Insulated Wood Tanks Anyone?

[badflash]

You have to sit back and admire the simplicity of a bell siphon. I can sit on my deck and listen to the darn things from my deck. It is way too cool. I was put off by them until I built my first one. After that I watched for hours not believing they could be some simple to make.

Cycling pumps on & off shortens their life decidedly. Nearly all of the wear & tear on pumps is in the windings and this all happens when they switch on. It saves power for sure, but keep some pumps in reserve and do a cost analysis on the replacement cost of the pump vs. the power cost over time. I'm voting for these crazy cheap intex pumps. 80 watts at $35 delivered for a new pump. Free on freecycle to the quick. At 10 cents a KW hour 24 hour a day operation for a year is $70. I have no idea what cycling these on & off will cost them in life, but I think the overall simplicty of the bell siphon wins.

[mommyhen42]

Yes I have found that continual on off cycles on a pump does shorten it's lifetime dramatically and can even cause impeller damage from the sudden starts and stops.

I think the bell siphons are really cool too but have had poor luck getting them to work consistently or even at all.

I will try the angle in the standpipe and see how that works. The loop siphons work pretty well but have a problem with easy clogging from roots or just plain ole gunk...

I think my problem with the auto siphon is that I do not have a full understanding on the parameters necessary to make it run correctly. Either I dont seem to get the siphon hose correct or perhaps the bell is too narrow or high?? Lets say I have a growbed that is a foot deep, I am assuming that I would not want the water to go any higher than 9-10 inches, I would guess that the standpipe would be at that level but if I use a 1/2 inch standpipe, what size pipe should I use for the siphon? How about placement of the siphon tube and it's length?

[badflash]

Check my greenhouse build in backyard systems. I show how I built mine. Really easy. Bulkhead fitting, 1" pipe, 2" pipe, end cap, and 1/4" aquarium tubing. Mine will kick with flow as low as 1/2 gallon per minute. The drain line needs about a 1" upward slope before it goes into the main drain header. This makes sure the siphon kicks on.

[mommyhen42]

Thanks Badflash I can always count on you to help make things easier to understand.
I really appreciate your help

[mommyhen42]

well the wooden tank is finally finished, all that is really left is to place a few more humidity vent holes and eventually paint the wood.
The whole thing calculated out to 230 gallons counting the raft bed on top




I am still rearranging things to my liking but for now it is up and running and also f&d to 3 gravel beds from the previous setup and that drains into a 30 gal fishtank with float rafts and pumped back to the raft tank on top of the big tank.

I bought an oiless compressor from harbor freight for $40 to run the O2 in there so that if we have a power failure there will be oxygen to the tank. The compressor tank is only 3 gal but I intend to purchase an aux tank for it later.