Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Decal,
I am just setting up my first system and like your syphon method.
My query is does the height of the coke bottle determine GB depth?
I was looking at a large old bucket I have and thought if I upended it (so the gravel would lock in the rim and hold it down) with grooves cut out at bottem like your coke bottle weather that would work. My grow bed is quite large 1800 accross so I dont mind the larger bucket taking up extra GB space.
Do you reckon its worth a crack?
I plan to use your coke bottle method for my guppy FT. ( have guppies but not on aquaponics).
Have a great day.
Skipd.

Hi Skipd,
From what I have read on Affnan's site and seen in his you tube videos you need the distance between the top of the flare to the wall of the bell be fairly narrow. The secret to his design is in how it stops with out the air tube. The water tension between the flare and the bell is not enough to hold up the weight of water underneath.

The issue I think you will have with the bucket is getting a flare big enough?

You could try cutting the top off a fizzy drink bottle and turning it up-side down as the flare/funnel? That might just work.

Might even give that ago this weekend, I think I may have a clear plastic Tupperware container that will fit over it?

Give it ago and see what happens, happy for you to post your results on this thread.

Hopefully my 25mm to 50mm flares with turn up this week and I can give them a go in the bottles.

Hi Decal,
I am a newby setting up on old 1800 diam watertank to be aquaponics. I seen your syphon system and was wondering if the height of the plasic bottle would determine the GB depth.
I gave a measure and didnt think it would reach 300mm?
Do you reckon a large plastic bucket upturned ( so that the gravel locks onto rim to hold it down) about 400mm high with your grooves cut into bucket with the same internals as yours would work, or not.
GB is to be 1800 across so lots of room.
Also if I have the GB above the FT as in continuous flow with no sump with the Bell Syphon, with pump on timer if necesary, does that make it Flood and Drain?
I know one can only try but any ideas would be appreciated.
Skipd.

Um sorry didnt realise the first one went through, doh.
Skipd.

what about fixing a piece of similar diameter PVC pipe to bottem of coke bottle to make it higher, then cutting the grooves in PVC pipe?
Skipd.

You can do that. You want the top of the Flare to equal the hight of the water in your GB which should be about 3cm below the top of the media. So if you are using an upside down bottle (if it works?) you can either extend it up with a rise to get the right height or cut the bottle higher?

Will have a play this week to see if it works?

I had some spare time this afternoon. So I converted the green bottle into a Stand Pipe and used a 2.25l bottle as the bell and this what happened.

For sum reason I can not get the video to show. Will try again shortly.

Got it.

Something is not working properly, could a moderator please delete these last 3 posts?

Will try to work out what happening with you tube shortly.

Today I had some spare time so I turned the green bottle I was using as a Siphon Bell in the a GB stand and made a new bell out of a 2.25l plastic bottle.

Hi Decal,
The video was really stop start but came through eventually.
How deep a grow bed do you reckon that would do?
Does this afflan bell syphon system allow you to flood and drain GB or I am I totally missing the idea of it?
Im gonna visit the Backyard AP shop this weekend to check some stuff out. Have you seen the pics of the new system at back of shop. Looks pretty slick.
Anyhoo, take it easy man.
Skipd.

Yes it's designed to work as a flood and drain for a GB, the bucket is the GB and normally you would have another tube around the 2.25l bottle to hold back the media. But that makes it hard for me to take the videos.

Height wise, I have the stand set @ 17cm and that's about as high as I could go inside the 2.25l bottle.
You can raise the hight of the stand (green bottle) by extending the PVC at the bottom. Just need to find something taller as the bell.

I'm visting the backyard AP shop on Monday, can not wait to see all the different systems.

Brett

When I started this experiment it was to just build an Affnan siphon as per the instructions from his web page. But when I couldn't get all the bits I needed it came down to what I had in the shed.

Then yesterday making it work from 2 soft drink bottles was a lot of fun, there's a lot of people out there that look at what we are doing and think that looks great but where do I get the bits from.

Not every one has access to a hardware store or a plumbing shop.

The soft drink bottle set-up from yesterday would work well on a GB of 200mm deep. I might try next on one of those tall water bottles to see if I can make a bell siphon for a 300mm GB.

It's fun flexing the grey matter a little!

Cheers Decal,
That has cleared up my dilema about Flood and Drain.
With that other tube that holds back the medium, I guess that is as permiable as possible to let the water through.
I have a an AP book but it seems to miss little details.
I tried to upload pictures last night but got nocked back as they reckon the file was to big but it was just 1 picture.
Have a great day.
Skipd.

Hi,

Yes you are correct, it needs to be able to let the water flow through freely.

As for pictures the need to be no bigger than 800 x 600 pixels.
I think there are some free programs on the web that will do resizing. Try a google search.

Brett.