Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys,

My bell siphon is taking a long time to engage (5 minutes). I added an adapter to the top to emulate the afnan siphon but it doesn't seem to help. One difference is that my adapter is blocky and his has more of a funnel shape to it. Do you think that could make the difference? Also mine drains straight down. Would adding an elbow help?

Thanks,
Jeremy

If it works, don;t worry about it....

Perhaps you could try and run your drain pipe down into the water below, that worked well for us with no adapter on the top..

Like this viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9273&p=267301&hilit=byap#p267301

I would add an elbow wit a short length of pipe on the end. I found that this helped for the water to create an air block which in turn started the siphon effect.

Foker, Submerge the outlet from the siphon to the bottom of your FT. When it starts will stir up the bottom and help to keep FT clean. Your problem is not enough pump flow.

Hi Foker

i've tried a number of siphon types, try and follow these principles.

1. the bell that goes over the top of the standpipe (the thing in your picture)
must be airtight and also about an inch above the top of the standpipe.

2. Put a right angle in your pipe (or 2 x 45 degree corners). the longer your pipe from the growbed to the tank the better the flow.

2. 1/2 inch sounds rather narrow, I had 25mm standpipe with a 40mm neck on top.
this was insufficient, I changed my standpipe to 40mm. Mine now gushes out and cuts off quickly.

My problem was that the inflow was too slow for my plants, So I've removed my bells and made it CF (constantly flooded to about 1/2 or 3/4 of the height of the rocks.
The volume of water flowing through the system is now huge.


My grow beds are the 2.1m x 1.2m standard beds from Backyard Aquaponics. If your using blue barrels or IBC's then a smaller standpipe is fine.

EB did a good comparison of each type of system if you look through the forums.

Adding a 90degree elbow and a 45degree fixed it. it now kicks on about 5 seconds after the water reaches the top of the stand pipe.

the inflow could still be an issue though. the bell siphon drains the grow bed in 3 minutes but it takes 11 1/2 to fill it up. Is that too slow?

-Jeremy

I don't think so? When using siphons you want the bed to fill slow and drain fast. Where with flood then drain it's the opposite.


Glad you have it working!

I think you J pipe will have problem to stop draining.
It should be L.

From my experience the bigger pipe on top of stand pipe doesn't help better siphon but will be problem if your outer pipe is too small because the area that water can flow will be reduce.
The longer stand pipe create more suction force.