Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First of all, thanks in advance for any opinions/advice given on this topic!

I have a Bell siphon that just girggles and never breaks siphon so the GB never fills back up again.

I have a 55 gallon barrel with approx. 40 gallons in it as the FT....

I have a 30 gallon tote with approx. 10 gallons in it as the ST....

As of right now, I have 1 GB measuring 24"x36"x8" filled with 3/4" rock for the first 4-5" and then a 2" layer of pea stone on top.

I don't have a good pic of the siphon itself but I will try to include a pic of the setup.

Could it be that your pump is filling the grow beds to fast for it to break syphon?
Do you have a valve you could close slightly to slow the water flow down into the grow beds to see if that helps?

The usual fixes to siphon problems are:
1) If it won't start you don't have enough flow.
2) If it won't stop you have too much flow.

Sometimes it's a fine line between getting it perfect.

As mentioned above, if you don't already have a tap/valve before your growbed entry install one and tune your flow.

In-flow to the grow bed is the first thing you should look it, as Robduca and Arbe stated above, but the return line between the underside of your siphon and the sump tank could also be causing issues. It should run slightly down hill, and it would work much more efficiently if it were a larger diameter and not sealed air tight.

ie: After the first elbow in the downpipe/return line leave about 6" of the current horizontal 3/4" pipe, but have it inserted into the end of larger diameter (ie: 2") return line to the sump tank, and make sure it's not airtight, air needs to get up the return line into the siphon bell for it to operate properly.

Mr Damage - I'll have to re-read that about 10 times to get it straight. lol. At this point I'm not willing to change anything IN my GB but I have been thinking about adding another. Some vivid directions (maybe a diagram) from top to bottom would be great! Thanks for all of the info folks!

Not in your GB... underneath your GB!... The line returning from the siphon to the sump tank.

See the pic below.

How do you secure the 2 pieces?

You seem to have too long a section of sealed pipe under the growbed and because the pipe is of a small diameter the back flush normally seen when a siphon breaks isn't occurring cleanly I'm sure the thing sucks water out really good as there is a lot of water weight pulling the siphon but that is your problem right there.

The clean break of a siphon requires that a relative clear channel of air can travel in both directions in the siphon pipework. this channel of air is what stops the siphon re-establishing itself.

If you visualize what happens when the siphon first breaks the water that is in the bell section rushes back into the growbed and at the same time the pump continues to fill the growbed. As there is no clear air channel there is still sufficient water weight in the siphon pulling out the water from the growbed the siphon can be re-established.

No guarantees here but, if you replace the last bend in the siphon pipe, where it turns down to the sump, with a tee and add a short section of pipe as a riser to stop water gushing out the top when the siphon breaks that might fix the issue.