Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

When you said that you were in there spying on the fish... I never realised that you were actually in the tank... spying on your fish...

Don't you ever leave the house? A couple of pump cycles and your FT would be empty if one siphon clogged up without any other way for the water to get back to the FT (overflow).

MrOrange, it seems she likes to hang out in the tank... perhaps that is her home. Going out is a trip to the house? I've been swimming in my FTs myself today

in all seriousness though... it is a risk Jen.

yeh... though it seems I forgot to say the pump is run on a timer.. its not continuous.

and I think i worded that post a bit wrong... it should be when i'm looking into the FT i'm like inside the cubbyhouse. so the birds don't see me when they come to the GB which is kinda on a level up. Then when I move around, or stand up, the birds freak out in surprise or something...

To be fair - even when a siphon starts to get blocked up you can see it start happening over several days. The water level in the growbed gradually gets higher and higher before the pump turns off.

Siphons very rarely block up all at once, unless something solid (hydroton ) gets into them.

Yes sure; you have a problem and leave it till you are in HSM

OBO, that's exactly what I was counting on! Dunno why I didn't say so, I guess I was pretty preoccupied.
if one gets blocked, I'll just turn the tap off of that one and go get better pipes and replace it. I'm thinking to go and get them anyway, to try keep things simple.

Siphons dont suddenly HSM - they gradually start to lesson flow. It takes several days to overflow a growbed with a blocking siphon. First you see the gravel starts to get wet, then a day or two later the gravel will be wet, then the water starts to rise abover the gravel.

It's a slow process, and it gives you plenty of time to catch it. I dont think there even will be a problem.

I have Never had a siphon HSM, and I run 28 of them. There is no build up in them at all. Even the main pump lines get more gunk than the siphons.

OK
Had a loop collapse in summer (heat) pissed water everywhere off the beds. 1 root caused problems, just caught that.

Thats a design fault not a siphon fault. Roots should not be able to get to it

"so from a 30L container using 6mm clear vinyl pipe inside a 13mm poly pipe as a bell autosiphon, it takes about 10 minutes for it to totally drain."

Roots are everywhere OBO, think my design fault was putting plants in, well the tomatoes anyway

How deep is the container/growbed.... tomatos are one of those things that needs the 300mm depth IMO.... although I've had lettuces that have reached the bottom of half blue barrels without a problem...

It is very very hard for a bell siphon to get blocked by roots.

Is that being 'fair' or being nice OBO

The difference is, you're porbably using what 25mm PVC OBO? Jen is using 6mm.. Your siphon can quite easily pass most solids & roots found in an AP system, Jen's can not.

A 10mm rock into the 13mm poly would completely block the 6mm tube for drainage. If the GB doesn't drain completely by the next time the pump turns on you're going to get overflow.

I'm not just wildly recommending an overflow system (though, I would always run one myself just to be sure), but I think with only a 6mm drain you aren't leaving any room for error there. All it would take is a 13mm 90deg elbow at the max water level in the GB and some 13mm poly back to the FT. This is surely a 10 minute job with $3 worth of components