Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I want to make a new growbed that is on the other side of a pathway along existing growbeds. Question is can autosiphons work if the plumbing goes down and then under the pathway then back up to the sump? The sump level will obviously be below the bottom of the growbeds, but not by much.

I can not see why not as long as you put a break under the GB in the pipe to allow air back up to help break the siphon. Example, having a 25mm pipe coming out of the GB running into a 50mm pipe going to the sump so that air can come back up.

The other issue will be how high the GB is above the sump? As the volume of water coming out in such a short time will need to get away.

I have a charged storm water system going from my gutters to the water tanks at home and if I get a huge down pour they over follow as I do not have enough empty pipe above the water level to allow for the amount of water (weight) to be able to push the water out the other end.

The easiest way would be to make a small test to see how it works?

Yeah I could test it and if it doesnt work just run the outlet pipe directly to the sump. This will block the path but I can work around that.

I know when they put the charged system in here at home they said I needed 150mm of clear pipe above the out let to the water tanks to allow foe the incoming water to push out the other side.

Like I said above on the big days that's still not enough.

It wont work unless you do as Decal said - that is have the siphon discharge freely into a drain pipe which then goes under path.
Problem is firstly the drain has to be quite big, Not sure 50mm would do it and the drop needed under GB to make the Autosiphon work ~ 150-200mm may burn up the head you have from GB to sump

Constant flow would work though.

Mantis,

One of my systems has this setup (down out of the GBs into 90mm pipe, under the floor of the bush house up the other side and into the FT) But as Decal has said, Have a air vent at the base of the syphon, plumb into the exit pipe, and the other end up higher than the GB, I just used 13mm poly. Make sure to glue the underground fittings.

Richard
I have done this on a small g/b which is actually a window box for flowers.
there is a drop of approx 75cm to the path and then across the path and up about 15cm to the sump .
the outlet from the g/b is 15mm pipe which sits inside a 25mm pipe.
so this definitely works ,you will just have to experiment to find the right sizes for your application.
I am using a siphon.
Trev

I do this too.
In effect you're making a tank out of pipe. Then you siphon into it.
Be aware: if your pipe isn't big enough, you will require more head to overcome the resistance. In severe cases, one side can overflow, whilst the other side is being run dry by a pump.

Looking like i will need at least 90mm pipe for the 25mm gb outlet to drain into eh. I only just ordered the epdm liner that will line this wooden bed. Gonna be a long narrow bed 400 deep along the side of the shadehouse.

hey richo

can you incorperate another sump into the mix that you could pipe together with your exsisting sump, im running dual sumps joined with 40mm pipe, all my beds drain into one and the the pump runs out of the other.

you could get a blue/black barrell and cut it at the same height as your sump (or a bit higher) and pipe them together with 50mm pipe and then let the gb dump into this, would also allow for more gb's on that side of the path if needed.

Just my idea as iv proven it works over 4.5mt with 40mm pipe and 600l of gb's draining into it.

i plan on putting a 700lt ibc sump under my tank and then pipeing my black barrels back to it using them to catch the drains off the gb's saves running drains any longer than needed, saves pipeing, and less issues with siphons.

Good thought Jamie and I reckon I could do it. Would need a pipe connecting the bottoms of the sumps as they are at ground level. Cover over the pipe, pebbles over the cover, and just a small hump in the path

there is no reason why you cant go out of the sump drop down under ground level and come back up on the other side.