Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i setup a indoor bsf cage and the results are earlier bsf young larvae
first for the summer

Lovely!

Regarding the big long system, I would hate to have to get three siphons working on that. Also, how can three siphons be connected to the one bed?? I would leave it constant flood, and probably make the one long bed into multiple shorter ones, mainly because I think the long bed might lose oxygen by the time you get to the end of it?

Hi Francois, I don't think three siphons on one bed could work as they all have to start at exactly the same time which I don't think is possible. If A started moments before B the water level in B would never get high enough to start the siphon, and that's just two!

My suggestion - see if it is practical to run on one siphon or use dividers to break the bed into two or three sections with one siphon in each.

Regards, Martin.

If more than one siphon in the same GB connected together properly then if first one starts all other will start. If one breaks "completely" then all others will break.

Hi longnt have you done this before?
How does one start the others. Siphons are not connected to each other, they depend on water level and the water level is not perfectly even throughout a grow bed as the water flows differently depending on the media and the roots.

If you have experience in getting multiple siphons in a grow bed working together I would sure like to hear about it.

Regards, Martin.

I said they "connected together properly" (means to the same drain, airtight and at certain height to the outlet). When one start then it will draw air out of other bell cause other to start; when one break "freely" then air leak to common drain reduce pressure cause others to break too.

If I have a long GB then I make only 1 siphon all others are just a media guard connected to that siphon.

If you have an airtight connection then the siphon probably won't break. That is why I am asking you if you have actually done this.

The basic siphon design is to have an airgap in the drain where it drops either into the sump or into an outlet pipe without an airtight seal. The reason for this is it becomes very difficult for the siphon to break if it is airtight.

Regards, Martin.

We are talking about same GB and water level is nearly the same in all siphon; when air can leak into one bell the other bells also have water near their bottom and start to leak air into common drain too. The common drain should near GB bottom. The pipe from that common drain go to sum creates force to pull air out of other bells (may need an u sharp there). That is why we need a certain height so it has enough force to pull air out of other bells.

The main problem with airtight common drain is back pressure make siphon hard to start. I had a siphon that float up and GB overflow but siphon didn't start.

A better solution would be to run 3 drain pipes to an external 'mega-syphon', all drain pipes feed water to the one large syphon and when it is full it drains from 3 locations, or however many locations you set up. I just used 3 as an example.

Now I like that idea. Sounds more practical. Just luck on your side Charlie.

Me too, would eliminate the lag from the "signal" through the gravel.

Francois, I think your split styrofoam experiment is really neat, it's giving me some ideas! Thanks for posting that.

Yes, Charlie has it right, if you must have multiple drains on a single bed but want to siphon flood and drain, Use ONLY one siphon!

However, that giant bed is WAY TOO Big for the size of the sump tanks. If that Big bed would flood and drain 1500 liters then you need the bottom sump to hold more than 1500 liters to handle the fluctuation.
Better bet is to go constant flood or use the big bed as a raft bed.

I know many people who run the Raft bed level with the sump tank so that the raft bed essentially expands the sump capacity big time (means the raft bed level will fluctuate a bit) but it gives you more capacity to flood and drain more media beds.

Hey Francois your BSFL are cranking. Mine are still going very well after a mild winter andare getting very hungry . Big hug and slurp to Ozzy from me .

Hi seamonkey
Ozzy sends a slurp and he said thanks