I switched from the Bell syphons to the U-syphons last month and I was so surprised and happy how easy they are to put together, and have working properly so quickly! No problems with any of them and the systems are working great! Thank you - I followed your videos to make them and really appreciate the help!
You, sir, get mad props. First, what you made is a U Siphon. The fact that you figured it out on your own & named it puts you in God Mode. We need outside the box thinkers like yourself; cause even if you come up with an idea on your own that has been already established, you have the thought process that facilitates the creativity to come up with the next big thing. Ladies & gentlemen; you're in the presence of an aquaponic God....
I'm just stubborn. After i fine tuned this design i think it certainly has an application. I think the best application is if you have multiple grow beds and one siphon that will not play nicely with others. You can always find a certain size in this design that will work.
I like that you have not been afraid to experiment and come up with a design that works for you. This is still a bell siphon you have replaced the bell with a pipe. The reason I think you are getting better results is the use of a reducer in your down pipe. I was having problems with my bell siphon initiating and put a reducer about two to three inches down from the top of the down tube and found it was a lot more reliable. I hope that you enjoy your aquaponics system as much as I have mine. Keep experimenting and have fun.
This is actually much more similar to the U-pipe siphon, rather than a bell siphon. P.S. You said it yourself, "This is still a bell siphon you have replaced the bell with a pipe.". If you remove the bell from bell siphon, it's no longer a bell siphon then is it? lol
I have been hit and miss with bell siphons. I didn't consider U siphons until I just saw your design. The reduction is the key! Thank you for sharing this!
I haven't been active on this channel for several years but i left it up in hopes that it would help someone. Thanks for letting me know. God bless. Now i'm teaching the Bible on another channel. ruclips.net/channel/UCQOj22Ic8E6Yd5Oqopa-13Q
the bell siphon uses a lot less area...and YOUR design is called the "U" siphon...but it looks like you have plenty of room there...enjoyed your video...thank you...
I never had any problems with my bell after adding the tube. If I had known about this I would have given it a shot as well. Thanks for the info! It's nice to have alternatives.
This seems like an awful lot of piping and joints compared to a much simpler bell siphon. I've only ever made one bell siphon, and it's been running without a problem for most of a year now. it has exactly one 90 degree joint and gasket it drains from. It was made entirely from 2 pieces of pvc pipe (3/4 inch and 2 inch), one 2 inch pvc cap, and that's all. Maybe I was lucky in that it worked on the first go, but it didn't feel as such - it is so much simpler and smaller than what you've built here. I do love the experimentation you've got going on here though.
If you have a small system you shouldn't have a problem. When you start connecting grow beds together and carrying the drainage to a shared sump tank the story may change. But if it aint broke don't fix it. Thanks for watching.
Nice, your basic loop, or "U" or "hoop" siphon - whatever you wanna call it. I've always done those on the outside of the bed though because it takes up real estate where another plant could go. but nice job
shannon cobb when you get that done will you take another video and show putting it together? Maybe hold it up and show the diff parts of it? I sure appreciate the video!
I have watched some of your abs safe and videos. I decided to construct a inch to half inch siphon, which was not working so well. so I decided to use a one and a half inch to three quarter inch siphon and even though I could not find A 90 degree reducing elbow from one and a half to three quarter inch, I improvised with a T , which turned out to work really well. I want to make more one and a half 2to 3 quarter siphons. Even though I live in a very big city, my local hardware stores don't carry a 90 degree one and a half to three quarter reducing elbow. do you have a recommendation as to where I can get one by the Internet. thank you very much.
i like this Shannon! I am sick of all the vids on bell siphons I;ve watched, whew! this might b my answer. Q: why not make all the beds float/drain? Is the gravel absolutely necessary? Thats the part I don't like.+ i am working w/2 IBC's, 3 bathtubs & a 75g Rubbermaid stock tank. how w/I make this adaptable to drains in the bathtubs? Isn't 6" too big? Respectfully, Margo
This is still a bell siphon, big pipe floods a smaller pipe and starts a siphon. this one is just an alternative that could be used on the outside of the grow bed, probably for the blue barrels cut in half and using the existing hole on the outside.
Today i was adjusting the plumbing on my system and the water was pouring in one bed like it was coming out of a water hose. I thought i was going to have to put the larger siphon in but it still broke the siphon. it surprised me. you can leterally put the abs siphon in and forget about it.
