Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Decal
I've just written a 40 odd page presentation for my local school to convince them of setting up an aquaponics system, so far well received by the Principal.

I'm still building my system when time allows, last night I built the first part of an Affnan bell siphon, and today saw your soft drink bottle version, this is a fantastic idea to present to classes.
A couple of questions, what size pvc connector did you use onto the drink bottle, did you have to put silastic on it ?



[quote="Decal"]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 phred,

In the bottom of the bucket is a 25mm threaded adaptor, on the bottle I used a small of cut of 25mm PVC that slips over the thread on the bottle. To hold them together I used hot glue, just poured it onto the bottle thread and then slipped the off-cut over it. It dries real quick and if need be you can take it back off by heating the area with a heat gun and melting the glue.

Once the glue has set you can slide it into the adaptor in the bottom of the bucket.

It's a great way to see how it all works and is very cheep to make.

I hope this helps, if you have any other question just let me know?

Hi Brett

Thanks, I visited B last night and found in the waste pipe section a rubberised converter (near the blue pipes, which fits perfectly over a bottle on one end and a 25mm fitting on the other ($4) I haven't checked if the rubber seal is watertight but it should be sufficient for testing/demo purposes.

Thanks phres I will have to stop past and have a look. That's a bit more secure than hot glue.

Decal

tested the rubber connector and it worked a treat, used a small (375ml?) water bottle up-ended and bottom cut off. Put a larger soft drink bottle over the top with jagged bottom edge, all connected to a tank connector through the bottom of a bucket, Showed my kids and also a bunch of other parents and they want me to demo it at school....

I guess this level of testing has shown me that we can use some disposable items as siphon's, using the rubber based connectors means it'll pull apart easily if blocked.

The only downside was the siphon bell cover was a bit flimsy, and would need to be made from a more solid material, when surrounded by rocks.

Hi phred,

You will need to find a piece of PVC or plastic mesh to make a tube to keep the rocks away from the siphon. I have something made up at home will send through a photo when I can.

Great news about the demo!

I have now acquired some tall plastic bottles to see if I can make siphon for a 300mm deep bed.

Any chance of sending a pic of the adaptor you bought from 'B'?

Also would love to see some photos or even a video of what you built. More than happy to have them posted in this thread.

No worries, if I get home with enough daylight tonight i'll do an High def video using the iphone4... Also took some pictures on the weekend so will upload them too.

Now that's just plain mean! I'm still at least a week away before I can get my iPhone4.

Hi Brett,
I have just had such fun and its thanks to you. I have been reading and viewing your videos about the plastic bottle affnan and was greatly impressed so went out and changed all of mine over. I used plastic bottles and all sorts of bits n pieces that went along with your design and they worked.
I only had slow drain pipes previously, but now I know how to use a bell syphon.
Cheers very much
Dale

Great video and great thinking out of the box. I like you using the K.I.S.S. method and the inexpensive approach. Every way we can make it using what may be at hand or readily available is to our advantage. It has made me want to make a setup just like yours so I can see it in action.Thanks Jerry

Oh gee whoops sorry Brett, I didn't mean to rub it in



Here's a couple of examples
First one is of the rubber connector from B



Next one shows my test bucket setup, this can all be recycled (except for the ol bucket which has a 32mm hole !) the yellow colour is from my outdoor anti mosquito lighting



The next one shows me connecting it all together !



The next two show the siphon operating with two water bottles, cut to suit. the only rule I applied was to keep the inner bottle much lower than the rim of the bucket, and the larger bottle had groves cut in the bottom and the top lid sealed.

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2.

Great work phred!

It's Ok about the iphone, I just need to be patient

Love the videos, are you mac or PC based at home? I'm mac and used iMovie to to cut the movie sections together, since I've been playing with iMovie I've put a heap of holiday movies together.

Good luck with getting AP into the school. If you do get it up I would love to come and visit on one of my trips to Perth.

Hi Jerry and Dale, Thanks for your reply's!

Just a warning if you thought it was addictive before it'e even more when you can see whats happening inside the bell!

Phred has just made one using a taller water bottle which is great, the ones I have made are good for a up to 200mm of media I'm pretty sure the 1.5l water bottle will work in a bed up to 300mm of media?

Would love to see photos/video of your siphons when you get them running.

My directorship and post production editing, left many hours of film on the floor...

actually it was 1 x iphone4 (did I tell you I just got mine, cant remember?)
1 x daughter to hold the bucket, with appropriate comments to hold it steady.
then trolling the internet for software to turn the video 90 degrees, and post it,
that was the limit - sorry I'm sure it shows, couldn't do it outside at the pool as it was
p***ing down, I'm PC based, but time poor.

I'm going to try different shaped bottles to see if I get better bernouli effects, I think
smooth sided funnel and an hourglass shaped 2lt bottle might do things differently.

The best bit about this sort of testing, is it's cheap/free

My test kit cost:

1 x bucket (80cents)
1 x 25mm tank connector ($10) (this will be re-used)
1 x 90 degree bend ($1.50)
1 x 25mm threded connector ($1.25) (outee) (my technical term for the way the pipe connects - there's an innee and an outee - one the pipe connects outside, the other the pipe slots inside)
the shape of the inside is most important to get the suction going, the grey connector causes the funnel effect pulling the water through quicker.
1 bit of pipe

The good thing about have=ing the test bucket is it doesn't take long to see if a new idea works?

I made up a taller siphon today out of a small coke bottle and a 1.5l water bottle. I haven't made a video yet but will try to do it tomorrow.

But here's one of the coke bottle bell I made the other week still running with out a problem in my GB.





It's great fun to be able to see whats happening!