Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Now. There are two beds side by side with two aouto siphons going into one main line. I think this may be contributing to the problem but here is the plumbing coming out of the beds. Note the "p" trap in the line.

Then the line runs down to the floor and back up into the sump (whih sits lower than the beds).

The height of the tubes is as follows

1) White drain tube - 11.4 cm
2) Black bell cover - 17.2 cm

last of the pics

Can you get one of them to work if you seal the other with duct tape?

no...if one is plugged the other still seeps and the siphon never really gets started it just kind of low flows until it gets level with the inside drain pipe

i think its becasue it needs to "burp" the air out. I have spent countless hours sitting and watching mine, plying with different "tweaks" and learning how it works. I am very happy with mine. It low flows for a few seconds then gurgles as its burping the air out and WOOSH.

See what les thinks, but you might want to try and remover the little "trap" and come vertically down to floor level then back up to the tank.

I would make the length of pipe under the siphon longer. Before it hits the goose neck then if you still have problems try pulling out the goose nech. I will take some photos of mine and post as they have no back presure but work great.

JT

hi, MF , what's with the air pipe on the black bell cover, is it to let air in for breaking the siphon (how deep does it goes inside the black pipe, below the stand pipe )?

does two of the siphon work independantly or will one trigger the other?

How high does the water floods in the black pipe before the real siphon starts?
do you think if your gooseneck is bend upwards instead of current downwards has any effect on the siphon?
sorry for posing so many question at one go. thanks for the neat photos.

i stared at your pictures some more. my thots are that the combination of the little trap and the rise from the floor back up to the fish tank is creating too mucch babck pressure. I found that I needed very little back pressure. Otherwise it just dribbled and did not start. It plays havoc with traffic flow in the room, but what if you did not drop all the way to the floor? Maybe tryy dropping down to the level of the top of the fish tank and then come across? once you can get it to work, you can re-engineer for convenience.

MF - try getting rid of the "P" trap - I could not get my autosiphon to kick in properly (or work properly at all for that matter) - then I removed the water trap all went VERY well - its worth a try...

It might be the backpressure, but I think there is too much trapped air in the pipe between the grow bed drain and the level of the remaining water in the pipe after the siphon stops. The difference between the level of the sump and the level of the bottom of the beds is 15cm

Michael my man hows it going?

Pretty neat setup you have there i like how you overlapped the two grow beds to save space

but we got a problem here i wonder and i am willing to help.

Whats the reasoning behind the 'p' trap? if you could lose it, do, the less obstructions to the water flow the better it is for every thing. straight pipes are a lot easier to unblock and stuff.

If you could get the pipes going straight down to the floor it would be better.

Make sure the pipe in the fish tank is always below the water surface even when the beds are flood.

BUT and the biggest problem is the air hoses coming up from the outer pipe the syphon action will never start with those sticking out there bud.

A syphon works by water pressure so we need a air tight seal on the pipes to get the water flowing and the air to stop the water flow other wise it will just keep sucking out the water from the GB's

Make the air hoses longer and bend them (in a nice flowing curve) and tape to the side of the outer pipe. So it would be a syphon on a syphon.

when the air hose ends will be the lower water level for the GB but make sure that its a least 15cm up from the bottom of the outer pipe.

Aha!!



Gotacha, thank you I'll post results shortly

Sorry Mike, haven't been avail for past few days:
1) I found that putting the trap anywhere but at the end of the outlet (to the tank) that the siphon wouldn't work

2) keep the water flowing from the GB outlet to the fish tank, in other words keep a slight incline and don't allow the water flow to slow down - I found that I could get away with a 30mm(1-1/4") in 3 feet, anything less and the air was not removed properly from the pipes and as the water level dropped in the GB, less pressure to push out air

3)with the water trap on the end of the pipe, try to make the heaight as small as possible so that there is less pressure required to move the air throught the water trap (mine is about 5-10mm )- as the height increases, more pressure is required which comes from the water level in the GB rising higher

4) with both GB outlets being connected to the one trap, if the air tube is not submerged on both GBs then air could flow back to the other GB - point of less resistance (or less pressure)

5-10mm water trap meant water rising above the inner standpipe to 10-12mm before siphon started to work - by increasing the watertrap height to 15mm the GB water had to rise to compensate that so eventually the GB will overflow or the outflow will equal the inflow and just dribble out

Looking at your bend there is approx 2" of water that the air is needed to be forced through.

I think all your main concerns have been answered by others, just try and tweak a little after reading and digesting all of the comments and come back with any probs