The 55 gallon barrel is 36 inches high. It's sunk into the ground about 17 inches. Since the VALVE is so deep, I chose a pull up handle on a KNIFE VALVE rather than a ball valve. This way, a long stick with a 2-prong catch could be used to reach down and pull open the valve. Both are water tight as long as you flush through cleaner water after each use so as not to gum up the seals and cause leaks.

DAY 2

Today we began with the barrel filter. I opted to use uniseals for these rounded barrel applications. I don't fully trust bulkheads on barrels, and even though unseals can be tough to push pipe through, they are worth the effort.
A UNISEAL is nothing more than a rubber grommet. They come in all sizes for pvc pipe, and can be found here:
UNISEAL HOMEPAGE. They look like this:

You cut a hole 1 inch bigger than what ever pipe you are running. Insert the UNISEAL in the cut out hole. Press your pvc through the uniseal. The uniseal is slightly smaller than the pipe. As the pipe goes through uniseal, it squeezes the uniseal against the pipe and the wall of whatever your going through (ex- barrel, skimmer container, bio falls container) (imagine the paper like the barrel wall)

Some use bulkheads. Bulkheads are 2 plastic pieces that screw together and compress the material your making a hole through. It sandwiches the liner or whatever between the two parts for a "compression seal" (above, bulkhead apart)

Bulkhead sandwiching the paper.

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