Flow channels - Will this work?

Deepsouthwest

Have two slatted tanks as shown in the pic, A=90x10x7deep and B 90x10x6deep. Planning on building tank C pretty close, as shown and linking them.
If tank C is a foot deeper, and two feet deeper than A&B respectively, and keeping a one foot lip at the bottom of each tank to keep a foot of water in each, will they then serve as flow channels to tank C? And will I get away with only being able to agitate and draw from tank C?
A and B are close to the parlour, so there's always a high volume of water in them.

Bullocks

Will you be taking the front walls out of a &b altogether and joining them into the long wall of c or just have two channels running into c ?
Id say it could work but could need a few agitatings when your emptying it

Deepsouthwest

Bullocks wrote: »

Will you be taking the front walls out of a &b altogether and joining them into the long wall of c or just have two channels running into c ?
Id say it could work but could need a few agitatings when your emptying it

Not sure how I will join them yet, but will prob pull out end walls and run slats to meet tank C.
But will I get away with an agitating points in just tank C? Already have one small flow channel at the front of my collecting yard/back of the parlour which has never had to be agitated, connected with a 1ft pipe to tank B.

pms7

If C was kept empty, yes. But as they are not flowing your normal crust will form. Have to be able to agitate a and b. Plus the slope in 90ft of slurry is going to be about 6 to 8 ft depending on thickness so could get caught for height. I have channels working here but this is a bit different

mythos110

Big danger is that the loose water will flow from the existing tanks leaving the heavier stuff settle out in A&B and then you'll be in the world of pain. Is leaving an agitation point at the other side (RHS) of A & B an option? You would probably get away with it then with a decent agitator.

Midfield9

You could always get the fittings and pipe for your agitator to pump slurry to top of a & b to get a flow going

Farmer Pudsey

A&B are 90' long that is nearly 6 bay. This is the virtual maximum to agaitate from both sides from the info I have got over the years. Taking out end walls to allow a decent flow area will make it harder to agitate as even if you can agitate from the side of the flow channel(even if full with of tank) there will be no wall to drive pressure/flow back into A&B. Dept of flow channels at 5&6' will make it harder again.

Using a single smaller channel to allow slurry to travel into Tank C and still allow agitate may work but I think a crust will form over the slurry. Maybe one of the bio products will prevent a crust forming but they are not a proven science. The third option is to let tanks A&B fill then agitate and fill tank C with a slurry pump.

If it was me I would use narrower channels but be willing to opt for agitation and pumping. The thing you have to remember is that no matter what you do most of the solids will remain in A&B. This will make them harder to agitate. Mind you mine is only an opinion I have little experience of slurry solutions.

Milked out

Aeration system in all three tanks.

Farmer Pudsey

Milked out wrote: »

Aeration system in all three tanks.

No sure if they would work out any cheaper than agitating and pumping. Have to be left on all year long.

Milked out

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

No sure if they would work out any cheaper than agitating and pumping. Have to be left on all year long.

They do alrite. His 6 ft tank would be the lowest dept of tank id use em in too as it could splash slurry thru the slats at anything less id say. If Deepsouthwest left the end walls of his existing tanks at 4 ft to ensure water remains in tank and allow it to flow over this in to tank c the aeration should prevent any crust from forming. Would allow spreading one or two loads in spring without having to agitate and seeing as the tanks will be receiving parlour washings in summer could chance leaving it come on at night only in summer with night rate esb. Are they covered in tams?

Injuryprone

Would the grit buildup from parlour washings play havoc with that aeration system? If not, it'd be the way to go alright. Put it into all 3 while you're at it, end up with 1 big u-shaped tank.

Farmer Pudsey

Milked out wrote: »

They do alrite. His 6 ft tank would be the lowest dept of tank id use em in too as it could splash slurry thru the slats at anything less id say. If Deepsouthwest left the end walls of his existing tanks at 4 ft to ensure water remains in tank and allow it to flow over this in to tank c the aeration should prevent any crust from forming. Would allow spreading one or two loads in spring without having to agitate and seeing as the tanks will be receiving parlour washings in summer could chance leaving it come on at night only in summer with night rate esb. Are they covered in tams?

Maybe in this case you could however I heard of lads that do this during the winter and it causes havoc with the system. When all costs are added it seems it as cheap to agitate. However I presume that DSW will be interested in using washing's and slurry for N during the summer It may work. Would not be really gone with having a system under slurry that may require maintenance.