Hey, Shannon! Nice design. Looks really simple to put in place. I've done some experimenting with my own version of it (check my videos), and I agree with you, after a few months of run time with a bell-siphon, I much prefer the ABS / Loop-Siphon. I'm building out a greenhouse scale system this summer, and I'll be using the ABS / Loop-Siphon design.
It would depend on the size of your grow bed and the amount of water coming in but i would say try 3/4 to 1-1/4 inch and if you have a lot of water coming in then 1" to 2". Check out some of my other videos on "tweaking the abs siphon" and "bell siphon 2.0", as this was my first video and i would not recommend building it as shown in this video if you want to get the most out of your siphon.
but what application has , i mean what's the differnce between bell siphon and U siphon , i'm sure it takes less place in the grow bed and it have less pieces but you cannot take off the bell for germinating seeds directly in the grow bed , and what about a grow media ?? do you open little fences tothe end to don't suck the clay pellet or what ? thank you for your help
I'm not that familiar with a U siphon. I use a gravel guard to keep out the grow media. You may be better off with a bell siphon. I was just trying to come up with an alternative and when i did i thought i would share it. This was my first video but i explain in more detail in my other videos. There are many great videos out there on aquaponics in general if you need more help. I'm not an aquaponics expert but i enjoy experimenting with siphon tech and hoped others would enjoy it also and do some experimenting of their own. Hope this helps.
OK. so I get the whole siphon. Good Job BTW. what I see is a lot more aeration than I expected. (surprised actually) great if this is how it works but can you explain how that much air keeps coming out??
If your referring to how much air is coming out in the sump tank it will depend on how much drop you have from your grow bed to your sump tank, fish tank or raft bed.
I really don't get why so many folks have BS problems. My 5 have been flawless for over 3 years with no tweaking and I have made and sold nearly 700 siphons to date in all sizes and to all parts of the world and they all work. Problems are generally in the plumbing and not the siphon if you have a nice simple Bernoulli design based on Affnan's formula of 2-1. I read below that someone has had their siphon trigger from another siphon. THAT is caused by bad plumbing. You need air vents after the siphon 90's. They must be independent of each other.
I appeciate your input thats all i'm trying to do myself is help others. I agree with you about the plumbing i learned a little about siphoning and draining while building this siphon. This was my first video i have learned alot since then and have fine tuned my siphon in a simple easy to understand process(i hope). I try to explain it from siphon to drain to sump so that others can learn from my mistakes without making them theirself. I happen to think my siphon is easier to build and works better than the bs but that's just my opinion. I would encourage others to either build an abs siphon or buy a bell siphon from you. Either way i think they will save themselves some heartache. Or check out Affnan.
shannon cobb Hi Shannon, I am glad you like your siphon. Having made and tested so many a few things occur to me. We often change the water height for such things as seeding directly in the media and it takes about 5 seconds to lift the bell and drop a 2" section of 2" pipe into the Bernoulli funnel and drop the bell back on top and now the water almost reaches the surface during germination. We do the same for seedlings with another adapter that drops the level to 1" below surface and we also drop in a 3" extension and leave the bell off which floods the the bed over the media which drives out cut worms, ants, slugs or any other critter that has set up shop in there. I do not see how your siphon can accommodate such an easy transition that we do all the time. We use no "snorkel tube" which is totally unnecessary if the bell is properly cut and during testing we found to be very noisy and prone to leaks at the glue joints as they are different materials. Our gravel guards are a compact 4" (speaking only to our 10" and 12" siphons here. Other sizes are obviously scaled appropriately all the way down to our 4" media model for kitchen gardens) cut on a chop saw leaving razor sharp cutters at the end of the slots so that the roots that will always grow thru the guard are easy to cut off and remove just with a quick rotation and we never cut past half way so that during flooding the chaff and bugs will never flow to the sump. The T siphon I see on YT has NO provision for clearing out roots without digging into the media to the bottom of the bed. A disaster that hasn't reared its head yet but it will. There is far more than meets the eye in a good design.
No it wouldn''t be as versatile as the bs. One thing i didnt like about the bs is since it was loose it would move around and sometimes that would cause it to stop working. But for a fixed siphon it has it's place. Since it is a shorter siphon overall it does have some advantages. You should tinker with it and see for yourself. it is very easy to build and will help some who are frustrated with the bell siphon. It already has done that. Looks like you have a pretty good setup. I am working on something now that you will be interested in so look back in sometime this spring. I will post it on my channel in a few months. I'm going to increase my cycle times without increasing my pump size and eliminate my airpump. Kinda the reverse of what the airlift pump guys are trying to do.
