The drainage assembly only becomes the pathway for liquid to leave the tank IF the tank is blocked. That's its primary failsafe function - to stop liquid buildup in the tank drowning the worms. Otherwise, gravity does what gravity does. Monitoring the tank is manual and should be done on a regular basis. As I've said elsewhere, this is a natural ecosystem in an unnatural containment situation so it's up to us to check on its health regularly. There's really no substitute for human monitoring and I would say it's a habit to encourage ourselves to get into rather than avoid by using some technological substitute.

The secondary processing area - whether greenfilter bed, trench or mulch pit - IS the treatment stage prior to infiltration/soakaway. That's why it's part of the system design.

Hope that helps make it clearer.

First - great website, and lots of fantastic information and experience-sharing.

Regarding your proposed drainage assembly: I'm a bit concerned that there's a risk of creating a preferential drainage path, i.e. if the vermifilter becomes clogged anywhere, then liquid will reduce or stop passing through filtration and take the short-cut through the drainage assembly; have you any means of monitoring the flow through filtration vs drainage pipe?

I take your point about the importance of not drowning the worms. Also, if there is scope for a treatment stage prior to the infiltration/soakaway then blackwater liquor is less of a concern.

best wishes - JS

I'm curious where exactly your system was clogging before you added the vertical drain to.your system? directly at the outlet? or generally on entire surface of the nylon mesh layer between wood and gravel layers?

Here's how I had set mine up; comments/critiques welcomed.

Thanks

Outlet silicone prep:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NqKkk5cKkATuwovn8

Outlet Filter(Shade) Cloth siliconed.to IBC:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/At6tPUM25fVF3pLu7

this was intended to prevent blackwater splash from running down the IBC walls and directly to outlet.

Outlet Filter with Gravel Layer

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CcBLPEfUYE7kjzGj6

unclear if this is the only way to add photos?

thanks,

Wiggler

Perfectly explained.

I think I'd just place it closer to a wall, where it can fulfill all its objectives also, but with a lower risk of entering unprocessed solid material.

Or what do you think?

I think you've missed the point of the drainage assembly.

Bringing the drainage assembly to a level above the organic material achieves several objectives. Yes it can risk a small amount of untreated black water going out of the tank into the secondary processing area, but if water in the tank gets hung up at the top of the tank (the most common situation if the tank experiences sudden heavy use or it's deep into winter and the worms aren't keeping up with input) then there's no faster way to drown your worms and turn the whole system anaerobic. So in this instance, the loss of some black water to secondary processing (which cleans it anyway) is by far the lesser of the potential evils.

Having the tube rising to the top of the tank also allows for easy inspection. You can see at a glance if everything is running clearly and cleanly. It helps you to see where in the tank water is getting hung up, if it is (eg. if someone has carelessly thrown in a sack of dried leaves without mixing them up with other material they've added and the leaves have formed a membrane once they've got wet). It's also easy to stick a hosepipe in and flush the drain through if a blockage is suspected at the bottom tap end. AND it's adding air into the system, which is never a bad thing.

Hope that clarifies things.

Thanks for this exceptionally well-done homepage and all the effort, responding...

I think I've read the whole page now, and the only (tiny) unclear thing is the sense of the drainage assembly. In my opinion, it doesn't need to reach the top of the pile if not for ventilation, which is obviously not necessary. If it is as shown in the drawing in the "Design and construction"- chapter, it permits fresh black water to pass through its holes in the upper part of the filter bed instead of passing downwards getting filtered and only then entering the drainage assembly, which therefore can and should be only on the bottom of the tank, embedded in gravel.

Hope u understand my point and can clarify.

Many thanks!!!

I'm not a native English speaker, that's why ...