Sediment Remover Dredge

This is a first prototype of a simple sediment remover I am working on, the basic design was taken from a gold dredge. It's made from a Rule 1000 GPH bilge pump, PVC pipe and fittings, and a few copper pieces. This first design works ok but I'm still going to test some other ideas like a stepped down main tube to see if I can increase the flow and suction.

The main tube of the dredge is made from 1" PVC Pipe and the nozzle from 1/2" PVC. The diverter from the pump is made from a few 1/2" copper fittings.

The bilge pump is positioned upside down to keep the inlet off the bottom and is temporarily zip tied to the main tube.

I added a T-fitting at the discharge end of the dredge to disrupt the output flow, without this fitting the output flow of water would act just like a thruster and push the Rov around. The T-fitting directs the flow outward to both sides canceling each other out.

This is a quick mock up of how the dredge would be mounted to the Rov. The rear discharge is far to the rear of the Rov so any sediment that is sucked up and discharged will not obscure the view of the camera.

Basically how it works is the water flow from the bilge pump flows through the tube and copper fittings which directs the flow toward the rear of the main tube. This flow creates suction at the nozzle which will remove the sediment around the tip and redistribute it through the main tube to the rear of the Rov away from the camera.