Filter Drain System

Following a pretty rare and hefty amount of rainfall that happened in the area I live in, my backyard became very flooded due to the lack in drainage that was available. Because the water stayed there for a good day or so, the backyard became unusable for the time. It got me thinking about making a sort of system to drain the water from flooded areas, and along with that, I considered adding in a filter just so the water could be used for something later and not be wasted.

While the one I made myself isn't as strong as I hoped, or remove water as fast, this guide will (hopefully) show how to make a drain/filtering system that works. If one wanted to make a more powerful one themselves, they could basically follow these steps here, just with more powerful equipment.

The drain system itself works by taking the water that floods through the pump and tubes, passes through the filter and into a container for later use. There is a small video at the end of the instructable that shows how it runs.

For this project, these are the main materials that are needed to make the drain system.

1. Water motor/pump (1)

2. Water Filter (1)

3. Tubes (amount depends on distance wanted to be covered)

4. Containers (2; 1 to hold the filter, 1 to hold the water)

While the items are for the most part inexpensive, I found half around my garage/around the house, except the fountain pump I bought at a hardware store. The filter could also be taken from a fridge, but I bought that as well.

Some materials that aren't needed for the system but help in making it are sandpaper and scissors. Scissors to cut the tubes and the sandpaper to sand the ends of the tubes. More on that later.

Now that I acquired everything, the tubes were then cut up to suit the distance desired for the system. Before cutting, measurements were also taken to make sure that the tubes are cut to the correct distance, in order to save both time and money later on.

After taking the measurements, the only thing left in this step was just cutting tubes to the needed amount. The sandpaper mentioned earlier was also used now in order to make sure that the end of the tube is flat. I found that without sanding the ends of the tubes, it was more difficult for the water to fully go through the whole system, or it took longer.

After cutting up the tubes to what was needed, they were connected to the filter. Before going further, I had to make sure that there were no holes or cracks to avoid leaks.

Before connecting the filter and tubes to the pump/motor, I set it up where the excess of water is. Because the pump that I used had to be connected to a power outlet, I just set up an extension cord near the pump, but far away enough so there wasn't high risk of getting an electric shock (cuz safety first ya know). Also very important, don't plug it in until it is set up.

Almost done, just had to put those containers outside and set everything where it needs to be.

Finally, the tubes were connected up to the pump and the pump was plugged into the outlet.

This is a small video that shows how the system runs, but that was it, a running drain system. While it wasn't anything grand, it did manage to produce clean water in the end while removing some from the area that was "flooded," so i'll say it was a successful project.