Settlement Chamber size

[randythawkins]

Generic confusing question: For a given capacity of SC what is the best height to width/depth ratio?

Attempt to explain in more detail: It seems to me a taller/skinnier SC is better than a not-so-deep one with lots of surface area. The basis of my belief is that with the not-so-deep one settlement would not make it to the clean-out drain as it would settle and sit at the bottom looong before it got anywhere near the drain. I realize I could slope the bottom but the concern of lack of momentum still bugs me and I fear that when draining the rush of water would be strongest directly above the drain opening and would not pull so much from the distance around it - much like a BD having a, what, 2' radius of pull? (applying pond BD logic to the SC). Initially I was going to build a SC from a 150 gal stock tank as I have seen done in the forums. Recently I am considering custom building my SC in another location and, given ground elevations, would prefer to have it not as deep and much wider from end to end. In my situation, and these are very rough size estimates with no real correspondence to my minimum size requirement, I am looking at 2', 2' deep, and about 6' wide with entry at one end and exit at the other.

What do you guys/gals think and has anyone attempted this and, if so, would you mind sharing your experiences and thoughts?

Thanks,
Randy

 

[bean6924]

Randy,

I'm in the same predictament as you - and in the middle of a build.

I just don't have room to sink a 55 gallon or 150 gallon settlement chamber with any way to drain it with gravity.
Anyhow, some others are looking into swirl filters and radial flow filters. Looks like you can downsize the overall size (less "dwell" time required). check out these links --

 

[bean6924]

as a follow up - I have heard that taller is better than wider for settlement chambers... I might be wrong. Hopefully the experts will chime in.

 

[HTH]

ah bean6 already covered radial flow...

 

[randythawkins]

as a follow up - I have heard that taller is better than wider for settlement chambers... I might be wrong. Hopefully the experts will chime in.

Yea, I can't say that I have actually heard it but logic leads me to think just that. Thanks for the lead on the radial filter. I'll have to look into that more.

 

[randythawkins]

Sometimes the obvious is not so obvious... I just realized that I could have multiple drains on the bottom of my SC. duh. Since I had planned on only 1 on stock tank implementation I just carried that same thought over to my consideration noted above (which I think I will refer to as my "Trough Settlement Chamber"). I could have 2, or even 3, drains and might even use a little concrete to slightly slope the bottom to either of the drains. hummmmmm.... smell that smoke? That is me thinking...

 

[bean6924]

That makes sense. How do you plan on skimming the clean water off the top? It would seem to me with a shallow SC you would want to create a notched PVC pipe or something that would skim the top 1/2inch of water from a larger surface area.

 

[randythawkins]

That makes sense. How do you plan on skimming the clean water off the top? It would seem to me with a shallow SC you would want to create a notched PVC pipe or something that would skim the top 1/2inch of water from a larger surface area.

Have not planned to. From the research I have done on SCs I have not seen where surface skimming is done. Mine will feed a pump and I don't think I want to be feeding it from the surface where water levels could fluctuate (e.g. I need to keep a constant and steady feed of water to the inlet of the pump).

To peel another layer off the onion, I actually plan on using my SC as a plant pond. I plan on having it located along the edge of the patio and want to fill it full of floating plants. Doing this helps make an unsightly piece of equipment look better and the plants will help in filtration. I figure any dead plant life will drop to the bottom and be cleaned out as part of my normal purging cycle and I plan on partitioning off the outlet pipe (which feeds the pump) so that plants are kept away and don't clog the pipe.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Besides the possible monetary issue, is there some reason you would rather use a settlement chamber than a sieve?
A sieve would out preform the best functioning settlement chamber by a wide margin, and take up a lot smaller footprint.
I had my reasons I opted for a settlement chamber over a sieve on my pond filter system, but I'm curious what yours are.

 

[randythawkins]

Besides the possible monetary issue, is there some reason you would rather use a settlement chamber than a sieve?
A sieve would out preform the best functioning settlement chamber by a wide margin, and take up a lot smaller footprint.
I had my reasons I opted for a settlement chamber over a sieve on my pond filter system, but I'm curious what yours are.

The only reason is cost. Honestly, I am not sure how I am gonna swing what I have planned now and I have not even stuck the shovel in the ground yet.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

This is my 110 gal settlement tank.

I opted for a settlement tank because they are more critter friendly than a sieve. Mine works OK, but it could work better. The problem is, as has been mentioned by Charles, the debris doesn't sink fast enough and I often get more stuff collecting on the upper water exit screen than down in the bottom, especially string algae which tends to be very buoyant. The tank still works in that it still captures the debris, and I'm easily able to clean the screen and remove the string algae and stuff from the system, but it means I have to be more diligent with frequent cleanings, otherwise the screen could clog up and the water level in the next tanks could drop leading to a problem with the pump sucking air.
I've been contemplating installing some sort of baffles or brushes in the settlement tank, but haven't decided what exactly what to try yet. meanwhile I just keep cleaning the upper screen out about once a week or so. It's a relatively simple task, but if I was ever to go away for more than a week I might end up haven't a problem, or at the very least I'll have to have somebody clean it periodically while we are gone.

 

[HTH]

If I understand radial flow correctly the idea is that the water moves downward then has to reverse direction and move up. The particles tend to drop out as the water changes direction and travels up. We had down up flow filters for a long time which operate on the same principle but have media in the up path.

 

[bean6924]

If I understand radial flow correctly the idea is that the water moves downward then has to reverse direction and move up. The particles tend to drop out as the water changes direction and travels up. We had down up flow filters for a long time which operate on the same principle but have media in the up path.

Howard - This seems to be the concept. I'm curious to hear if your "down up flow" filters worked, and if so - how often did you clean the filters?

btw - Hope you're safe. sounds like a tough time for you in oklahoma...

 

[bean6924]

Have not planned to. From the research I have done on SCs I have not seen where surface skimming is done. Mine will feed a pump and I don't think I want to be feeding it from the surface where water levels could fluctuate (e.g. I need to keep a constant and steady feed of water to the inlet of the pump).

It's interesting how the radial flow filter works off of this skimming technique. I wonder if this is a problem? I think the top of the tank is always below the water surface, so the flow should be constant. I wonder why settlement tanks don't work off of this principal. It would see me that "purer" water would be skimmed.

To peel another layer off the onion, I actually plan on using my SC as a plant pond. I plan on having it located along the edge of the patio and want to fill it full of floating plants. Doing this helps make an unsightly piece of equipment look better and the plants will help in filtration. I figure any dead plant life will drop to the bottom and be cleaned out as part of my normal purging cycle and I plan on partitioning off the outlet pipe (which feeds the pump) so that plants are kept away and don't clog the pipe.

 

[randythawkins]

It's interesting how the radial flow filter works off of this skimming technique. I wonder if this is a problem? I think the top of the tank is always below the water surface, so the flow should be constant. I wonder why settlement tanks don't work off of this principal. It would see me that "purer" water would be skimmed.

I will be gravity feeding from the BD of the pond to the SC. So, in my case, the water level will be the same. The this change-in-direction concept has me curious...Instead of just dumping the BD pipe into the end of the SC I am toying with the idea of having some pipes in the bottom of the SC which would force this change in a direction and possibly give the same result. Still need to research more....