Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi guys was wondering can you do a loop siphon without the traditional "loop" ie circular and instead squared off as pictured here...

Yep, that will work, I had one like that in a barrelponics system. you may need to muck around with some slightly different pipe sizes, also in the end I put a small breather hose into the top horizontal bit.

I've got a 40mm PVC loop siphon with a 25mm reducer on the end of it. And the first barrels I used had right angles cos I kept kinking the hose.

That's exactly the design used in the Bato "Dutch" pots often used in hydroponics....

ah right so if i do a 40 to 25 reducer will it do a venturi effect as well? or just siphon better?

Would it be necessary to reduce the pipe in two sections or can i get away with just one section of reduced pipe or do i need both horizontal and then reducer?

also if i cut a little drainage hole/drip line somewhere to drain the beds in case of a ie power out, should I do it via the barrel or sort of at the base of the siphon start... so



or is it better to drill a lil drain hole in the barrel rather than via the siphon route.

How big is your gb and what pumping rate. My siphon is running 2x600ltr gbs and has a 5mm hole in the first bend to drain if power goes out.

my system specs are

1000 L ft
600 L sump

200L barrels x 8 so
16x 100L grow beds

running a Laguna 3500 which is rated at 3700 LPH so minus some head losses... 3000 L ph? about... then im going to try to divide that amongst 16 grow beds... so about 187 lph per grow bed?

Whats the head hight?

I have 1.7 m and on a 6000 litre - im down to <3500

ah right... so it will be from the sump to the ibc so that like 1.1m how much head height should i minus then? will this be enough flow for my system?

so if its 3700lph for about 1.9 m max then about 1 m will be about 1850 - some more... so like 1500 Lph so I should be right.

That is a Carlson Surge Device. Used to cause 'surges' of water in large fish tanks and aquariums.

With the horizontal piece, has the same flow limitations on starting siphon as the plain bell siphon.

Ways of helping initiate siphon starting are:
1) a reducer on the downspout (don't know if a reducer on the cross piece will help) ala Affnan
2) or my idea, change the flat cross piece to a peak. Riser pipe to 45 elbow, pipe to 90 bend at the top, pipe to 45 elbow to downspout. Water running down the downward 45 pipe hits the 45 elbow to the downspout, turbulance there helps seal the pipe and start the siphon. The top of the 90 elbow (actually about the middle) represents the max water height.

Hope you can follow, don't have a image to import at the moment.

bwaite