Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Any one else having issues with grow media, particularly hydroton, flowing into the bell siphon?
I know the gravel/media guard is supposed to help with this.
However, for whatever reason, the hydroton gets underneath this guard and up through the bell to clog the siphon.

Never had that problem. Got any pics of your guard?

I believe this is 3 in PVC for the guard.
I'm using a utility sink as a grow bed (because it has a built in drain).
Notice the drain area is not completely flat.
Smaller pieces of Hydroton can probably sneak under the guard through this bend.

If it really becomes a major problem that needs fixing you can dig out your media from the area, dry it off... Get a 90mm cap, drill a big hole in it (50mm), then silicon it down, upside down around your drain.

Then you can push your surround down into the cap, you can still rotate it but having the cap stuck there will stop any bits getting through.

The media guard looks like its that "foamy" style of PVC which is very light. Sometimes the weight of water and gravel can push the guard up, so simply sit a brick or other weight on top of the media guard to hold it down and in place. After a few weeks, things will settle and the weight can be removed (maybe? If it's working and not doing any other harm, then I'd just leave the weight on top).

I actually lost some sleep thinking about this last night.

@earthbound
Great idea! I had thought about doing the same, but the caps they sell for this 3" PVC are rounded. Maybe I can look around for a flat cap. I even thought about trying to setup an exterior bell siphon but this would take too much time/energy. I'll definitely re-explore the cap idea. Thanks.

@bunson
I'm not sure I've ever seen 'foamy' type of PVC, but this i regular PVC that I can find at Home Depot.

Some DWV (non pressure) PVC is made from recycled pressure PVC, they make a sandwich of new material filled with a less dense foam of recycled material. It's lighter than pressure PVC, and can be identified (sometimes) by a different colored profile as you drill through the product. Pick up a section of pressure pipe and foamy DWV and the difference is immediately obvious.