Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Can somebody post the types of syphons needed in aquaponics and how they work???!!

I recommend doing a search on syphon or it is often spelled siphon as there are many threads that already explain much of what you want to know.
Aquaponics done not necessarily require siphons though it is one way to achieve flood and drain for your media filled grow beds. The Most commonly use types of siphons for this are bell siphons or loop siphons. Siphons can also be created using pvc and elbows to make a sort of loop siphon though some people will call it a goose neck or something like that.

Siphons allow a container to fill to a certain point where the siphon will then be overtopped with water at which point the water going out the siphon will cause enough suction to keep sucking water out of the bed (even though the water is no longer over the top of the siphon) until it drains far enough that the siphon sucks some air thus stopping the siphon and allowing the bed to fill again. With siphons you can have the pump run constantly yet still have the beds flood and drain. However siphons usually have a limited inflow rate at which they will work properly so that must be taken into account when sizing siphons and pump/plumbing. A FLOUT is another option that does not have a limited a range of inflow to function but it takes up mush more space.

The other method of getting flood and drain that doesn't involve siphons uses a timer to turn the pump on and off. The pump must be big enough to flood the beds fairly quickly and then the pump turns off and the bed drains slowly through small holes in the bottom of the stand pipe.

hi Fierrovick

search for siphons .. there is 75 pages of them to choose from

and there is 7 pages on how to setup siphons

loop siphons are the easiest as all you need is a length of hose and you just put a cicrle in it with the top of the cicrle just below the water level you want when the growbed starts to drain

the only other bit is to supply the bed with water fast enough so the siphons starts and not to fast so it will drain and not over flow the growbed

and there is a thread on how to setup bell siphons too with pipes sizes and how much water to pump in to get them to work as well

have fun building a trial version to test it for your self

Sorry, this might be sort of a hi-jack but at the same time, the answer might be of interest to the TC.



Hey TCLynx, does the pump have to move the total volume of the fish tank? Because in my case, it's either:

15 mins on/45 mins off in which: 19 out of 28 gallons will be removed from the fish tank.
30 mins on / 45 mins off (one cycle will have 1 hour off since my timer will not allow it) in which: 38 (thirty-eight; no typo)out of the 28 will be removed from the fish tank.

Which setup do you think would be better?

I'd go the 15/45 cycle...

Would there be any conditions that exist if you had to tamper with the on/off cycle on the water pumps?

Like overstocking or understocking fish, not enough plants/too much plants?

Your stocking density is totally dependant on your filtration capacity...

I would also probably recommend the 15/45 but since you are not moving the full amount of water each hour, you might want to go a little light on the stocking, at least early on till you see how the system/fish do with the set up.

However, I have done something where I did 15 on 15 off but that only works if the beds drain fast enough and the pump is still able to fill them enough in the 15 minutes.

Reasons that people sometimes adjust pump cycles include temperature control which is really only applicable to outdoor systems. Or some people want to reduce pumping cycles to save electricity but this must be done carefully since you eventually reach a point where water quality suffers and this will be directly related to stocking and feed rates. While you first cycle up a system and then get fish settled in, it is probably best to do as many cycles as possible just to help the system out as much as possible while it is still young (when you flood the grow beds is when you are feeding your bacteria colony and we all know young things need to be fed often.) Then as the system gets some maturity, you can carefully adjust to see what timing cycles seem to work best for your system. Some plants like lots more dry time but you don't want to kill your bacteria and fish by only pumping once a day or something like that.