Bell siphon problems...in our classroom aquaponics system

[Patricia]

Hello..my students have just set up an aquaponics system. It's been cycling for about two weeks, yesterday they planted a couple of starter plants, and added red wigglers to the mix.  Today, they added more water to the aquarium. The siphon was working well until the water was added. Though the discharge pipe is about 5 inches above the water level in the aquarium, and the water pumped into the grow bed remained the same; the siphon stopped working properly about three hours after the water was added.  Now, the siphon doesn't stop unless the bell is pulled up to break the siphon. FYI our bell design, there are four little teeth about 1/2 high at the bottom.  thoughts of why it's happening... thank you so much.

[Alex Veidel]

Lol, you know Rob, I think I might have mixed you up with Bob Campbell...if my memory serves correct, he has a lot of anti-siphon sentiment as well and I feel like I'm always throwing in my two cents about my love of the bell siphon. Dang, now I'm confused...anyway, sorry if that seemed a little random!

Alex Veidel said:

Yeah, yeah Rob. We all know that you were attacked by a bell siphon as a child and now have deeply rooted internal trust issues with them Still haven't had any problems with mine yet. So I guess I'm becoming your bell siphon arch nemesis.

Patricia, instead of adjusting your bell siphon, you could just probably just lower your water's flow rate. The issue is that the water is coming in to fast and the water level won't go low enough to let air in and break the siphon.

Rob Nash said:

heres the link to the bell siphon how-to.. i must add that i have gone to advising folks not to use a siphon, just go with the ol timer, flood and drain.

 

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/forum/topics/how-to-build-a...