Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

these guys might have one solution? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu9OnlCG ... re=related

Cheers

Yeah I saw that.

Someone named Nom pointed me to it when I wrote about using a deer scarer. (japanese garden tipper thing like in the video but made of bamboo)

Its a good solution.

Another would be to just have a higher small siphon to create the same intermittent flow. I posted about using a second siphon for a slow flow solution and someone confirmed it works with their cascading GBs ie they only need to tune the first siphon and all the others downstream are very reliably triggered and stopped by the first.

But just because there's a solution out there doesn't stop me from trying to make a single discrete unit that does everything

Actually this came about because I tested a problem solving method I'm working on. This is a by-product

At least I'm alert

Have another look at the open folders in that screen grab with the graph

I just remembered why I was blogging about that stuff.

The deer scarer was my solution to a system where it was always full except once an hour. The BYAP trials thread* has me thinking that perhaps the bacteria prefer to be always wet.

I actually used this as another test for my problem solving method, and it spat out a deer scarer.

I should have posted it here as well.

What I wanted was an always flooded system that drained totally every hour or 12 hours or whatever to make sure there were no anaerobic areas.

this...

http://120thingsin20years.blogspot.com/ ... iphon.html

then this...

http://120thingsin20years.blogspot.com/ ... on_13.html

are the bits that refer to this.

Is it ok to hijack your own thread

* this is a "must read" if you don't already follow it viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8621&hilit=BYAP+trials

I love this Bullwinkle. You are the Macgyver of the spice rack.

In terms of naming, may I put forth:
Centrally Organised Independant of Timing Universal Siphon.
Or
COITUS.

On reflection, this acromyn might not catch on.

Genius idea though

Cheers,
Nom

I think with the uber syphon, you would have to make sure the 2nd, 3rd and 4th etc: syphon outlets are under water, otherwise air will be sucked up them and stop the big siphon from kicking in..
Top stuff.
Wavey.

Thats a pretty long and complicated way of trying to fix siphon issues. Not very easy to adapt to a growbed in real life, I much prefer the cluster siphon idea...

in my version, the uber siphon has one tube and a bell that is say 250mm long. The mini siphons are only 50mm long and dont come into play until the uber bell has filled with water the way siphons do. All standpipes were the same length and joined (poorly with brown tape) at roughly the height of the bottom of the bell into one bigger standpipe. The bigger standpipe never filled and siphoned. The smaller standpipes all trigered by virtue of the fact that the water rose to their height.

I'm guessing all that has to be done is fix some seals and make the big standpipe of a size that would better fit the flow.

Is anyone else making one?

I didnt get to the hardware today to get the stuff I need to make a real one.

Now I love the trials and problem solving but there is already an invention that will quickly drain something and not be worried about the inflow rate being too slow. FLOUT Only real drawback with FLOUTS is they take up more footprint than a standard siphon, however, They might not be much worse than an uber siphon.

Now the issue with what the inner siphons do and how there are not always doing it the same. I do know there is such a thing as alternating siphons but I've heard they need to be very perfectly balanced and level for them to alternate reliably. Anyway when the first one goes the second one I guess gets primed so that on the next round the second one will be the one to go and cause the first one to get primed and so on. I wonder if some of this might be going on in the uber siphon.

I'm not really sure I follow this. The aim here is to make all the siphons trigger from the first one triggering. The other aim is it should fit into the same space as a normal siphon (or close to it)

Isn't a flout for sequencing? I actually do have a sequencer in mind (I actually, actually, have a third idea for a sequencer) But that's for another post.

But this one is really good

Much better than my other two.

And my other two were amazing

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7290&p=227153&hilit=sequencer#p227153

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7412&hilit=sequencer

But really, I do have a new Idea for a sequencer, but so far all I've done is pour some water onto a glass with scotch and ice in it. Not really scientific I know. But inspiring.

I need a pump, my tests are going to waste too much water

EB am I still able to claim my photo comp prize? Or has my useby date past?

A single FLOUT won't sequence anything. It is simple a way to empty a tank quickly once it has reached the max water height set for the FLOUT. The main trick with a FLOUT is that there in no minimum inflow rate, the box just keeps floating up until the water reaches it's max and then water will flow into the box and sink it allowing the container to drain.

Now there are ways to set up a sequence of FLOUTS but that requires as many FLOUTS as there would be separate outlets plus some extra stuff and not really cost effective at this time.

I'll be interested to see if you manage an uber Siphon in the same footprint as a normal bell siphon. (How big would this "Normal" bell siphon be?)

If I can manage it, I'll make one today that's a little better built than my first.
The one I posted a picture of fit into a bell made from a the base of a 1.25 litre soft drink bottle.and finished at a 19mm siphon that turned out to be a bit large for the 4 standpipes.

Thinking about my hardware shopping list, and I'm thinking a 4 into 1 breather might be in order.

and if I make the mini bells that short, they will keep running until the big siphon stops, but might dump too much water back to the media causing a false stop.

This may have been part of my original test's problem.

I think I'll make my inner bells only about 5mm shorter than the big bell. Stuck to the top of the big bell but so their bottoms are 5mm short of the bottom of the big bell.

But of course mate.... What do you want, PM me details and let me know..