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Bell Siphon

Just installed a bell siphon in my gravel grow bed, it worked so well...it overloaded the 6" x 6" troough leading back to the fishtank....I thought it was going to suck me down the drain....LOL

Time to pop a reducer in that 1.5" pipe tomorrow morning

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Comment by Bradly on June 14, 2012 at 9:04am: Wow, ok...thanks Steve....

I'm going with a 1" pipe and 2" Bell then. (I'm draining into a 3" pipe and it's all sealed/glued... but if the siphon increases the speed of the water that much {probably because of the pressure of the water in the beds above} then I better drop the size so that the 3" pipe doesn't get overwhelmed. I'll have 4 growbeds plumbed to that 1-3" pipe so it might be close. Well, worse case I can always re-run thedrain into 4" pipe later...short run so cost would be minimal.

Thanks Much Steve

Bradly

Comment by Steve Bradbury on June 13, 2012 at 9:19pm: Hey Brady,

I originally used the 1.5" as a riser with a 3" bell......it shot out and drained way too quickly , so I stuck a 1" adapter on the pipe feeding water back into the trough going to the fish tank......this slowed it up enough to not overwhelm the trough and spew water everywhere

Comment by Bradly on June 13, 2012 at 3:28pm: Steve

I just cut up my IBC totes and am going to start on making the bell Siphons. I have the 4'x4' grow beds... do you think 1-1/2" riser pipe size is too big?? Should I maybe go with 1" ?

Bradly

Comment by Steve Bradbury on June 12, 2012 at 9:26pm: Got the bell siphon necked down to create a workable flow......I still think Im going to have to drop the pipe diameter down a notch more tho.

The bokchoy and kale has sprouted in the red solo cup bed.......and all the other stuff is doing pretty well. I got the holes popped in the styro for the tail end of the nft table.....( another 70 or so plant homes) Will be planting this in lettuce....more of an experiment than anything......if it works, I will prolly donate the lettuce between the local homeless shelter and meals on wheels....I mean, how much head lettuce can 2 people eat?

Still hauling in bags of gravel, because I have no way to haul a ton in at one time which is the way the local rock yard sells it...and they don't do deliveries.....my poor old ford Ranger would prolly puke a piston just seeing the rock piles...LOL