Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was setting of my small growbed yesterday and after I pumped water into the empty growbed (without gravel yet) it syphoned back through the same line. I wend agead and set it up the way I originally planned, but that caused me to rethink my design for the next one. I may suce pump into the bottom of the grow bed at one end then syphon back through the same like from the other end. It seems to be the simplest way and it will not even require me to put a penetration in the growbed. well, I may want to put an over flow to keep it from filling up too much.

Problems I see Johnny...

No oxygenation... insufficient filtration, potential to just pump solids into the bottom of the growbed... and then drain them back into the tank again... blockages...

Any solids that remain, along with minimal oxygenation... will result in a stinking anaerobic gunk and fish kills IMHO...

I'd suggest that you adopt a more proven and benificial AP model...

The check valves should cause the water to pump in on one end of the grow bed, then drain back from the opposite end. That will give the full length of the grow bed to filter the water. I could pipe it so the water pumps in above the gavel, then returns from the opposite end down low.

As far as aeration, I use an air pump and a 10" long air stone in the fish tank. I feel the water stays saturated with oxygen with the wall of bubbles being almost half the length of the tank.

If I find two good affordable check valves I will definitly set it up this way and see first hand if it will work long term. It seems much less complicated and less expensive to set up. I will have to put a large PVC pipe around the suction end to keep gravel and roots away, so I can keep it clean, just like other setups.

You are right though, it has not been proven as far as I know...

Have you thought if it misses a syphern the next time it pumps where will the water go!

I can 100% guarantee that the inlet point will get blocked with roots. Even my 1 metre deep beds have roots all the way to the bottom.

one of my beds last year used the pump/siphon method. I would also agree with the root problem. I just pumped into a standpipe and if any roots got into it, I would give it a twist and break them off. I don't see much of a need to fill one end of the bed and drain at the other. All of mine fill and drain at the same location and everything grows the same throughout......

Hummm... so I guess it has been proven. Without having to separate the in from the out it makes it a lot simpler. Super simple in fact. I was thinking about putting it into a 4" PVC pipe that goes to the bottom of the grow bed. Have holes drilled in the 4" pipe. That way it will be easy to just reach in and clean out any roots that grow into the pipe where the pump will pump in and siphon out.

As far as missing a siphon, I will have an adjustable over-flow like I put on my test system.

I think the main concern is whether or not your pump can handle all that backflow.

I have a couple of pumps designed for dishwashers. They are very quiet, pump a pretty good volume and the are magnet drive. But the best thing is I picked them up for about $12. They are food grade too, so I use these pumps in my winery to transfer wine from vessel to vessel.

As far as back-flow. There is really know way the back flow can harm these pumps. It may restrict the flow, but not by much.
I will go with this method at first, because it requires no drilling or plumbing. I can always spend more money later and add more holes and plumbing if necessary.

Also, sooner or later a piece of something will get sucked back to the pump and jam it up.

+1 That's why I don't have this setup any more - lack of filtration. Something got stuck in the impeller.

Johnny is obviously going to have something magical in his growbeds, that stops the solids getting back into the tank, that wont get blocked up, and also wont let anything impellor stopping back through....so it has to be magical

I am scared of magic! OOooOOooOooo, LOL
No, but I do have a fine mesh metal screen covering and wired to the end of all hoses going into the grow bed... I call them my.......... Magic Screens.
You guys are a hoot
I have not set up a pump and drain back system yest, but I do have screen mesh over all hoses on my experimental system. I would hate for something solid to get into the hose.

Hummm... but generally Johnnie.... we want to distribute the solids into our growbeds...

With your current setup... the mesh will exclude them from entering the growbed... block the mesh IMO... on backflow through the pump...back to the tank...

Acheiving nothing in terms of tank filtration of solids... or growbed mineralisation...

IMO... a design rethink is required...

In essence... you're just shuffling the water... and solids... back and forth to the tank...

Truely "ebb and flow"... in the worst definition.... rather than "flood and drain"... which is the essence of an aquaponics system.... especially the "drain" component...

As above lol.