The other thing if the system fails you need the back up of being bale to agitate to extract out of tank to repair system.

keep going

My suggestion is to knock the end walls completely out of a and b and join to c but divide c into two making twoTshaped tanks.am I to presume there are cubicle beds between a and b so you can run a pipe up the middle onto which you connect a tank pipe to get you back in to the tank you are agitating.this sets up a flow from the back of the tank bringing the slurry to agitating point also its handy not to have to agitate all your sluury if you are going spreading and it dosent leave you with two ft below the agitator equaling alot of slurry in a big tank

Deepsouthwest

Thanx for all the replies, lots of food for thought there, and it doesn't seem as straight forward as I thought, but then these things never are!
Aeration is way beyond my budget, and I'd agree with pudsey, not a fan of something that may need maintenance at the bottom of a slurry tank.
Another option is to put agitating points in A and B on the opposite end to tank C.
This would be covered in the farm safety grants if they were to open again.
What about flushing out the last of the slurry in A and B with a few tanks of water when C is nearly empty? In this case would I be better off not having lip/flow channel as tank C will be lower anyway?

Farmer Pudsey

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Thanx for all the replies, lots of food for thought there, and it doesn't seem as straight forward as I thought, but then these things never are!
Aeration is way beyond my budget, and I'd agree with pudsey, not a fan of something that may need maintenance at the bottom of a slurry tank.
Another option is to put agitating points in A and B on the opposite end to tank C.
This would be covered in the farm safety grants if they were to open again.
What about flushing out the last of the slurry in A and B with a few tanks of water when C is nearly empty? In this case would I be better off not having lip/flow channel as tank will be lower anyway?

You would need 4-5 1500 gallons tankers/tank to put 300 mm of water into each of the tanks. I do not think emptying them will be the issue it is agitating them at the start will be the issue. I really think 3 tanks and agitating and pumping into big tank will be the best solution.

It is foolproof, it is proven technology. Trying to flush thick slurry from the two tanks and then trying to maybe agitate this a bit to suck it all out looks a lot of work. When by simply agitating both tanks Christmas day after the dinner when you have nothing else to do and then putting on the pump to transfer the slurry into the big tank.

About 8pm then arrive into the good sitting room with a bit of a smell of slurry off you and the better half after entertaining the kids and the both sets of parents for the day how could you go wrong .

They would be no problem the following year she be gone with half the farm:D

Deepsouthwest

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

You would need 4-5 1500 gallons tankers/tank to put 300 mm of water into each of the tanks. I do not think emptying them will be the issue it is agitating them at the start will be the issue. I really think 3 tanks and agitating and pumping into big tank will be the best solution.

It is foolproof, it is proven technology. Trying to flush thick slurry from the two tanks and then trying to maybe agitate this a bit to suck it all out looks a lot of work. When by simply agitating both tanks Christmas day after the dinner when you have nothing else to do and then putting on the pump to transfer the slurry into the big tank.

About 8pm then arrive into the good sitting room with a bit of a smell of slurry off you and the better half after entertaining the kids and the both sets of parents for the day how could you go wrong .

They would be no problem the following year she be gone with half the farm:D

While the first one and a half paragraphs made perfect sense, u sure drifted off on one crazy tangent after that!

Farmer Pudsey

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

While the first one and a half paragraphs made perfect sense, u sure drifted off on one crazy tangent after that!

I often think too much

darragh_haven

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I often think too much

We have a guy on the Cork Gaa thread called Thinkstoomuch. All I'll say Pudsey is don't ever think too much

Deepsouthwest

darragh_haven wrote: »

We have a guy on the Cork Gaa thread called Thinkstoomuch. All I'll say Pudsey is don't ever think too much

And I thought I was the only one who read the Cork gaa thread here! Not that there's much for us to talk about this yr!

Farmer Pudsey

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

And I thought I was the only one who the Cork gaa thread here! Not that there's much for us to talk about this yr!

Another NAMA year in Cork:D

Brown Podzol

darragh_haven wrote: »

We have a guy on the Cork Gaa thread called Thinkstoomuch.

Talkstoomuch.:D

yellow50HX

If you build tank C can you still drive to the LHS of tanks A and B to agitate them at this point?

If so you could put a large pipe allowing slurry to flow from A to C and another one flowing from B to C. Once you can still agitate A and B the slurry will flow from them into C once they fill up.

It's won't make a huge difference in how you clean each out but what it will do is allow the tanks to hold carry from from each other. If A or B are full then it can flow into C or vice versa. Certainly makes it easier then pumping slurry from one tank to another if your caught for space and can't spread it.

blue5000

Had a similar setup here, was going to knock out the A and B tanks into the new C tank, but left them the way they are. I just drive in over the new slats (C) and agitate A and B and either pump them out into the new tank or suck them out with a 10m long x 100mm hose on the vac tank. Usually for me the small tanks fill quicker.

Knocking out old end walls, in an existing shed was just too complicated, for me anyway. If ever a picture was better than 1000 words your first post proves it;)

rathbeg

yes I think it will work but you may end up with one tank of heavy and one of lighter slurry generally not too bad, a little hard to adjetate but if you can empty the thick one first it evens it out a bit . The heavy one will be the one that fills quicker and uses the flow channel first

Figerty

Was this a question on Project Maths for leaving cert?