Shannon Cobb, this may be the best idea in the history of the world, but you are not explaining it at all. Sorry, I just do not see how this works, or know for sure it is doing what you say. Do you have another video that takes this apart more, or can you point to what this is called and how it works? Thank you. I don't like those Bell Siphons either.
It's a gooseneck or U-bend siphon: this is the same kind of siphon a toilet uses to drain. The bend at the bottom helps the siphon start and the change in diameter gives you an unbalanced water-column, which helps the siphon to break.
That was my first video. It was a learning process for me. I have some other video's that show my progress and i hope that they better explain what i was trying to achieve and are helpful to you in some way. I think most people that have used the latest design of this siphon are using it in place of a bell siphon that is giving them problems while keeping the ones that are problem free. I hope i explain it better in my later videos. Thanks for watching.
did you know, you can seek just like dvds, vcrs, cds, mp3s, and pretty much anything that plays over time? or do you only watch things while squinting at your oversized phone screen?
I switched from the Bell syphons to the U-syphons last month and I was so surprised and happy how easy they are to put together, and have working properly so quickly! No problems with any of them and the systems are working great! Thank you - I followed your videos to make them and really appreciate the help!
You, sir, get mad props. First, what you made is a U Siphon. The fact that you figured it out on your own & named it puts you in God Mode. We need outside the box thinkers like yourself; cause even if you come up with an idea on your own that has been already established, you have the thought process that facilitates the creativity to come up with the next big thing.
Ladies & gentlemen; you're in the presence of an aquaponic God....
I'm just stubborn. After i fine tuned this design i think it certainly has an application. I think the best application is if you have multiple grow beds and one siphon that will not play nicely with others. You can always find a certain size in this design that will work.
I like that you have not been afraid to experiment and come up with a design that works for you. This is still a bell siphon you have replaced the bell with a pipe. The reason I think you are getting better results is the use of a reducer in your down pipe. I was having problems with my bell siphon initiating and put a reducer about two to three inches down from the top of the down tube and found it was a lot more reliable. I hope that you enjoy your aquaponics system as much as I have mine. Keep experimenting and have fun.
This is actually much more similar to the U-pipe siphon, rather than a bell siphon. P.S. You said it yourself, "This is still a bell siphon you have replaced the bell with a pipe.". If you remove the bell from bell siphon, it's no longer a bell siphon then is it? lol
I have been hit and miss with bell siphons. I didn't consider U siphons until I just saw your design. The reduction is the key! Thank you for sharing this!
I haven't been active on this channel for several years but i left it up in hopes that it would help someone. Thanks for letting me know. God bless. Now i'm teaching the Bible on another channel. ruclips.net/channel/UCQOj22Ic8E6Yd5Oqopa-13Q
I started using this type of siphon about 3 years ago because my Bell siphons were so much trouble. This works perfectly without fail.
I'm glad it's working for you.
That looks pretty good I wonder how this is still working 6 years later
the bell siphon uses a lot less area...and YOUR design is called the "U" siphon...but it looks like you have plenty of room there...enjoyed your video...thank you...
I never had any problems with my bell after adding the tube. If I had known about this I would have given it a shot as well. Thanks for the info! It's nice to have alternatives.
This seems like an awful lot of piping and joints compared to a much simpler bell siphon. I've only ever made one bell siphon, and it's been running without a problem for most of a year now. it has exactly one 90 degree joint and gasket it drains from. It was made entirely from 2 pieces of pvc pipe (3/4 inch and 2 inch), one 2 inch pvc cap, and that's all. Maybe I was lucky in that it worked on the first go, but it didn't feel as such - it is so much simpler and smaller than what you've built here. I do love the experimentation you've got going on here though.
If you have a small system you shouldn't have a problem. When you start connecting grow beds together and carrying the drainage to a shared sump tank the story may change. But if it aint broke don't fix it. Thanks for watching.
I would not call that "above the bed" if it's in a drainpipe within the bed, right?
Nice, your basic loop, or "U" or "hoop" siphon - whatever you wanna call it. I've always done those on the outside of the bed though because it takes up real estate where another plant could go. but nice job
I'm downsizing it to fit in a four inch gravel guard. Will post video soon. I've replaced all of my bell syphons now.
shannon cobb when you get that done will you take another video and show putting it together? Maybe hold it up and show the diff parts of it? I sure appreciate the video!
