Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes - I saw that, and lives for up to 60 years. Talk about pressure to keep the system running well!

Okay - onto insanity (or so I assume) - autosiphons. Lets say I setup a cascading system (I like the thought because it means I can go on forever). It would seem to me that I just need to make it so that the input is roughly the same as the outgo. Then, when the first set of beds trigger the autosiphon, it will fill up the next bed, etc, etc. If the water continues to flow into the first bed a little slower than it is leaving, the time for the cycle ends up being until the first bed is almost empty which could be awhile if the outgo and the fill rate is similar.

What I am thinking is that the pump will be in the sump which will overfill the fish tank. The first level overflow will go to the grow beds, and high water mark (large pipe) will return to the sump so that I don't have to worry about balancing the pump (it just needs to be too big!)

The overflow to the grow beds will have a valve so that it can be "tuned" to balance it to the outflow from the autosiphons. When the pump stops (due to timer) all the beds will drain, one into the next since they are allready siphoning and have not stopped due to having enough water.

So, do you think it will work, oh wise experienced ones, or is it a case that it looks good on the blackboard but will cause insanity to implement?

seems like it'll work. A diagram would confirm without doubt.

I think each subsequent bed in the sequence should be just a little smaller than the previous. That will make sure that each one fills and the autosiphon starts. However, you still will end up with the bed at the top of the sequence partially filled when the pump cuts off. Why not just leave the pump running?

I think a test will confirm without a doubt - should be interesting...

janet his pumping is timed, if he fills the top bed, it starts draining, and then he keeps filling another 50%, then the beds will not have to be progressively smaller.
So lots more than 1 bed's worth of water is cascading at once.

And if a siphon blocks or doesn't start/stop properly???

I'd certainly incorporate a "high level" overflow into each bed.

Actually even if he doesn't use a timer, my siphon starts well before the sump stops pumping, (it's float driven) but if he uses continuous flow, the amount of water pumped between drain cycles will be more than 200%, so I don't think it'll be an issue.

Does that make sense?
Even if GB2 has 50% more space to fill with water, all you have to do is make sure that it is 100% filled, invariably more than that amount of water is pumped, because the beds start siphoning early...

As long as the total amount of water running is one set of beds + the amount of water that will be left behind (probably not that much), it should cascade through the system fairly easily. This of course looks great on paper - but in reality... we will see.

yeah Rupe, nice suggestion
also a slow drain
at least that's what I'm doing with my soon to be cascaded beds

I just thought of something - this is probably going to resemble a slinky toy as it rolls from one set to another.

That is a very good idea - a kind of fail safe.

I have to wait 5 more weeks for my GBs CRTD, but I hope I can get the slinky action too :-)

HI CR
I have had a few ideas about your system:
- you could do series of cascading growbeds, so taht if somethings fails in the system you wouldn't lose as much or veggies or fish and have more time to repair
- you should be carefull about introducing new fish in the area, as the fish farmed fish are devastating natural areas where they have been accidentaly released, example with farmed salmon in noraway that spawns three weeks after the wild and destroy all the spawning site during there spawn and destroy all the eggs and larvae, plus you have so many beautiful fish in latin america that it would really be a shame to loose them
- you could put a net in your fishtank, to make it easy to concentrate the fish to check if all is alright and the growth is good, and you separate the different species as well. I tell you this by experience, I damaged a beautiful and very expensive koi trying to catch it in my 15 KL pond
hoping to see more of your progress
good luck

Sorry for all the typing mistakes even if I'm a frenchy

Plus I'm half english too so I don't have any excuses about that