Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Im planning a new setup that will involve a IBC sump. I will probably need to have a second IBC as sump too to keep the water level at a decent height but i was thinking i may be able to achieve the same thing with a aquaponics indexing valve.

Has anyone used them before and how reliable are they?

Rupe would be the man to answer this one zman, I believe you need good pump flow for them to work efficiently.

OBO has been using one for years.

The indexing valves themselves seem pretty reliable in my experience. Contact Rupe to make sure your pump and the heights involved would be powerful enough to reliably engage the valve.
If the pump gets clogged or is delivering less flow then it is possible that the valve won't engage fully and water would flow out all ports so I definitely DO NOT recommend using them in conjunction with siphons. We can't guarantee that your pump will never slow up and if you use the valve in conjunction with siphons you could wind up in the situation where all beds are flooded but don't kick over any of the siphons and your sump runs dry.
I've been running indexing valves for a couple years now and so far even when there was an occasional debirs suck in the valve messing things up, it never caused a HSM and I usually caught it before plants even started looking wilted and during that time I was often away for a week at a time.

Up until I moved a few months back Zman... I was still running the original "prototype" valves on my systems.... since 2009...

They occasional might "jam".. due to a bit of grit.. or more usually a bit of leaf/twig...and fail to sequence...

But a quick dissassembly, clean... and reassemble..... and away they go again...

Thanks guys.

Rup how much would one set me back?

Depends what model.... PM, or email me please...