Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

Havent posted much on here, but do a fair bit of reading. Curly and Wavey helped set up the system.

I am having problems with my syphons not activating. It is a CHIFT PIST system that has been running for over a month now. But one of the syphons will not start. One of the grow beds starts and stops perfectly, while the other syphon never really activates properly. It will start to drain, but never get a good head up, and then peters out, leaving the growbed completely full, and never draining properly. Now I was under the impression that if this happens, there is not enough flow into the growbed to make the syphon activate. However this growbed is getting a lot more flow then the other side, which is working perfectly.

So I was wondering what else i can try to get the syphon to activate correctly.

A picture of my system is here if none of this makes sense.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6074

Thanks in advance for your help.

hey davo,

i have had a similar problematic siphon that wouldn't kick in to start the drain cycle.

i was able to put a elbow in the outflow then a greater fall away.. this seemed to allow build up of water trickeling into the standpipe, which built up enough to kick it over when the water had enough volume.

i think your drain has an elbow off the end of the pipe... maybe extend that a little , try to raise it a bit so it doesnt flow straight down, then put another elbow on facing down..

i hope you understand what i'm trying to describe..( i've had a few )

thanks aLostHippy that solved the problem right away. As i was attaching the pipe extender, the syphon activated and it has been running perfectly ever since.

Cheers