Continuous Flow?

[HillSider]

This may be a very basic question, but here goes....

Is the water continuously flowing into the grow beds, and does the bell siphon control the flood and draining?

To clarify my question:
Is there a timer that controls when the water is running to the grow bed, or is is constantly running to the grow bed?

I'm planning on running strawberry towers and running the water through the towers to spill into the grow bed. Based on what I've read on the web, it is not good to continually run water through the strawberry towers (root rot).

Help...

[badflash]

Continous flow. The bell siphon trigers at a high level, and stops when the water level drops below the air break.

[keith_r]

there are options..
i pump continuously, flood using a flush tank (ala travis hughey)

i've seen setups with timers running pumps, some pumps are made for this but i personally think that all the starting and stopping wears out a motor quicker, but i've been known to be wrong on occasion (just ask here! )

do a search on the affnan siphon, i've read quite a few good things about it.. most importanly is the "low maintenance" aspect, but i've also read they can be tricky to adjust.. i'm sure others will chime in

[urbanfarmer]

I was just playing with my system today, and I was just thinking on the topic of siphons. You can do what I did to reduce having to clean out the siphon and build a simple looped autosiphon. I tend to have to clean bell siphons out every 1-2 months, but I have never had to clean out this type of siphon in almost 8 months of constant operation (maybe longer I lost track).

I built mine out of PVC with some elbow fittings, but I have seen people use a flexible tube attached outside (which makes it easy to adjust the maximum level).

http://aquaponicswiki.com/index.php?title=Siphons

[kismet]

I'm a little curious, and need a little clarification.

You would have a pump running non-stop, with the auto-siphon intake (drain) at a the bottom or near bottom of the grow bed? Once the water hits this level and pushes the air out of the tube, a siphon will then drain all water while the pump is still pumping? Hence, continual flow, but draining at the same time?

Could someone please elaborate a bit more?

Edit: I understand a bit more, the crest of the tube in the auto-siphon determines how much water will enter the grow bed, once the water reaches this level and pushing water out a siphon will start.

[urbanfarmer]

By George he's got it! YouTube is a great research tool because you can SEE what these devices do. There are videos of people showing the device and its parts in action. Give it a quick search; it's easier than reading through a bunch of text anyway!

[rfeiller]

if you are concerned with the contineously wet conditions for strawberries, it may be better to use a pump designed for hydroponics. save power by having it on a timer and you can experiment with the time intervals.

look up Hydro Farm for a local distributer in your area these pumps are specifically designed for cycling and are inexpensive. you will have to have maybe two pumps to do what you want, one to the bed and the second to the towers. when the towers cycled it would just accellerate the cycle of the autosyphon.

by the way if you have an idea how to get even water distribution in the towers, i would like to hear it, i'm putting one together this weekend for strawberries and that is the part i am not sure of. what medium were you planing to use?

[badflash]

I've seen lots of people doing strawberries in flood & drain systems.
Keeping a bell siphon working is a quick job. The only part that ever needs work is the part that comes right out. Just clear the growies out of the water break tube, clear any stray roots in the guard area, and put it back in. You'll see when it needs to be done. Either it won't kick, it won't turn off, or it over flows.

[urbanfarmer]

Yes, usually cleaning a bell siphon only takes a few minutes, but I have had issues with uncommon buildups in weird places. It just takes longer because when you wait to see if it works again, it doesn't. So, you have to wait the length of time it takes the bed to flood and drain. I just find it annoying, and for an outdoor system that I wasn't watching daily I wanted something a little more independent of my caring maintenance!

I have had strawberries in my gravel grow bed for about 3 weeks now, and they are doing just fine. I did not raise them from seed because I have not had good luck with that. My seeds will germinate, but once the tiny little seedling is alive, if I take away the dome that traps the air and humidity... well, they tend to dry up and die quickly. Needless to say, I didn't have the patience to go through it again; so, I purchased the small plants from WallyWorld for a few bucks and planted those. They are doing great.

[JCO]

If you are going to build an auto siphon, I would suggest using the following video as your guide. It's the best DIY auto siphon I've seen.

GREAT BELL VALVE CONSTRUCTION VIDEO..!