Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Minor mod to a bell siphon. My growbed configuration demanded some creativity for a bell siphon. This works and is really simple.

1. Notch the top of standpipe as shown. This is 1 1/4inch (30mm) standpipe.

2. Put a water bottle over standpipe.

3. Done.

I used to use a clear plastic coke bottle that would float up a bit but worked really well. Out of curiousity have you tried this without the notch in the standpipe?

Nice and simple saves a lot of hole drilling

Have you played around with flow rates and different size notches

I wonder if cutting a V instead of the notch would make it work better or worse.

I'm guessing it works because the surface area of the notched section is larger than the surface area of the pipe, acting a bit like the reducing coupler to help get things started.

+1

I have not tried any variations.

It's in an ibc gb fed by a single pump. Plenty of flow probably 200 gph (800 lph) so no troubles initiating.

The problem I was trying to solve is I have a 4 inch gravel guard and 1 1/4 inch standpipe. 2 inch bell is too small for standpipe. 3 inch bell too big for gravel guard. 2 1/2 inch bell not readily available. Bike water bottle seems to be perfect diameter but too short to cut notches in bottom of bell (top of bottle).