Autosyphon Question

[neilr]

Sorry new at this so excuse my ignorance.

I plan on having a flood and drain system working of a timer. My question is what happens when my pump stops before the loop syphon starts? I am guessing that water would sit in the bed until the next time the pump starts and start the syphon again.

I understand that this would not happen if I ran the pump all the time. However I am running mine from a solar panel and battery and am trying to limit the power usage.

The only solution I could think of was a very small outlet at the bottom of the bed (5mil tap) that slow drained any water left after the pump stopped. Is this a legitimate solution or would clogging become an issue?

[fishfood]

seems like you nailed it pretty well

[Aquatic Oasis]

Hi Mate,
In a normal Hydroponic Flood and Drain system, we flood and drain thru the same outlet and have a second outlet as an High level overflow. This pic may help. The lower one is the flood in and drain out, the tall one is the high level overflow.

[GaryD]

Hi Neil,


Sorry new at this so excuse my ignorance.

Don't be concerned.....the only silly question is that one that goes unasked.


I plan on having a flood and drain system working of a timer. My question is what happens when my pump stops before the loop syphon starts? I am guessing that water would sit in the bed until the next time the pump starts and start the syphon again.

You can use a timer....or an autosyphon.....to control the flood and drain cycle. You don't need both.


I understand that this would not happen if I ran the pump all the time. However I am running mine from a solar panel and battery and am trying to limit the power usage.

An autosyphon will require that the pump runs continuously so, given that you want to use solar power, that might impact your choice. Having said that, I don't know where you will find suitable 12 volt timers.


The only solution I could think of was a very small outlet at the bottom of the bed (5mil tap) that slow drained any water left after the pump stopped. Is this a legitimate solution or would clogging become an issue?

A timer-controlled flood and drain system will drain continuously. When the pump starts, the water flow will exceed the rate of drain. So that the bed doesn't overflow, a weir arrangement allows the water to overflow back into the tank when it reaches the required level.

The rate of flow of the pump can be regulated by fitting a bypass line on the discharge side of the pump. The water that gets bypassed can be used to stir up the tank water which will aid aeration and will help to remove solid wastes from the fish tank.

The set up shown in AO's post represents a simple and inexpensive flood and drain control device.

GaryD

[neilr]

Thanks for the info.

I have set up the system as follows:

50 amp hour battery being charged by 20 watt solar panel. Pump will run for about 6 days just of the battery so I hope the panel will keep up.

Have an inverter and 240 volt pump (laguna 600 so pretty high volume, use the extra flow for airation)running for 10 minutes each hour.

I have got loop autosyphons running but have gone with the small drain idea if the autosyphon doesn't kick in before my pump stops.

I understand that my system is not normal however I am trying to balance the power usage (only running for 10 minutes) with adequate amounts of water being pumps through the grow beds. I figured that if my grow beds are slowly drained at the end of most of the pump cycles, the bacteria will have more time to do their thing.

If all this fails then I will go to 240 mains power and do the normal 24/7 pumping, cut back the flow to the grow beds and have even more airation from the excess water flow. I suspect that this will be the case so I set my grow beds up accordingly.

Time will tell.

[Murray]

Give it a go Neil, it is worth a try.
I went down that path when I first started and in the end I found that I just did not have enough solar panel and I was reluctant to spend the money required to really make it work.
Keep us posted on your progress, you just might get it all going on low watts solar panels. If you do it will be fantastic.