Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

no media yet. Just what the kids threw into that first GB. Rocks from our farm are fun to make a big splash. No worries, nothing to break or ruin yet.
Wanted to get the siphons to work consistantly before filling with GB's and having to move media around.

I'm even more convinced that it's an inflow issue then Bill...

If possible... connect the hose to the intended fill pipe with a ball valve... or just adjust the flow of the hose to the point that the siphon starts and breaks properly...

This will then confirm the theory... then all that's required is to actually plumb the bed piping, with ball valves, fill with media... and adjust the flow accordingly...

I'm very new here and my system has been running for only about 2 weeks. However I've been fiddling around with a loop siphon since a month ago and I have got it right. I have two loop siphons that are made of 20mm drainage from the gutters, 32mm common manifold, 32 mm loop siphon and reduced to 20mm in the drain pipe. I have successfully connected 3 growbeds to each siphon, the total volume of water is around 20 gallons for each siphon to drain. For bigger volume and faster drainage, perhaps it should be 25mm and 40-50mm combination...

From what I see, perhaps a bigger diameter tube/pipe needs to be utilized and fitted with a reducer not less than half the size of the siphon tube (25mm may be too small and adds a lot of friction for the siphon). This will help with the suction effect via bernoulli's principle.

Here are some pictures and videos of my loop siphon, hope I could help with the trouble shooting...Cheers



Here's a video when it works...





I've also added an article on fine-tuning these loop siphons on my blog...feel free to check them out at http://mahfudzaquaponic.blogspot.com

A very inavative design

The outflow tubes seem to be too big in diameter. If so, won't make a good seal or hold a seal, then the water just trickles over the top and doesn't start/maintain the flow. Try:
a smaller hose for the loop
a reducer at the discharge end to keep water in the loop/maintain the seal
testing a higher GB fill rate
bwaite

That is a very groovy looking siphon MM...