Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, I’m hoping to plumb my system this weekend. Can someone take a look at the picture and tell me if the u shape would cause any problem? The U part of the plumbing will be 6+ foot wide and when water is not flowing there should be water sitting in it causing pressure in the pipe. Would this prevent the siphon from starting?


Thanks!

I would not think that it would cause a problem, but that is only speculation as I have never tried it. From what I have read, people with finicky siphons like to add some resistance to help break the siphon, so it may be a good thing.

yeah I was thinking it could help also but I dont have a great understanding of the physics of the bell siphon. My main concern is the size of the 'U'. I'm worried that at 36" tall it would cause too much pressure for the bell siphon to overcome. I’m thinking that it doesn’t even matter because there is an equal amount of water on both side of the ‘U’.

We have out hypothesis, now it is time for experiments to try it out!

Will report back this weekend

That will probably cause you problems with your siphon. It would be fine for timed flood and drain but it is far too much of a trap for a siphon to work. In order for a siphon to start, the water level would have to rise above the bell enough to push whatever bubble of air is trapped in the bell down and out the drain. I think in your case the grow bed would need to be about 36 inches deep above the stand pipe in order to push the bubble of air down 36 inches of trapped water.

You might be able to make an air gap below the grow bed.

Basically, make that U from below the grow bed to the fish tank out of larger pipe than your grow bed stand pipe and then you let your grow bed drain straight down into the larger pipe. Now you need to make sure the end of the U under the grow bed is higher than the end that goes over the rim of the fish tank.
Now if you can plumb through the side of your fish tank with a uniseal or something, you may gain a few inches to make the drain work easier.

TCL has it on the dot, the back presure created by the U was too great for the stand pipe/bell to over come. the presure inside the bell kept the water from over flowing in to the pipe. The water level just kept raising far pass the bell itself.

And if you were to some how get the siphon to actually start with the huge U, it would probably never stop either.

It sounds like the repercussions of using that u is worse then deciding by zero! Only Chuck Norris could make that work. Plus, he is about the only thing my blender won't blend...

It looks like I'm going to slide the ft under the gb.