Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i mean that there is no spray bar goin onto the grow bed only a peice of irragation with a hole in the end

will do for now, but might be an idea when you get a chance.

Also making the water "splash" as it returns to the tank is free Oxygen for the water.

My original return barely broke the waters surface. then i put a capped horizontal pipe with slits cut in it as the return and it sounds like waterfall every time it auto siphons

Lot of people are moving away from the spray bar or grid method due to problems with blockages forming over time....

In a small half barrel growbed what you have will do for the moment Ryan... you can always move it around from time to time

what is the black tube called which keeps away the gravel in the auto syphon

standpipe

so thats is actually what it is called and if i went into bunnings and asked for a stand pipe they would no what i was talking about

probably not Ryan.... just make one up out of 90mm pvc plumbing pipe...

drill lots of holes in it to allow the water to flow through and into the siphon

see Monya's drawing..... it's only there to hold back the gravel from clogging/crushing the actual siphon....

I'll do a search and find a link to a photo

cheers man

Ok Ryan... suggest you read this thread

Auto Siphon

And this has some good step by step photos that might help

Simmos System

Here's a couple of pics that might be helpful.... both from Joels system and in the thread above....

First is a closeup of the auto-siphon arrangement in a blue barrel (ala Joel - Earthbound)....

Second is a view (downward) of his standpipe..... it's hard to see but you can just make out some of the drilled holes below the water mark

Third is a different style of standpipe design....

ok how far up do i put the syphon

You loop it up almost as high as the gravel's surface in the grow bed. Then you do some test runs to see how high the water level rises before the autosiphon starts. You want the water to rise to within 2-3cm of the surface of the gravel. Adjust your loop up or down to raise or lower the highest water level.

So as Janet says... if you look at the photo of the blue barrel above....

The water will begin to siphon when it gets to the level of the top of the black tubing loop.... about the same level as the water in the growbed.

The growbed level will be a little higher due to the fact that the pump is running and water is still entering the growbed and the siphon is just starting.

So the trick is to figure out the water level in your growbed that takes you to within about 10-20mm of the level of the gravel .... you can mark it on the outside of the barrel..... then bring your loop to maybe about 20mm below that and try it....

If the water is entering the growbed to quickly before the siphon starts...
i.e it floods above the mark/gravel ... then you need to either drop the loop a little to start the siphon sooner or slow down the rate of in flow.

If the siphon starts and drains the water before the water level gets to near the top of the gravel, then you need to raise the loop of the siphon or increase the rate of the inflow.

after days of reading about the auto syphons and one attempt to make one with a 600ml coke bottle and irragation. i have desided that iam goin to make a real one iam using pvc pipe and some flexible looking pipe which is called grey water pipe. i have also added to the system a water papyrus and some duckweed. Iam also moving it around the side of my house. where i plan to have an NFT system so that ill be able to compare which is better

go get 'em ryan

with the auto siphon wont that drain my whole barrel to fill up the grow bed or would it still be alrite becoz of the gravel