Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I have set up my 1st system here in Chicago. Here is a brief discription as the wife has the camera and she is still at work and will be tell Midnight.

I have a 20 gal tank that is sitting under 2 grow beds that are 24x6x6. each is filled with fish tank style gravel. (washed and cleaned). I have a small pump in the tank pumping the water 18 inchs straight up and spliting at a "T" between the GB. The water is being feed by 1/2 inch clear hose. It fills the GB in about 3 mins. I have a syphon in the bottom center of each GB. with the same 1/2 inch hose. It runs out and loops so that the top of the lop is at the level that I want the bed to flood to.

The syphons worked well the 1st evening, ( as I have had this set up for 24 hours) but now they just run continusly. This is of course not allowing a flood period.

I have messed with them for hours. differant size loops and lenghts so on and so forth. I relize that with out pictures I am asking alot by asking for help. I will get some posted ASAP. But HELP. why are the syphons running continusely.

Thank you for all the help..

Ramper.

ramper, its possible that the water flowing into the growbed is flowing in at the same rate the siphon is running. Can you slow the pump at all? or increase the size of the siphon pipes?

From reading your post, it sounds like they are running continuously with the grow beds water level pretty low? If so then the syphon isn't breaking. Like Jaymie said the inflow is prob equal to the outflow, which means you need to either decrease the inflow of increase the outflow. This can be done by diverting abit of the water straight back into the tank (eg add another tee below your current tee, with a tap to restrict the amount of water bypassing the beds)> or then like Jaymie said slow the pump, or slightly increase the diameter of the siphon pipes

If they worked well to begin with and are running continuously with the water high it could be a sync issue as you have two independent syphons and a fixed input flow rate.
If both syphons kick in together and begin to trickle they may rob enough of the flow to prevent the water level rising and firing the full flow from the syphons. In which case you may need to increase the flow from the pump.

The downside of this is it may cause a problem when only one syphon kicks in, having greater flowrate it may not get to the "burp" point to switch off.
Independant flow taps to each growbed might be the way to go.

Try turning off the pump and letting the GBs fully drain, then see if it will work okay on start up - see how long it goes for untill it stuffs up again.

This will isolate if it is a new problem or if the siphon gets to a certain stage then equalises out (inflow = outflow)

How long are the hoses past the bottom of the loop? If they are long it will have trouble stopping, if they are short it could have problems starting. I have had luck with them about an equal distance below the bed outlet as above it.

Sorry guys for the long timebetween replys. I just moved to a differant depart at work and Its been to say the least hectic.

I will take a look at the pump and see if I can slow the flow down. If I can not do that I get a larger diameter hose for the drain.

Thank you all for the quick responce to the cry for help. I will let you know how it worked. I will also post a pic or 2..

Ramper

ok after a 2 hour stint. It is finally working like a charm. I was able to slow the pump down and that was all it needed.

I can not thank you enough. You guys truly are one smart lot. I would like to also thank you from the thousands and thousands of passangers that count on me being focused when I am rebuilding the wheel assemblys on commercial airliners.. .

Honestly It was all I could think about today. Was why the syphons would not work..

I guess this is truly an addictive hobby.

Shawn

Which airline do you work for Shawn?

Mmmm... good heads up!

I work for Skywest. Its a United Express carrier..

I rebuild and overhaul the Wheel hubs for CRJ 200, 700 and 900. Both the nose and main wheels.

My shop is at Ohare. And my wonderful Wife is a Customer Service Instructor for the same airline.


OORamper, is in referance to the airline code for skywest. OO. and I was a ramp supervisor. But I am getting to old to throw bags so I transfered to maintance.

there you go. And the syphons are still working,

Shawn

Mental note to self.... add to list of airlines NOT to fly...

Garuda, United Airlines/Express.... Skywest.....

Fair go Rope, they say that any landing you can walk away from is a good landing...OOR (AP pronunciation is "oo-oo-are") makes sure that every landing is a good landing in one of his planes

Cool Shawn! One of my best buddies is out in Seattle. He flew for a while for UPS from SeaTac up to Canada and back down. When he got married he quit and is now working for a company called RamMount. They manufacture a system for mounting data and communications systems in small aircraft and vehicles. If you go to thier site the mount on the motorcycle is on his Harley.

Glad to hear you got your systems autosiphon working. Now to go through the cycling period before you can start your plants.

Kevin