Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yay, my siphon design has finally been acknowledged! Believe me, I've had a lot of messages telling me that this design was useless. Thanks to everyone for trying it out!

Just a couple of design notes:
- the trap at the bottom is used for starting it up. Because the air is trapped inside the bell, it burps as the water level rises. This then causes a rush of water to go down the pipe to start the siphon. This allows you to fill your beds VERY slowly if you want. I have a bed in my greenhouse that cycles every 3 hours! The water is almost dripping into a 44 square foot area!
- It's important to make sure that the drain pipe is at least long enough to create enough suction to ensure that water can get drawn through the little tube...otherwise the water will never get sucked out of the cup.

I guess you can call it the Rob Siphon. I was thinking the Torcellini Siphon, but most people will probably think it is made out of pasta.

Nah.. it's a "Bob" siphon... or a "bobbing" siphon...

You know... like what do you call a man with no arms floating in the water.... Bob....

I know this is an oldie, but just want to congratulate you on one of the finest and most illustrative videos on how a complex concept works (generally speaking, not just for siphons). You are an excellent educator rob.

Thanks. It took awhile for people to start trying it out, but I think it's starting to prove that it really works.

[quote="Web4DebI guess you can call it the Rob Siphon. I was thinking the Torcellini Siphon, but most people will probably think it is made out of pasta. [/quote]

Before I got to this part, I thought that it should be called the Rob Siphon. But what about Bigelow Brook Siphon. Like the Affnan Siphon, I had no idea what it was until I searched for Affnan. Sadly I will not be using your siphon design. Beds are too small right now.

BTW, thanks for documenting your dome construction on youtube. While I have no use for that kinda of greenhouse, there were a lot of little things I picked up on during your videos (ie. Central sump tank having a slightly wider base causing it to be hard to extract out of the brick wall made for it, buried tank will get crushed from soil, etc if not protected)

Using this design change, the person in this video made an excellent video of it's use.
youtube.com/watch?v=9aPVwPtBK4E
To watch directly on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aPVwPtBK4E
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Yep... that's a Tortellini Siphon.... as above....

I finally got what the smiley man with the finger is "pointing up to previous post" ?
I have my forum settings the other way (newest post on top)

Yup...that's my little design. He gave me a little shout out in the video which is always appreciated.

I've been getting messages from people lately that have been trying them out. basically they say, "holy crap, it really does work!"