Thread: Remove suspended clay particles from dam

Originally Posted by p38arover

50+ years ago, we had a bore. The water from that was run through a sand filter Dad made out of a 44 gal drum. It was turned from dirty to clear with that filter. I don't know if he used anything else, e.g., the stuff they use in swimming pool filters.

That would be worth trying.

Inlet at the bottom of the drum and the water rises through a bed of sand & then overflows from the top of the drum.

Alternatively, if you can get your hands on some activated carbon or competent charcoal, use this instead of the sand, though you would need to put a fine mesh screen at the top of the drum to stop the carbon / charcoal from flowing out the top with the water overflow.

If you were a bit closer, I could get you some suitable charcoal. I set up a screening plant a while back to screen out a couple of mountains of the stuff into various size fractions. Most of it is being sold into water filtration applications.

Pibby
not surprised re sheet filter didn't work as clay particles are very small
thats why you need to chemically change them around - make them stick together and drop to bottom of the dam
Yes bentonite (a form of clay) is a good sealer of dam leaks ..not heard that it is useful to flocculate clay - and cause it to settle or drop out of suspension

i do suggest you try some gypsum in one of the gravity challenged jars
if that does not work Alum or other organic flocculants might be the go

cheers
Nobby

Bentonite also helps make great Pellets...

Originally Posted by pibby

I'm still keen to persist with some type of filter if possible. I can put the water tank so it has about 5-7 metre head on it over the dam height.

Trying to keep it simple before I delve into the chemicals. If the sheet worked I was just going to tie it on the hose end it ran back into the dam. With that much head there would be good pressure. Might take couple a days (as con the fruiterer would say) to drain. Then repeat.

Any thing else to use in lieu of the sheet under that method? A commercial filter?

It may settle as bacicat says but at this rate that will be next year before can use it.

Colloidal clay - which it sounds like you have - consists of very fine particles dispersed by electrical charges. As you have found out, a simple filter like a sheet does sfa.
Commercial water treatment plants use packed bed sand filters - at least 1m deep of sand - but they treat with alum first to make the particles easier to remove.

First test was to put salt in. I'm not countering this as an option but it was pretty quick to test so gave it a go.

Quite noticeable the settling of sediments and the water is becoming clearer the longer it sits.

Will research sand filtering and setup a test rig and report back with results.

Posting from my iPhone and would only allow one photo. So here's the second where the clumping of solids on the bottom of the glass is clearly visible.

if youve got the time, make a mini sandbag dam on the edge of the water using a coarse sand in the sanbags, stick a pump into the middle of the dam about a foot off of the bottom and pump up into the sandbag dam.

once its full beat it till its level and the water is just flowing over the lip of the bags, make sure the fill point for the mini dam is about halfway up and pointing away from the wall.

essentially it works on the same principle as a sand filter but you also pick up some extra filtration of the water across the top of the canvas of the sand bag.

blanket filtering works better for fine particles by flowing the water across the blanket rather than through it carpet works better than blankets or sheets just dont forget to have somewhere you can wash them out occasionally.

Patience may be the answer, and its free

Cheers Rod