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Prodigy Child

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Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused
Mar 27^th, 2012, 8:17am

Ok I am still being run through the gambit. My treatment plant is down to about 15 MCRT. treatment is still there. It treats from 15 to 35MCRT with no real changes in my Effluent. 99% reductions. I still have not been able to stop the cake batter on the top of the clarifier daily. At this point I feel I have to live with it and skim daily. We are still working with bioaugmentation. Still tightening up operation. This is a single sludge system, upflow clarifier, AX and AR zones. 75 gpm RAS, 6gpm through plant. Settling is good, DO is good, Effluent is good, F/M is good, SVI is high 230. Chlorine pucks in the wetwells of the collection system to help with septicity. I am told septicity will not hurt due to the airation of the surge tank before entering the plant.

The cake batter on the clarifier does not break up and sink when it is washed and skimmed off. Therefore it is not denitrification.

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Prodigy Child Full Member Offline Water and Wastewater.com is the best! Posts: 113 Gender: Company or Organization: Wastewater	Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused Reply #1 - Mar 27^th, 2012, 8:18am Can it be anything else besides FOG?
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WWT Disinfection Pro YaBB Newbies Offline I love Water and Wastewater.com Posts: 18 Menifee Gender: Company or Organization: City of Corona	Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused Reply #2 - Mar 27^th, 2012, 11:19am It does sound like FOG. Have you ran any testing for FOG. Do you have a FOG control program. Or for a last resort maybe automate the scum skimmer and forget about it. Also, What is the lowest MCRT you have tried? What are your Discharge requirements?
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Prodigy Child Full Member Offline Water and Wastewater.com is the best! Posts: 113 Gender: Company or Organization: Wastewater	Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused Reply #3 - Mar 27^th, 2012, 12:01pm Testing has proven there is a FOG issue. There are only 100 residential customers online. Lowest MCRT is 15 so far. We have been as high as 45 MCRT. Only benefit I found was at lower MCRT the settleometer looks better. Effluent is great at each MCRT. Simple 30 30 discharge. Monitor the rest.
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DoctorBug Senior Member Offline Water and Wastewater.com is the best! Posts: 499 Company or Organization: Michael Richard Wastewater Mic	Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused Reply #4 - Mar 27^th, 2012, 1:47pm Prodigy Child: You neeed to have the MLSS and scum examined microscopically to see if this is a filament foam - M. parvicella or Nocardia. Hope that this helps.
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sobisch God Member Offline Posts: 1777 Gender: Company or Organization: L.U.M. GmbH	Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused Reply #5 - Mar 28^th, 2012, 1:05am Dear Prodigy Child, if you can prove that FOG in influent is high, you should implement a pretreatment step for FOG removal before aerated sludge treatment. Kind regards T. Sobisch
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Prodigy Child

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Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused
Reply #6 - Mar 28^th, 2012, 6:56am

0411 is our filament these days. Previous years we had the m.parv quite heavily.

Does anyone have any problem with upflow clarifier operation? ANything I should look for as a common problem? I believe my FOG accumulation makes it difficult due to the stickyness of it. So what I am feeding the clarifier is a problem not the actual structure and operation. I try to keep the mlss(by centrifuge) between 3000-6000 and my AR and AX around 2000-3000mg/l. Thoughts? RAS seems to have to be real high, again due to stickyness. 100gpm vs. txtbook 45 gpm. Thoughts?

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DoctorBug

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Re: Clarifier Scum Dazed and Confused
Reply #7 - Mar 28^th, 2012, 11:37am

Prodigy Child:

Type 0411 is caused by a high amount of organic acids and a higher F/M and younger lsudge age, usually due to septicity. Its' counterpart is zoogloea which often occurs at this same condition along with this filament. Zoogloea have a large polysaccharie capsule which makes the sludge sticky and slimy and often causes a very thick and stable foam. You may be very septic and too high a F/M.

Note that M. parvicella occurs due to septic grease and oil and a longer sludge age (lower F/M).

Hope that this helps.

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