Looking for advice/ideas on sediment filtration for water coming out of a culvert - feeding a 5/8” water line

[KilroyJC]

I guess that's one way to describe it. Water source feeding a separator feeding into septic tank feeding into a water storage tank that you pump from.

Sorry the separator is crude hand drawing but a quick way to describe how to have a self cleaning means of mechanically separating the big stuff that you don't want entering your gravity settling tank.

The separator is a box with big holes in the opposite sides to allow waste to flow freely away and a wall between waste side and "filtered" side to prevent cross contamination. The "box" has a bottom so it can be weighted and does not slide away from water being directed at screen.

You want to cascade the water from first tote to second tote to prevent the high currents, induced when withdrawing irrigation water, that may prevent silt from fully dropping out while in first tote. Residence time, when using gravity separation, is critical when working with very fine particles.

Crude drawing was more than sufficient to get the concept across! THANK YOU YET AGAIN

 

[KilroyJC]

The bigger, deeper and more time in your settling reservoir the better. They do make black plastic IBC totes that hold up better in sunlight and prevent algae growth. Stainless steel too.

Or 4” diameter deep well pump lays in our spring inside a 6” pvc sand screen pipe. It’s got hundreds of very thin slits made for well pumps. Places the service well pumps have them. Since our pump is in flowing water it is essentially self cleaning as we pump to a cistern 1/2 mile and 225’ elevation for less than a hour a day. On timer so automatic. Houses have extra filtration.

If you have means to cistern the water at the discharge and periodically pump some back to back flush the filter might work to automate your system?

That is way more complex than I actually need - this isn’t going to a house or anything - it is just to have a convenient “garden hose” without having to put in all sorts of equipment, but I don’t want to have to clean crude foam “filters” every 3-4 days. . .

 

[newbury]

If you go with the "2 totes" (IBC totes with pallet and metal cage) concept think of setting up the first tote in the chain on something easy to move around, yet sturdy. If you look at my pic you'll see that tote is on concrete blocks. I did that so if sediment builds up I can drain it almost all the way and slosh it around to pour out the debris.
An empty tote w/ cage doesn't weigh much (~120 lbs).

 

[M59]

Crude drawing was more than sufficient to get the concept across! THANK YOU YET AGAIN

Your welcome. Happy plumbing and watering.

 

[KilroyJC]

I found a water pressure gauge at a flea market, so I bought it for $3 (I think that was pretty good) and measured 62PSI, which comes out to roughly 140’ of head. Even if it is off 20%, it comes out to a minimum of 100’ish feet of head, so that is pretty good for potential micro hydro.

I may have a line on a free bathtub to use as an initial settling tank, IBC containers are really scarce now that I am looking for one or two. . .

 

[DanMc77]

I have a similar issue with rainwater harvesting. Junk coming down from the gutters needs to be filtered out, and it gets old having to clean out filters. There is a cyclone-style water filter that may be just what you're looking for. The incoming water spins around in the cyclone, and heavier junk is flushed out. It should be fully self-cleaning since the sediment is flushed with a small amount of rejected water.

Here's one:

Centrifugal Rainwater Filter - Medium: 5500 Square Foot Roof Area - Rainwater Collection and Stormwater Management

Rainwater from the roof is evenly distributed across a stainless steel filter mesh where the natural process of surface tension directs the cleaned water to the storage tank. The centrifugal rainwater filter can filter up to 5,500 square feet of roof area for irrigation, toilet flushing, vehicle...

www.rainharvest.com

Here's a link to something that looks like some kind of ceramic filter:

Ecostorm Plus 1000 Stormwater Filtration System

An affordable stormwater filtration system, EcoStorm Plus, is designed to remove sediments, heavy metals and nutrients. Surface water runoff contains significa...

www.environmental-expert.com

 

[KilroyJC]

I have a similar issue with rainwater harvesting. Junk coming down from the gutters needs to be filtered out, and it gets old having to clean out filters. There is a cyclone-style water filter that may be just what you're looking for. The incoming water spins around in the cyclone, and heavier junk is flushed out. It should be fully self-cleaning since the sediment is flushed with a small amount of rejected water.

Here's one:

Centrifugal Rainwater Filter - Medium: 5500 Square Foot Roof Area - Rainwater Collection and Stormwater Management

Rainwater from the roof is evenly distributed across a stainless steel filter mesh where the natural process of surface tension directs the cleaned water to the storage tank. The centrifugal rainwater filter can filter up to 5,500 square feet of roof area for irrigation, toilet flushing, vehicle...

www.rainharvest.com

Here's a link to something that looks like some kind of ceramic filter:

Ecostorm Plus 1000 Stormwater Filtration System

An affordable stormwater filtration system, EcoStorm Plus, is designed to remove sediments, heavy metals and nutrients. Surface water runoff contains significa...

www.environmental-expert.com

My problem with a cyclone is that it requires sufficient flow to work effectively, and my volume is rather low (I hope to have a figure this weekend, I have not been up to the lot for a couple days because MrsKilroyJC got a spider bite on her foot and it got infected, so extracurriculars have been curtailed, but she just finished up her antibiotics and is much better now). Ultimately I want to try to get a little micro hydro electric setup going enough to have some LED lights in the storage building, maybe run a radio and a battery maintainer for the tractor.

 

[toolslinger]

We run a few different pipes off 3 different spots on the mountain. In total, there are 5 pipes from 3 different spots.
The smallest is a 3/4" line, and the largest is 1-1/2". When I was young, most lines had a frame, and insect screen wraps on them. It worked, but would get plugged, and also deteriorated, so they had to be replaced now and again. My father got tired of that, so he drilled a whole bunch of 1/4" holes in 3" PVC pipes, and adapted those to the ends of the supply lines. Those have been virtually problem free for decades. I've had to dig out one of the impounds that silted in, and I brush off any algae every couple years. Nothing gets in that can block the pipe. I filter on the bottom end as needed. Household water gets a 100 micron, and then a 5. Other things get some pretty course screen filters to protect sprinklers and such. A little silt isn't going to cause any real issues in the pipes. One of those pipes is a steel line that's been there probably close to 100 years. That has been flowing since long before we bought the property, and has never stopped. People come from miles around to fill water containers at a trough it flows to under the corner of the barn. Keep the big stuff out, and the rest will take care of itself.
Our impounds are tiny. One is probably a roughly 5' circle, a foot deep. The next one down is like 4' x 8' and 18" deep. The one for the steel pipe, I haven't seen in decades, so no idea, but it's small too. (it's on my list to chase that one down this fall)