Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I like the continuous flow for aeration in the tank in a CHIFT PIST system so an auto siphon or FLOUT is a good way to manage Flood and drain and still have the constant flow.

On my 3 main system grow beds with loop siphons, they have operated very well for over a year. Now in that year I have had to clean my pump trap (because my main system is not CHIFT PIST and my pump gets clogged up fast and this would be an issue no matter which method I used so it isn't very fair to say that siphons don't work if you have to clean your pump but timed flood and drain is fool proof even if you have to clean your pump?) I have about three times in the past year opened up the ball valves into the grow beds to let them flush out and then I did have to re-adjust them to make sure the flood and drain was happening and that the flow between the beds was fairly balanced. Not that big a deal and it isn't as if I'm having to worry about the system on a daily basis.

I've got a barrel ponics set up that I do have siphons hooked up in as well. I think I've had to clean out the breather pipe in the top bed bell siphon once or twice since I hooked it up. The main beds drains did need cleaning out after we moved the whole system a few months back. It had been working fine before that. Truth is, I have had to replace the fishing leader several times and the flush flapper once, the siphons have been no trouble at all.

I've had about as much difficulty with cheap timers failing as I've had with my siphons.

The FLOUT has been spot on except for one time when a leaf got caught in it. That is as fool proof as a stand pipe that can get clogged by a leaf.

Now when people complain that their grow bed overflows because an auto-siphon doesn't work properly tells me one very important thing. They didn't install an overflow. All grow beds should have overflows installed, what if a frog climbs into your standpipe? what if roots clog up the drain holes? what if some media gets knocked into the loop siphon? Running a system without overflows is living dangerously weather you are running timer controlled flood and drain or siphons.

Main issue I seem to have with timers for a large system is most of the cheap timers can't handle the amp load of a large pump starting up and most of the heavier duty timers I know can't do less than 30 minute intervals. Is the amp load issue different with 220 v power?

Only time I've ever really had major difficulty with siphons is when I was trying to defy gravity or when I was trying to get the loop siphon to work with marginal flow in a half barrel the long way.

Talking about having a full stock of fish.

With the new gb's I use the flood and drain but have PVC bells to make them siphon if I need to. Just slip the bell in and remove later.

Loop 1 1/2 years. Has stopped occasionally but not the fault of the loop, bad design on the gb's, standpipes would have been just as bad. Flout for a couple of months no problems and unless the Amway vacuum hosepipe fails I can't see any happening. (Famous last words )

TCLynx,

What is the amp start up of ur pumps? Must be huge. Even the cheapest timers have a 10amp capability.

5 months 4 bell siphons no problems regular as clockwork once setup right.

OBO, are you running this setup with the pump in the fish tank or with SLO with the pump in a sump? I would have thought to much turbulance would cause the solids to mix around and not get sucked up but the SLO stand pipe in your FT if it was SLO?

TCLynx ,, double the voltage means half the current.
Remember the ratings on most timers are for what is called resistive loads ..... a motor is a inductive load . Check in the fine print and some will have a rating for inductive loads ,, usually way less than given resistive rating.
A reasonable quality , correctly selected timer should last for YEARS and years.

SLO, pump in sump. The SLO cant keep up with the full flow rate, so some goes over the top of the T-Piece at the top of the tank.

Without the turbulence solids get stuck in the corners of the tank. With a powerfull flow of water, everything gets stirred up, and dissapears either up, or over the SLO.

Time flies, rechecked my old threads and it was 1 1/2 years before I had a loop siphon failure due to gravel in the loop. Cleared that and ran for another 9 months before shutting that configuration down.

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I had a small bell siphon system over the fish tank. It was difficult to get to work, and either ended up drowning or drying the seedlings.
My current system is using a home-made flout. I have fiddled with that a bit, but it was much easier to get to work right, and once it was working, it didn't seem to have any variation, regardless of pump flow.

Seems like the ideal would be either timers & standpipes, or flouts with the pump on continuously.

Exactly!!!!! Over here with 110 v power means the current is higher and even though I'm used to seeing the cheap little timers being rated for 15 amps resistive load, they are not big enough to handle anything but a tiny little pump starting up.

I understand that a good timer would be needed for running a large pumped system, unfortunately most of the good cycle timers I've found, start around $100. I might not be looking in the right place but I don't know what the right place would be.

I suppose If I really wanted to run my system on a timer, I could hook the timer to the backup system so the air pump would come on whenever the pump turned off and the timer would only be handling the power of the backup contoller which already has the relays on it. But my system has been working quite well with siphons and FLOUT.

HAng on ..... I can recommend a good timer with 3 outlets on ebay ..... I'll chase the link.

and also, depending on timers can be frustrating... like if there's a power surge or a gap in power causing a blink of darkness, it trips all the settings back to zero...very very frustrating... that's why i'm setting up my new system so I don't have to use a timer.

Most timers... might stop if the power goes off... but reset... you must be using a digital one Jens... most of them have a battery backup to save the settings...