Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I woke up with bell siphons on my mind and agenda this morning . While staring at the set-up I began to wonder what else i could use to fabricate the apparatus. This is what I came up with.
It was fashioned from two plastic bottles and my existing parts. A few more adjustments and I think it will work!
Peace

Bell siphon complete, tank & grow bed both hold water with no leaks! I'm going to do some fine tuning on the siphon, build a media guard, and add a t-valve to adjust the pump flow rate so I don't need a timer.

I do have a few questions before I get to far.
First, how fast should the water drain out of the grow bed?
The bed holds about 12 gallons of water, it takes about four minutes to drain. This seems adequate to me, except i only know what I've researched not what works practically.

Second, is there a formula i can use to determine how much water will take to fill the bed after adding the media?
I will be using Hydroton.

Thanks
Peace

There is no magic rule with drain times, it'll be quicker with the grow media in there anyway, less water to move.

Good thing with your design you can watch for roots invading the pipes, bad thing you'll need to clean out the algae semi regularly, the PVC ones keep everything dark.

Are you having any issue with the bottle floating up? It doesn't look heavy (although a weight will fix that.).

Good to know about the algae. I'll make sure to keep an eye on that. I haven't had any issues with floating bottles. I tweaked it yesterday, used a narrower bottle for the "bell" part and used the original "bell" for the media guard. It seems to work a little better, especially when the siphon needs to stop.
This is an indoor setup. Although I did all the initial setup outside, I started tinkering with it inside. I looked away for only a minute. So the end result of yesterday was:
1. Bell Siphon done and water is recirculating beautifully.
2. I have a new swimming pool in the kitchen!