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Old 04-26-16, 08:41 PM   #11
nibs
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Sunspot, am doing my homework prior to starting a slow sand filter.
You are right not to back flush, it destroys the filter.
The finest sand goes on top just like you are doing.
Did you pre-wash the sand?
What did you do to make sure you had no air pockets in the sand?
Have you got it working and how is it performing?.
Thanks.

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Old 05-25-16, 10:20 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nibs View Post
Did you pre-wash the sand?
What did you do to make sure you had no air pockets in the sand?
Have you got it working and how is it performing?.
Thanks.
Sorry for the very delayed response nibs, I haven't had much time at home lately.

I managed to get the filter completely full of sand last fall and topped it up with water. I've been letting the bioscum form since. I figured there wouldn't be much biological growth over the winter so plan to start using the filter this fall (fingers crossed). I didn't wash the sand nor did I concern myself with air pockets so I suppose it's possible there's air in there somewhere but it seems unlikely and I don't know that it would be detrimental in any case.

Still to do is a stand for the buffer tanks. As I plan to limit the flow rate through the filter to about 5 litres per minute -waaay less than pours out the downspout in a heavy rain - to ensure adequate time for filtration I bought three 450 litre tanks to use for buffering. We don't get much rain here in the summer so those tanks are seeing temporary duty in the garden for now.



If you've made any progress on your filter I'd be interested to know what you've done.

Apologies again for my tardiness in replying to your post.

Cheers, Greg
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Old 06-22-16, 10:56 PM   #13
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Am very happy with the results of my sand filter.
just a note to let you know we started pumping the hot tub through the sand filter.
Wound up using a 55Gal ex beer yeast barrel (good pedigree),
Bought some gravel and raked some up in the yard, then added crushed quartz, 300lbs & then 50 lbs playsand, then 1/2 pail of local very fine bank sand. Ran unchlorinated tap water through for 3 days, it was clear after about the first 4 hours.
We put a small RV pump to move the water from the tub up to the barrel. Right now the filter is doing about a gallon a minute, will work on slowing that down as the schmutzdeck develops and when we have the final pump working.

An interesting tid bit, We heat the tub with a wood fired stove which thermo syphons the water, the filter pump uses the same drain fitting and with the pump going the heater will not thermosyphon, pump just pulls hot water through heater, backwards.
Fixed that with a snap switch so that when the fire is hot (120 deg F) the pump wont cycle
We bought a float switch from Amazon, and will put a bigger pump on when we get time.
Tub water was a tiny bit cloudy, When we started the system, and was clear within 24 hours. We started the filter on Jun 8Th, normally we would have changed the water on June 9 or 10, so here we are 12 days later and the water is still crystal clear, and we have used no chemicals (H2O2) since around June 1 or 2.
There is a minor down side, the filter cools the tub during its run time, so it takes a little more firewood to heat it back up.
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Old 06-23-16, 08:44 AM   #14
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Am very happy with the results of my sand filter....
What a great use for a sand filter. I wouldn't have thought of that. Does the schmutzdecke tolerate the heat? I suppose it would be simple enough to halt the filtering while the tub was heated and resume once it cooled off again (like you've done to preserve the siphoning of the heated water).

Very interesting.
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Old 06-23-16, 10:42 PM   #15
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Sunspot.
If you are ever up this way, HWY 3 east of Grand Forks drop by.
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Old 06-26-16, 07:23 AM   #16
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Sunspot.
If you are ever up this way, HWY 3 east of Grand Forks drop by.
Absolutely! And likewise, if you ever find yourself on the island give me a ring.

Cheers, Greg
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Old 10-20-16, 01:33 PM   #17
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I just want to add a couple of photos of progress made on the buffer tank portion of this filter installation. The four 400 l tanks are plumbed in parallel with 1" pvc discharging through a gate valve into the top of the sand filter. I welded the stand from 2" square tubing and flat bar with plastic wood boards for decking.



A view into the filter:



I'm waiting on a rubber grommet to make a nicer connection to the filter basket in the top of the first tank. Then a small amount of plumbing to complete on the discharge side of the filter and it'll be in service!

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