Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The warped PVC I'm using for my bell siphon covers prevents me from using a PVC pipe cap. I'm much closer to making them work, however. The caulk didn't keep the plastic flap on top so I'm making one last-ditch effort and using high-temperature hot glue to keep it on. If that still doesn't work then I'll compromise a bit more on my goal of reused materials and just go buy what I need.

Here's a picture of my latest attempt, which I let sit overnight and will test this evening when I get home. It won't win any beauty awards but if it works then that will be reward enough for me. The irregularities on the sides of the pipe are extra hot glue that I'll remove before deployment.

The next hurdle with plumbing will be the transport of water from the FT to the GBs. I've already got the distribution pipe put together and built a small rack to hold it in place, I just need to get the water to the distribution pipe.

I've also ordered my water test kit (API Freshwater Master Test Kit). This should be in tomorrow.

My "Frankenstein's Bell Siphons" both work so I put them in place and dumped in the crushed bricks, then started rinsing. I realized two problems: First, I was probably supposed to rinse them outside the GB, and second, I don't have enough bricks to fill both GBs properly. I'll get more bricks tomorrow and try to get them crushed, rinsed, and put in place. I'm just going to do a quick and (hopefully not so) dirty rinse job rather than the soak-in-vinegar process I've been doing to cut down on the algae.

As you can probably tell (assuming anyone is keeping up with this), I'm getting impatient with my progress. I keep running into snags because of my desire to use post-consumer materials, and because of my general lack of time. Apparently, 2 hours of workable daylight (and, by inference, mosquito-free time) is not quite enough to do that much, especially when working on your first AP system.

Speaking of snags, I've had to revise my original hope/plan to have a completely off-grid AP system. What that means in this case is that I don't think I can use a siphon process to get the water from the FT to the GBs. That means a pump. On the plus side, A friend of mine may provide a pump that will handle just over 60 gallons/hour, which should be perfect for my partially filled 55-gallon FT.

In the photo you can see my entire setup so far. In the background leaning against the shed is the irrigation pipe that will rest on top of the wooden frame and feed the GBs. Behind the irrigation pipe is the Lord of Destruction, taking a break from eating my brick fragments. Yes -- the dog does in fact eat crushed brick. I'm at a loss.

Hi Jaymen, congratulations on your pursuit of materials to reuse, recycle & repurpose. I must have missed something with your bell siphons, are the big covers shown above the bell or the gravel shroud? Do you have a diagram of your bell siphon construction?

Hi, joc. This is a basic, not-to-scale diagram of the bell siphon I put together. There's not much to it. The standpipe (green) penetrates the bottom of the barrel (orange). The cover (red) sits on top of the standpipe but has gaps on either side due to the curvature of the bottom of the barrel-half, and the cover is surrounded and held in place by the crushed brick. So, effectively, the bell cover does double duty as the gravel shroud.

Am I correctly inferring from your question that these components (bell cover and gravel shroud) need to be two separate items?

Hi Jaymen, yes, the designs I have seen have a gravel shroud with holes or slots to let the water through, usually 90-150mm PVC pipe with a cap on to keep out debris and provide access. The standpipe is how you have it (~25-40mm), but penetrates through another end cap that the shroud can sit in. The bell is a piece of ~50-75mm PVC pipe with some notches cut in the bottom to let the water in and air to break the siphon once the water level has dropped, and a snugly fitting end cap on top. The bell then sits over the standpipe and can easily be accessed and removed for cleaning or to turn the bed into a constant flood bed if required, and the shroud should be able to be rotated to break off roots that try to penetrate (I didn't know this and very cleverly, I thought , put a couple of small screws down the bottom through the end cap so I couldn't accidentally pull it out of the gravel). My siphon has a 32mm standpipe with a 70mm bell in a 100mm shroud.

But, if yours works, that is great . Just be careful about plants with rampant roots, as you will have to dig out your gravel around the siphon in order to access your standpipe to remove any invading roots. I haven't had issues yet, but my system is only a few months old with mainly salad greens which have smaller root systems.

Howdy Jaymen. greetings from So Calif USA. Your small system looks great, and I like your trying to stick with post consumer, re-purposed re-used-and re-cycled materials. I too like to use free and re-purposed materials and get a lot of my free materials from craig's list. I also like your ( KISS keep it simple, stupid ) approach. Overcoming snag's is part of the fun in these projects and it looks like you are doing a great job. One thing though, have you tested your grow bed material for lime? Some bricks are made with lime, and if your's is it will really screw up your PH. One simple test is to take some dry material and put a few drops of vinegar on it. If it bubbles it has lime, if not you'r good. Another thing, if you really want to stay off grid, ask around for a damaged or discontinued solar panel that still works and run a DC pump with it.
Good luck, and remember, fishing is cheeper than tharapy. FishOn, FishyJohn

JayMen,

I have to second Joc, and war you of the possible problems that you will face in about 6 months. Whem the roots fond their way into your bell. The only recourse you currently have with that design is to pull the entire bell. Which will let your media fall into the new hole. Giving you more work in the future re-digging the area so that you can put your bell back in.

@Fishy John, I did test the media early on by putting a few fragments in a bowl of vinegar, and noticed some tiny bubble coming up. On a whim I placed other fragments in a bowl of tap water, and the same amount of bubbles appeared. I'm taking that to mean that the bubbles I saw were from the liquid filling up the air pockets rather than an acid/alkaline reaction. I'm going to pick up my water testing kit this evening so I'll finally be able to tell for sure.

@Floridafishin', okay, you and joc have convinced me. It sounds like it will save me bigger headaches down the road and it will also give me an excuse to give the existing media a proper rinse job before I stick any seeds in there.

Yep, do it now before you plant .
Check out Colum's latest video on building his epic growbed. At about the 13 minute mark he shows his bell siphon. Yours would need to be scaled down a bit to suit your smaller barrel beds.

Colum's grow bed is awesome -- literally . I want to work my way up to that once I get the basic concepts nailed down, plus branch into NFT and possibly DWC as well. In fact, look at the 5th picture down on this site (http://www.mediamatic.net/339807/en/aqu ... s-material) -- I was just amazed. One day . . .

Yeah the stacking effect is cool. But the artificial lighting makes it way less efficient. But since you like the idea here are some more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-ENedIEwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFQOkzEjxQ

So, in the spirit of re-purposing materials ( ), here is what used to be my bell siphon cover. It will now be my gravel shroud. Once I get hold of some 3" or 4" pipe I'll turn that into my new bell siphon cover (the standpipe itself is only 1 1/4"). Those holes are roughly 1/2" each, so 20 of them ought to provide plenty of flow.

Jay,

For a gravel guard think more air than plastic. As both the rocks and then the roots will start to plug up the holes.

+1
Get lots more holes in there Jay. If your gravel guard restricts flow, you can have trouble with getting your siphon to trigger and/or break.

Will do. I was only thinking of the size of the standpipe and not providing sufficient failover in case of blockage. I'll handle that tonight. Also, I may have a source for some pipe for the new bell siphon cover so I can tackle that as well, time permitting.

I have to say the support on this forum is fantastic. I can easily see this project would have taken weeks if not months longer just to troubleshoot the problems the good people here are helping me avoid. My sincere thanks to all of you.