Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, I just put together my first system and I am not sure how the water, bell siphon, and stand pipe are supposed to work. Mine will fill up the grow bed and flush the first time but after that it just keeps siphoning out at the rate it is being pumped in. and the water level is very low in the grow bed, I have moved the stand pipe around trying top get it to fill and flush, and fill and flush but no matter what I do it will only do it one time and them it just keeps running. Is this the way it is supposed to work? and if so where should the water level be, thanks, Larry

sounds like your siphon isn't breaking,, your flow may be to high (to much water).. can you divert a little flow back into your fishtank to give it a try?

A picture is worth a thousand words so they say, a few would be even more helpful

Yep...

If the siphon won't go, the flow is too slow!
If the siphon won't cease, the flow must decrease!

Siphon's also need a little back pressure in the return pipe to FT/ST... if it's currently a straight drop then try adding a 90 deg elbow and short piece (about 4-6 inches) of horizontal pipe just above the high water mark in the FT/ST

As Keith mentioned, try adding a 'T' piece and a tap in the line from the pump to GB, just above the high water mark in the FT/ST, and divert the pressure/flow not required up at the GB back to the surface of the water in the FT/ST... killing two birds with one stone, aerating the water in the tank and tuning the flow for the siphon at the same time.

Good morning, it is 6:11 AM here and I just got up, getting ready to go to work but on my way home I will pick up a "T" pipe and an elbow and a small piece of straight pipe. I have never participated in any kind of chat room before but I am enjoying this. Thanks for the good ideas, I will let you know how it works out, Larry

Hi, I added a "T" and a line back to the fish tank with a control lever to regulate the flow direct to the fish tank and got it going perfect, thanks sooo!!! much for your help, now I have to wait a week or 2 to plant, Larry

Glad you got your syphon working. We are all happy to help as much as we can.

Would be great to see some picks.

And good luck with your first system (emphasise on "first", this stuff gets addictive)

Hi, I set up my mini system in a corner on my lanai so the sun is always facing the only place I can stand to get a good picture, I tried to take a couple of pictures this morning while the sun was coming up. It really is about as basic of a system as you can get. Not that I know anything about it I just base my assumptions on what I have seen on the web. I tried to up load the pictures but I think it was to large, too many pixels wide and high. I have to figure out how to make it smaller to send the pictures, I will work on it when I get home tonight, got to go, thanks again, Larry

If you are using windows, just open them in paint.
On the home tab of the ribbon over to the right there is a resize button, It will give you the option of percentage or pixels. Go with pixels and make it say 500 wide, the height will automatically change to keep the ratio.
Then just save or save as a new file.

Hope this helps.

Hi, I think I got it. I also figured out how to adjust the stand pipe so my mini system does not need the extra hardware, but it helps me to learn how things work so I am still very grateful for those that helped me with my mini system and with resizing pictures, I think I loaded them, I do not know how to tell, I re sized them the way you said and clicked the Browse found the picture (s) andclicked "add file" please let me know if you can see 2 pictures, thanks, Larry

it worked, sorry the pictures are not better, thanks again, Larry