Okay, here is a new idea: a way to introduce extra water to the fluid bed of a fluid bed sluice to increase fluidization to the sediments in the trap. This would take the form of a long narrow funnel or pipe mounted above the sluice, with an outlet into the fluid bed trap. The water could be piped into the existing tubes, or straight into the bed itself. When you want to do a final concentration of the contents of your trap, you simply use a 5 gallon bucket to pour water into the funnel/pipe until it is full and creating head at the exit in the fluid bed. The pressurized water from this entering the fluid bed stirs up the sediments completely, allowing complete stratification, and ejection of the lighest material from the trap. Then more concentrated cleanouts are possible.
To make this work, you just need a fitting on the side of the sluice near the trap pointing upwards. The fitting could be fit PVC pipe fitting, or a brass threaded fitting. The long funnel or pipe slides/screws into this fitting during setup. But come to think of it if you are using a hand dredge, you could simply move your exit hose from the boomer box to the fitting near the trap and forget the funnel/pipe. Then pump pure water into the trap flood that way prior to cleanouts, or even just periodically between cleanouts. Either way, the whole idea is to add enough extra flow to the base of the trap to eject lighter sediments while allowing gold to stay submerged in the trap, for better quality cons. You could also use a gravity pump/siphon to run water constantly through such a system if you have enough hose to run upstream to a point high enough above the sluice.
I am also working on a new way to move water into fluid bed traps, not through pipes, but through screen mesh or perforated bases in the fluid trap. The idea being, to have water exiting the whole area of the base of the fluid trap up through the sediments, instead of just water flowing through holes in pipes above the base floor. I am even considering a fluid bed floor with a bunch of smooth hershey kiss shaped water exit jets all over it. Entrainment would create little donuts of vortices around each of these, constantly moving the lowest sediment into suspension, and the jet flow carrying the lighter stuff up and away into the trap exit flow. And if you allow air bubbles to be pulled into the water feeding something like that, I wonder if the aeration of the fluid trap water would further aid the whole process.
