Pipe Siphon by Apollo

[Apollo]

Pipe Siphon by Apollo;

Thank you all for the advice on Bell Siphons and the use of a Continuous Flow System. After weeks of not getting the proper results . I figured out an easier and more efficient way of circulating the flow on my aquaponics system. No Bells, No Reducers, No Little Air Bleed Off Tubes, No Moving Parts, nothing to tinker with on a weekly basis, takes minutes not hours to set-up and costs less.

Pipe Siphon by Apollo is made from the same size pipe you would make your Bell Siphon stand pipe from. Just add a tee on the top of the pipe, two 90’s, two down pipes (all the same size) and no funnels, floating caps or restrictors. At the end of the two down pipes you need to add a media blocker. I bought two 6” round atrium gates at a cost of $7.31 each for my media blockers (Cutting your old media blocker in half, adding more holes or slots to the upper portion and capping off the tops would work too).

I have two 300 gallon GBs with a 850 gallon fish tank . My Pipe Siphons are made from 1 ½ " PVC Pipe, Tee’s & 90’s . The top of my Pipe Siphon is about 1 ½“ down from the top edge of the GB . Both down pipes stop about 1 ½” from the bottom of the GB. (PLEASE NOTE! Both down pipes need to be even at the water line to help break the siphon at the end of the drain cycle). This is all connected to an existing 2” bulkhead fitting, one 90 elbow and about 20” of 2“ pipe and another 90 elbow at the end of that pipe (in the fish tank). This elbow helps to fine tune your siphon, point it up at a slight angle to help it “FIRE” sooner, keeping if closer to level will help it reset. Your pipe siphon will take several gulps of air before loosing enough water volume to break it’s siphon. I’m not sure how this will work if your pipe siphon and your drain are the same size pipe, but if your Bell Siphon System worked at least part time I think you’ll be fine.

The principle behind the Pipe Siphon by Apollo is it takes two down pipes for each stand pipe to fire the system. When the down pipes sucks air it cuts the siphon, which then shuts the system down. You should be able to run a higher volume of water into your GB. If at the end of the drain cycle air gulps fails to stop the system, decrease your water flow little by little to the GB until it breaks the siphon or turn the 90 elbow in your fish tank closer to level.

So far, so good, and I'm very satisfied with the circulating flow. My large GB's will fill in 8 minutes and drain in 4 minutes @ about 900 gallons of water flow per hour, per GB.

Now to let the system settle in and decide what plants and fish to put in the tanks. Anybody know of a good source for hybrid striped bass and freshwater prawns in Arizona???

I made a mental note of this sign when I was attempting to get the Bell Siphon to work!
I HAVE NOT FAILED. I'VE JUST FOUND 10,000 WAYS THAT WON'T WORK. Thomas A Edison

The inserts between the Tee and the 90's are just small sections of pipe.

Anyone need some slightly used Bell Siphons?


GB & FT under construction, Quail cage in the back ground.


Pipe Siphon & Water Level Gauge just behind it.


Pipe Siphon by Apollo

[eddiemigue]

Nice. Rigid loop siphon, eh?

I had considered this some time ago, thinking that a single "U" would work. Guess you need a "T" and two down pipes. Glad to hear that your are having success. Nice looking setup, and kudos on the quail. I am considering adding quail to my backyard production at some time in the future...we'll see.

[Roger L.]

Nice setup Apollo. Going to make for some nice scenery to look at while relaxing. Water control and the angle of my final 90 degree elbow is what helped me tune my bell siphon.

[JCO]

Apollo, please don't take this the wrong way, the type of siphon you have made is nothing new except you got more elaborate than is necessary for it to work.

An elbow siphon is what I used when I was using a raft system in my grow bed and I wrote about it sometime back. I looked for the post but have not been able to find it.

It really isn't necessary to have a "T" at the top. A 90 degree elbow out to another 90 degree to take it straight down is sufficient. The screen around the bottom is a good idea as long as it does not get clogged with media or debris and restrict the flow of water.

I personally never did like the Bell siphon...to much work considering the simplicity of the elbow siphon.

Even though, don't ever let me or anyone restrict your creative juices.

[Apollo]

I read your post where you're using a stand pipe for constant flow with a constant level. My question is how does that system get enough oxygen to the roots of your plants? If the water in your GB never drains out the bottom, it just drains from the top only. Doesn't that impede somehow with the circulation of the water in the GB? I would think that the water on the bottom 2/3 of the GB would go stagnant.

I know the slots on my media blockers are a little too large, but I covered them with 1/2" to 3/4" cinders. The cinders stop the smaller media from plugging the slots, plus with two media blockers it should that twice as long to plug up and restrict the flow of water. Time will tell...so far so good, it has been right on the money every time.

TO ALL THAT ARE READING THIS...IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS SITE WORK, YOU MUST REPLY ( SAY SOMETHING, HI, WHERE YOU LIVE, ANYTHING ) OR WE WILL BE NO MORE!

[JCO]

There is a circular current of water in the grow bed because of the way the water comes in. All raft systems operate this way in order to maintain a constant level.

[Corey B]

So silly question is this better then a bell siphon

[Apollo]

I tired for 3 weeks to get the Bell Siphon System to work, redid the design a dozen or more times. I even jack hammered through the bottom of my GB and the side of my FT and tried another drain set up. I could get it to start & stop but never to fire, without it firing my GB would over flow.

So my answer is 100% YES, my very 1st design took me 20 minutes to build and have it up and operating. From there I spent about 4 hours tweaking it to come up with a Pipe Siphon that has never got struck at the end of the drain cycle, leaving my GB dry and allowing all your plants to die. It has never fail to fully engage or fire on the drain cycle, so it has never allowed all of your water to over flow my GB which would do major water damage and leaving my fish in little to no water.

Even if I had finally got the Bell Siphon to work my confidence level would have been so low I would have a hard time sleeping, working, just doing anything for fear that it would fail.

[Roger R.]

I like your design, it's basically an internal loop siphon. My only concern with completely burying it in the media would be possible root clogs.

Maybe I was just lucky but my first bell siphon worked perfectly from the start and has been working non-stop since last October. I had tried an external loop siphon and couldn't get that to work consistently.

[Apollo]

You could use the same kind of media block that the Bell Siphon uses just add one to each down pipe. Or place it in a corner and block off the whole corner. My thought is if the PVC barrier on the Bell Siphons gets root bond you'll still need to pull it out to clean it from the outside. About the same amount of work the pull and clean either one, but with the Pipe Siphon having two media barriers and my smallest PVC tubing is 1 1/2" not 3/4". it should go 6 - 7 times longer before it needs to be cleaned (a lot less work over time).



A picture of my underground control box. Center is my quick water return back to aerator ring. The small 1/2" PVC is hooked up to my tree water system, can refill FT 2X a week. Or I can close the value and hook a hose to my rain barrels to keep full.



I added two Street 90's to each return pipe, makes it easier to fine tune and water dumps to the center of FT. In the center of both GB's you will see my old Media Guards. I pull the bell out and made the stand pipe taller, I now use it for my emergency over flow return (just in case...).



Picture of my child/dog proof cover. Still waiting for the rest of my Media for the right side GB. Waiting for more rain in my rain barrels to finish filling FT.