Up and running
Oct. 12th, 2020 18:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillWell, hopefully the water box is settled for real this time.
I went up late this morning with a hose, a screwdriver, and the paint mixer wand. The overflow was doing a brisk business, so the intake screen was healthy; I took the cover off of the water box and found it cloudy enough I couldn't see the bottom. So much for inspecting the outflow.
I closed the outflow valve, started a siphon with the hose, and began to clean to bottom, just like you do with large aquariums. The differences here were that I couldn't see a thing, and I had unlimited water to siphon with. So I kept the other end of the hose where I could see it, and started vacuuming blind. I got plenty of silt coming out, and plugged the hose many times, but I kept at it and eventually did all three chambers. I pulled the two debris screens and rinsed them as best I could in the box.
At that point I turned off the intake, detached it so that it drained the box as far as it could, and left the siphon going to drain the box the rest of the way. I visited the screen and established that most of the contents inside was sand, rather than silt. That's comforting -- sand isn't going to leap into the outflow and go clog anything up. It can stay until I get a really mean siphon going, or a long ladle, to shovel it out.
Once the box was down to a few inches, I vacuumed it again, making sure to get the mud on the inner ledges. It started to get feeble when I had only an inch left, so I put the debris screens in place and started the box filling. I stopped cleaning when there were only a few wisps of dirt left on the bottom. I had sucked up any number of small aquatic creatures, and evicted a 1 1/2" long crayfish, telling it to go outside and play. There are still a couple of 3/8" long crayfish in there which escaped the hose.
I then had to stop filling the box and go down to get some teflon tape and a couple of pipe wrenches, because the drain was leaking. Ivan had put it in without any dope or tape, so I could neither screw it down tighter nor unscrew it easily. Once properly equipped, I tightened it down as best I could. It really should be re-done with waterproof caulk around the hole rather than his multiple home-cut rubber gaskets, but that will have to wait until I have the box empty again. It leaks a little, but we don't expect the box to be watertight... the leaks just have to be small enough that they don't make a difference.
I stuck around while the box filled, made sure the overflow was at full bore, and turned on the outflow again. It was 4pm, and I had only had breakfast. Oops.
Once back at the house, I tried to flush the system using the faucet by the back entry -- no dice. I really need to find out how many peripherals the plumbers put on the filter; I keep kicking myself for not creating a diagram for them since "put the inside of the house on the filter, and everything else unfiltered" was apparently too hard for multiple plumbers to grasp...
I put the filter on bypass and ran the kitchen sink until it was clear. It took more than five minutes of heavy flow, so I feel like that was the right choice. Finally, I changed out the filter cartridge; it had 1/16" of solid mud coating the outside. The inside was still white. It's a good thing they come in pairs...
So we have good pressure, the filter is working, the lines are relatively clean, the water box is spotless, and the screen is in good order. I hope that's the last I have to deal with it this fall. I do want to make up an equipment list for regular maintenance up there, and a schedule for cleaning the screen and a different one for cleaning the box. Right now the screen needs more attention, until I get all the sand out of it, but the box should be tended at least annually.
I feel like I've paid my dues for the limitless, perpetually running pure spring water we get. Maybe the cost won't be so high now that I'm getting up to date on the back maintenance.
I went up late this morning with a hose, a screwdriver, and the paint mixer wand. The overflow was doing a brisk business, so the intake screen was healthy; I took the cover off of the water box and found it cloudy enough I couldn't see the bottom. So much for inspecting the outflow.
I closed the outflow valve, started a siphon with the hose, and began to clean to bottom, just like you do with large aquariums. The differences here were that I couldn't see a thing, and I had unlimited water to siphon with. So I kept the other end of the hose where I could see it, and started vacuuming blind. I got plenty of silt coming out, and plugged the hose many times, but I kept at it and eventually did all three chambers. I pulled the two debris screens and rinsed them as best I could in the box.
At that point I turned off the intake, detached it so that it drained the box as far as it could, and left the siphon going to drain the box the rest of the way. I visited the screen and established that most of the contents inside was sand, rather than silt. That's comforting -- sand isn't going to leap into the outflow and go clog anything up. It can stay until I get a really mean siphon going, or a long ladle, to shovel it out.
Once the box was down to a few inches, I vacuumed it again, making sure to get the mud on the inner ledges. It started to get feeble when I had only an inch left, so I put the debris screens in place and started the box filling. I stopped cleaning when there were only a few wisps of dirt left on the bottom. I had sucked up any number of small aquatic creatures, and evicted a 1 1/2" long crayfish, telling it to go outside and play. There are still a couple of 3/8" long crayfish in there which escaped the hose.
I then had to stop filling the box and go down to get some teflon tape and a couple of pipe wrenches, because the drain was leaking. Ivan had put it in without any dope or tape, so I could neither screw it down tighter nor unscrew it easily. Once properly equipped, I tightened it down as best I could. It really should be re-done with waterproof caulk around the hole rather than his multiple home-cut rubber gaskets, but that will have to wait until I have the box empty again. It leaks a little, but we don't expect the box to be watertight... the leaks just have to be small enough that they don't make a difference.
I stuck around while the box filled, made sure the overflow was at full bore, and turned on the outflow again. It was 4pm, and I had only had breakfast. Oops.
Once back at the house, I tried to flush the system using the faucet by the back entry -- no dice. I really need to find out how many peripherals the plumbers put on the filter; I keep kicking myself for not creating a diagram for them since "put the inside of the house on the filter, and everything else unfiltered" was apparently too hard for multiple plumbers to grasp...
I put the filter on bypass and ran the kitchen sink until it was clear. It took more than five minutes of heavy flow, so I feel like that was the right choice. Finally, I changed out the filter cartridge; it had 1/16" of solid mud coating the outside. The inside was still white. It's a good thing they come in pairs...
So we have good pressure, the filter is working, the lines are relatively clean, the water box is spotless, and the screen is in good order. I hope that's the last I have to deal with it this fall. I do want to make up an equipment list for regular maintenance up there, and a schedule for cleaning the screen and a different one for cleaning the box. Right now the screen needs more attention, until I get all the sand out of it, but the box should be tended at least annually.
I feel like I've paid my dues for the limitless, perpetually running pure spring water we get. Maybe the cost won't be so high now that I'm getting up to date on the back maintenance.