9935452

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Have two slatted tanks as shown in the pic, A=90x10x7deep and B 90x10x6deep. Planning on building tank C pretty close, as shown and linking them.
If tank C is a foot deeper, and two feet deeper than A&B respectively, and keeping a one foot lip at the bottom of each tank to keep a foot of water in each, will they then serve as flow channels to tank C? And will I get away with only being able to agitate and draw from tank C?
A and B are close to the parlour, so there's always a high volume of water in them.

id be very slow on linking them all.
Too often we go agitating and spreading in a rush when the weather is good in the winter or summer.
tank given a quick spin and off we go.
when you link tanks like that you are asking for trouble. you will have to agitate all 3 tanks. .
We have seen tanks where were half stirred, kept drawing out slurry , then what was left was half the tanks and stuck to the ground and needed to flood the tanks to get it to float and lift again.
It wont agitate when stuck to the ground.
As one other poster said get the fittings for the agitator to pump slurry .
We do it and it is very quick

Deepsouthwest

9935452 wrote: »

id be very slow on linking them all.
Too often we go agitating and spreading in a rush when the weather is good in the winter or summer.
tank given a quick spin and off we go.
when you link tanks like that you are asking for trouble. you will have to agitate all 3 tanks. .
We have seen tanks where were half stirred, kept drawing out slurry , then what was left was half the tanks and stuck to the ground and needed to flood the tanks to get it to float and lift again.
It wont agitate when stuck to the ground.
As one other poster said get the fittings for the agitator to pump slurry .
We do it and it is very quick

there is anywhere between 500 and 1000 gls of parlour washings going into tank B everyday, that's half my reason for linking them as I want to spread this water to all tanks

9935452

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

there is anywhere between 500 and 1000 gls of parlour washings going into tank B everyday, that's half my reason for linking them as I want to spread this water to all tanks

I still wouldnt do it . The agitator will pump 40,000 gallons in 30 minutes with us.
We work for a set of lads who had a large 6 foot tank , , they added a 8 foot tank and broke through a 3 foot by 3 foot hole in between.
25 years later they are still giving out that they did. All the water in the tank goes into the 8 foot tank. you start agitating the 6 foot tank and very little water left it drops to the ground and sticks , makes it a balls of a job.
Another option if you want the parlour washings to get to all tanks is to fit extra pipes a foot under ground and divert between tanks,
IE let it fill tank A this week, open a valve , it fills tank b next week , open another valve and it fills tank c the week after

Deepsouthwest

9935452 wrote: »

I still wouldnt do it . The agitator will pump 40,000 gallons in 30 minutes with us.
We work for a set of lads who had a large 6 foot tank , , they added a 8 foot tank and broke through a 3 foot by 3 foot hole in between.
25 years later they are still giving out that they did. All the water in the tank goes into the 8 foot tank. you start agitating the 6 foot tank and very little water left it drops to the ground and sticks , makes it a balls of a job.
Another option if you want the parlour washings to get to all tanks is to fit extra pipes a foot under ground and divert between tanks,
IE let it fill tank A this week, open a valve , it fills tank b next week , open another valve and it fills tank c the week after

Do u know was the hole at the top, bottom or middle of the six foot tank?

9935452

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Do u know was the hole at the top, bottom or middle of the six foot tank?

The middle of the tank

Injuryprone

Wouldn't recommend joining them either. Relation of mine divided up an open slurry pit with walls and left a hole in each wall to equalise the height. Now he has to mix them all when he wants to spread because if he doesnt, when he starts sucking the water from the neighbouring tank will start coming through and because it flows quicker it goes straight to the pipe.

Similarly if you were to agitate tank C only, water would quickly start coming through from tank B when you start sucking

Problem is only overcome if you can leave the agitator going to keep it mixing

Farmer Pudsey

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

there is anywhere between 500 and 1000 gls of parlour washings going into tank B everyday, that's half my reason for linking them as I want to spread this water to all tanks

500 gallons even sounds a lot of washings that is equivlent to 2.2 cubic metres/day the tank would fill in 50 days without any cattle slurry.

If washings are going into 'B' I would not bother with channels. Tank 'B' holds less than 100 cubic metres of storage. Even if you were only putting 500 litres/day into it half a cubic metre it will always be easy to agitate. Most of the slurry going into tank 'C' will come from this tank so 'C' will also be easy to agitate. I do not think I be taking away walls of other tanks or looking as aeration systems. You will have two tanks that will be agitateed in a few hours. The other advantage of separate tanks is when one is empty it is empty. If you go for flow channels you will end up with bits of slurry in three tanks. If you connect them completely you will have a tank that is near impossinle to agitate,

No point in reinventing the wheel, leave seperate. When Tank 'B' fills agitate and empty it into 'C'. You may even get away with agitating ever second time as most of what you are transferring is water. If you use tank 'A' in the spring on silage ground it will have the benifit of getting nutrients out in a fast whip. Waterery slurry from 'B'&'C' can be used on grazing ground.

The advantages no capital investments, simple system, no maintenance.

keep going

Seeing sa you are at it what did you do