Flood and Drain vs Auto Siphon

[Mike Walsh]

In this day and age of ever increasing energy costs would it not be prudent to use a timed flood and drain system with an air pump running on the grid and integrated with a power back-up?

Some would question the reliability of some makes of timers but they are relatively inexpensive.

Any input and design options would be appreciated.

[TCLynx]

repeat cycle timers can be very reliable.

Of course when you talk of trying to be energy prudent, you need also take into account the cost/sustainability of batteries and I've had more issues with battery backup components failing than I have with timers failing.  (I've owned 3 different inverters and two different battery chargers in the past couple years.)  I've only had one timer fail on a system in that time and it was an inexpensive mechanical timer.

 

The tip off between timer flood and drain vs siphon flood and drain is that if you are only pumping for a short time, it will require a bigger pump to move the volume of the fish tank in that short time while if you run siphons you can often run a much smaller pump to continuously move the water (providing aeration all the time) and turn the fish tank volume over using the entire hour rather than just a fraction of it.  I expect either system will probably come out about even on energy usage.