suspended solids from liquids in which they are contained because of the selective absorptivity of the liquid absorbing medium for ease of discussion the method will be described herein in terms of separating suspended metal solids from water in which they are contained metals such as nickel zinc cadmium copper and chromium are readily suspended in water by forming the hydroxides of the metals the metal hydroxides are generally insoluble in water and tend to form floccules having a variety of particle sizes which are suspended in the water the flocculent precipitate formed by the metal hydroxides in water is difficult to separate from the water due to the fine particle size of some of the floccules and due to the apparent density of the floccules the apparent density of the floccules is near the density of water due to this apparent density a substantially long period of time is required to settle the flocculent precipitate from the liquid with reference to the drawings the apparatus shown in fig1 3 is supported on a table 10 the apparatus includes a solids liquid separation unit 12 which as shown in fig2 has a generally rectangular configuration when the method of solids separation is practiced on an effluent stream containing suspended metal hydroxides in water such a solids liquid separation unit can be referred to as a dewatering unit as labeled in fig1 and 2 the solids liquid separation unit includes a base.