle when in filter use mode (meaning that I wouldn't run the pump that comes with them for anything BUT the backflushing and rinsing cycles). I would utilize a more robust pond pump to cycle the water through them during filtration use. It seems that the pumps for these pool filters don't have a long life span, so I would only operate them when cleaning was necessary. If that makes sense.
I just like the way they are constructed for the backwashing and rinse and operating cycles and it resolves my troubles of figuring out how to construct something DIY to do the very same thing.
So, I am just wondering if anyone has any comments or suggestions or citicisms on this idea.
Please provide your feedback! Thanks!
Gordy
