Installing a Swirl Filter 

I really appreciate the clear instructions, I plan to use earthan style beds and these videos will help immensely!

Great video Rob! Very exciting to see your system running again. We're getting ready to install our own solids swirl filter.

1:06 freaking awesome! I think i would put the input to the swirl filter further down towards the bottom, or leave it up top, and put a shroud of sorts over the output, forcing the water to change directions twice before leaving the filter, that is, if the shroud doesn't mess with your swirl formation, would likely improve solid collection at the bottom. I can't believe how much they charge for them conical bottom barrels.

Nice set up. I am making notes for the future.

Love the set up

So surprised you didn't do this earlier. You are going to love all that fish poop. It makes such great fertilizer.

MY HEART GOES OUT TO YOU BRO.... HOPE THE SMOKE DAMAGE IS RECOVERING... PEACE TO YOU GOOD LUCK

to further collect solids you can add a 400 micron strainer design for a 5gallon bucket ,the strainer can cost from $6.00-14.00 dollars in amazon.

great install! keep us posted!

Very cool...Thanks for sharing

Awesome filtration setup! I had one question on the waste/solids If you were to use say a smaller size of fish that gives smaller sized waste would it be easier to filtrate? Your thoughts please the cons and pros. Thank you very much.

Hi man! Thanks for sharing. I wish to know where you buy that conic tank. I'm from Colombia and I like to buy a few !

Nicely done video

I love it - good job

Thank you for a nother great and inspirational video. :)

I love your project

wonderful idea thnx a lot I may try this at home

This swirl filter is a great idea, i like it. It seems rather efficient, but how much solids can you remove with this... all of it or how ?

Where do you get a bulk head fitting? I can't seem to find it at a local Home Depot or Lowe's.

Well done. AFAIK swirl filter designs work best with the input water coming in half way down the water column, and output from the top perimeter. Still your install is a vast improvement.

Where do you purchase that 30 gal conical tank that you used as the swirl filter?

Great video ty!

Your swirl filter is great, but you could do with a chamber on the bottom outlet of the conical section to collect the solids as they accumulate, and let them drop out of the swirl action: consider the Thien Baffle dust collectors for further inspiration.

Awesome.

where did you get your main fish tank?

Nice job! You really lucked out getting the cone shaped barrel for $30.00. That is what I need too. Cleaning my RFF is just too much of a pain.

Where on the swirl filter is the water entering from?

I like using a sand filter with the waste water filling from the bottom of the barrel up throw the sand then out the top....all gravity feed ....

Nice swirl filter, any thoughts on swirls vs sieve filtering? I really need to add a mechanical filter before the water hits my media beds and both seem like nice options.

Hi, nice videos thanks for sharing your experiences, around 4:15min into this video you said something about a `deep mineralization process`, could you please provide some links that explain such a system? thanks in advance.

Great videos, and the update looks recovery going will. What kind heat system are you using in the future?

Where do you get your pvc supplies from? I don't see that ball valve on the HD website.

Should a cap be installed on the waste valve? I don't know if you have safeguards on other outlets but it would worry me a little that so much water could be quickly ejected.

Hi Rob! According to the book Recirculating Aquaculture(Timmons / Ebeling) a swirl filter should be able to handle a flow of 122 - 204 Lpm/m2 (3 - 5 gpm per ft2). If I am understanding this correctly you measure the surface area of the tank and based off of that you can calculate the maximum flow for best solid retention. Also water should be a minimum of 30 seconds in the swirl filter tank for best solids dropout. Judging from the 1 1/4" pipe in the video the tank is a little over 2' across that would give it ~11 ft2 surface area. 11 * 3= 33 gpm 11*5=55 gpm so between 33 and 55 gpm flow will give the best retention of solids. You mentioned that the tank is 30 gallons so at 30 gpm the water would be in the tank for 1 minute. At 60 gpm the water would be in the tank for 30 seconds so that is the maximum flow with this rule.

Maybe add an internal basket to slow the water.

One other idea that I have not yet tried but would like to is to add a section of a larger pipe under the cone section of a swirl filter to give the settling solids a "quiet" place to rest instead of having to continue to swirl.

If it's to fast could you slow the input to the filter? Possibly by turning the ball valve from the fish tank?

I think I would have gone with a 90 degree fitting instead of the 45 so that the swirl was strictly along the outside edge, instead of down. But I expect this will do a great deal to keep the solids to a minimum.. Good job Rob!

I'm trying to develop a way to separate the solids after they come out of the filter to feed my worm beds. They really like the fish poop but I don't need any extra moisture in the beds.

Is there a reason you chose to use a swirl filter instead of a radial filter?

super

interesting!

Hi Rob, what's the HRT in this swirl settler?

👌👍

After what you spend on fish food, electric and water, it would probably be cheaper to buy food at the grocery store but if this is fun for you, then go for it.

how to differential fish shit and rubbish?

That's a lot of water for just some fish