Flooding and Draining a Grow Bed

[Joel Berg]

I am looking for new ways to flood and drain a media grow bed. I am very familiar with the auto-siphon technique but I can find it very frustrating to get the components just right. What are some other techniques you use to flood and drain a grow-bed? Ideally, what do you want out of the flood and drain action? So far, all I can think of is:

• reliability
• quietness
• consistency
• ability to flood and drain a grow bed while consistently running a pump

But for experienced growers, what else do you want in your flood and drain components? What are some other techniques besides a bell siphon? Are moving parts really that big of a deal?

The two biggest problems with auto-siphon's that I have come across are, 1. inability for a siphon to switch on when water level get's high enough. 2. Unable to break the siphon. 
Of course, the way to solve this problem is to place a small cup under a snorkel like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_brue6URFg. 

Also, bell siphon's don't tend to work for small grow beds very well. 

Don't get me wrong, bell siphons can work wonders for some people, but what else are people using?

I am simply doing research to see what else is out there. 

Thanks, 

Joel 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I developed a siphon  called the EZ-T Siphon. It is simple to put together, reliable and great for small grow beds.

http://youtu.be/PnZRklJxAeQ?list=PLIJ5U9TbuWLFpmkrrT3JU-HIjHGqnNSUn