Sluice/Bilge pump filter?

Hi guys,
My lil 2ft sluice here as you can see I have modified with the spraybar & top box.
Seems to work OK in the river with clean water flowing into the pump upstream (pump is 3000GPH + another 800GPH 12v bilge pump)
HOWEVER in murky water or in a re-circ arrangement even with a wire 5mm chicken mesh across its intake cover + a blue cleaning rag zip-tied over it still sucks up heavy sands, stones & other **** that blocks up the spray bar to a useless degree. I processed a buckets worth yesterday & gave up just ran the pump through the original direct pipe feed at the top of the sluice run & fired in my 800gph pump as well to get a massive flow HOWEVER, I made the top box so lees classification would be involved & more quantity could be put through so this is not ideal.

My Q is... How does one stop the pump/s sucking in crap when in a bucket that the sluice is pouring crap into, specifically the pink tub u see in the pic or is tehre some other arrangement with buckets that works.. .

Jerry what you need is what they commonly call a "Settling pond" To achieve this you will need a big plastic tub were the return water coming from your sluice flows into. Then you will need another bucket that sits inside the tub. The bucket height (top of the rim) should be lower than the water leavel in the tub, but not by much, say 1". Now place the suction hose to your pump into the bucket and when the water flows from your sluice into the tub, all the rubbish should settle in the bottom of the tub and when the water level reaches the bucket height and flows into the bucket you should then have clean water. You may have to put a weight into the bucket to stop in from flaoting away. It would pay to fill up the tub and bucket first.
I hope this helps.
wombat

Cheers Wombat, so in other words i'm gunna have to do in the field (batt pack only last just over 1hr ) or make a bigger space eating tub lol dammit!

Out in the field do the same thing but this time just use the bucket and put your inlet for the pump into the bucket.
wombat

Jerry, do you have a high pipe connecting the two buckets?? bilge goes in the rear bucket

Hi Jerryx4

Have you ever tried using pantyhose over the intake.?

I had to do it for a dam pump, it use to suck up the mudeyes.
Little buggers always blocked it up..
Pantyhose worked a treat!

Jen58 wrote:Hi Jerryx4

Have you ever tried using pantyhose over the intake.?

I had to do it for a dam pump, it use to suck up the mudeyes.
Little buggers always blocked it up..
Pantyhose worked a treat!

Hey Jen I hope you weren't wearing them at the time.
wombat

Wombat wrote:

Jen58 wrote:Hi Jerryx4

Have you ever tried using pantyhose over the intake.?

I had to do it for a dam pump, it use to suck up the mudeyes.
Little buggers always blocked it up..
Pantyhose worked a treat!

Hey Jen I hope you weren't wearing them at the time.
wombat

No... Wombat they were a clean unused one..

Jens idea in combination works well for me.

I use a 'dirty water' submersible with a pair of wifee's pantyhouse around intake just for added measure.

A 120 ltr 'Tuffman' storage container (bunnings) as my recirculating tank, with the base of the submersible sitting on a riser to keep it of the floor of the tank.

I always use soap (dishwashing liquid) in my recirc water which helps settle any fine solids much quicker and stops them suspending in the water. (not too much or you will create a soap sud factory)

Lastly, an office works desktop paper tray lined with aluminium 1mm insect screen held in place with clipboard clips which sits under the outlet of the sluice above the tank.





You can check out my 'garage gold lab' on my youtube channel under my other forum nic here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yGAfA5ZBo4

There is no strata running in the sluice in this vid but when there is, it works well. It took me months of trial and error to get it right cause i originally had the same issues as you.
I tried settling tanks but after a running a few buckets i got the same issue.....admittedly this was not in a combo and tried before the pantyhose idea and the filter tray!

A larger recirculating tank helped heaps as well.....was using an 80ltr originally

A combination of all was the best I found.

Cheers

ow that's quite a serious garage setup lol... I'm attempting to keep as small as possible.
I tied a blue rag over the intake but maybe pantyhose and then the rag would prolong blockage a bit. Ill try get bush this week and just use the river for source... time is running out lol 1 month unemployed so savings for petrol are dwindling

Thanks for the advice guys

Yeh Jerry, the dirty water submersible was the key to my indoors setup.

I tried a few different pumps (Petrol powered) etc and whilst great in the field using a dam or river, they were not practical for my garage setup as I had to have the roller door open and the pump outside so I didnt gas myself.
They were noisy also which meant i couldn't sluice at night because of annoying the neighbors and my wife inside trying to watch a movie.

The Ozito 'dirty water' pump is the 'ducks guts' at $99 from Bunnings and runs silent allowing for night shift sluicing lol.....750w, 20000 ltr per hour and an 8 metre head. If I like i can run it from my 1kva Genny out in the field also.
http://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-750w-submersible-water-pump_p4816360 (make sure you get the dirty water version, same price).

I cant adjust pump speed on the submersible, but i solved this by using a 1" ball valve at the sluice inlet to control water speed & flow as you probably saw on the vid.

Lets hope the Greens and the National Parks Association of Vic dont ban sluicing like they plan too, otherwise we will all be confined to the garage at home. Support the PMAV guys n gals!

Good luck on your field trip Jerry and i hope you get a pocket full of color mate. Anytime you want to come for a look-see just yell out. Im only around the corner from you in Greenvale!

Regards