I will post one in a few minutes just watch my channel im uploading another one right now
Ok
I have watched some of your abs safe and videos. I decided to construct a inch to half inch siphon, which was not working so well. so I decided to use a one and a half inch to three quarter inch siphon and even though I could not find A 90 degree reducing elbow from one and a half to three quarter inch, I improvised with a T , which turned out to work really well. I want to make more one and a half 2to 3 quarter siphons. Even though I live in a very big city, my local hardware stores don't carry a 90 degree one and a half to three quarter reducing elbow. do you have a recommendation as to where I can get one by the Internet. thank you very much.
i like this Shannon! I am sick of all the vids on bell siphons I;ve watched, whew! this might b my answer. Q: why not make all the beds float/drain? Is the gravel absolutely necessary? Thats the part I don't like.+ i am working w/2 IBC's, 3 bathtubs & a 75g Rubbermaid stock tank. how w/I make this adaptable to drains in the bathtubs? Isn't 6" too big? Respectfully, Margo
This is still a bell siphon, big pipe floods a smaller pipe and starts a siphon. this one is just an alternative that could be used on the outside of the grow bed, probably for the blue barrels cut in half and using the existing hole on the outside.
Today i was adjusting the plumbing on my system and the water was pouring in one bed like it was coming out of a water hose. I thought i was going to have to put the larger siphon in but it still broke the siphon. it surprised me. you can leterally put the abs siphon in and forget about it.
Hey, Shannon! Nice design. Looks really simple to put in place. I've done some experimenting with my own version of it (check my videos), and I agree with you, after a few months of run time with a bell-siphon, I much prefer the ABS / Loop-Siphon. I'm building out a greenhouse scale system this summer, and I'll be using the ABS / Loop-Siphon design.
Awesome video. Really dig this sort of thing.
Would like to see more. Keep it up.
Quick question if you don't mind! What is better for U siphon, 1" or 2/3 pipe please?
It would depend on the size of your grow bed and the amount of water coming in but i would say try 3/4 to 1-1/4 inch and if you have a lot of water coming in then 1" to 2". Check out some of my other videos on "tweaking the abs siphon" and "bell siphon 2.0", as this was my first video and i would not recommend building it as shown in this video if you want to get the most out of your siphon.
you the best man..honestly
plz visit us when free .. www.farmstay.ae
but what application has , i mean what's the differnce between bell siphon and U siphon , i'm sure it takes less place in the grow bed and it have less pieces but you cannot take off the bell for germinating seeds directly in the grow bed , and what about a grow media ?? do you open little fences tothe end to don't suck the clay pellet or what ? thank you for your help
I'm not that familiar with a U siphon. I use a gravel guard to keep out the grow media. You may be better off with a bell siphon. I was just trying to come up with an alternative and when i did i thought i would share it. This was my first video but i explain in more detail in my other videos. There are many great videos out there on aquaponics in general if you need more help. I'm not an aquaponics expert but i enjoy experimenting with siphon tech and hoped others would enjoy it also and do some experimenting of their own. Hope this helps.
1 google.com
2 u siphon vs bell siphon.
3 read away.
OK. so I get the whole siphon. Good Job BTW. what I see is a lot more aeration than I expected. (surprised actually) great if this is how it works but can you explain how that much air keeps coming out??
If your referring to how much air is coming out in the sump tank it will depend on how much drop you have from your grow bed to your sump tank, fish tank or raft bed.
hello from Barcelona!!
what do you think of use you siphon on the side of the bed?
mains are just on the floor...
thanks
It would alter the siphon i would use the loop siphon if i was going to do that.
so it works better ? never fail ?
how does it fill? your vid fails to show how it works.
What do you have to pump the water back up to the beds?
easy pro 1350 gph pump.
I really don't get why so many folks have BS problems. My 5 have been flawless for over 3 years with no tweaking and I have made and sold nearly 700 siphons to date in all sizes and to all parts of the world and they all work. Problems are generally in the plumbing and not the siphon if you have a nice simple Bernoulli design based on Affnan's formula of 2-1. I read below that someone has had their siphon trigger from another siphon. THAT is caused by bad plumbing. You need air vents after the siphon 90's. They must be independent of each other.
I appeciate your input thats all i'm trying to do myself is help others. I agree with you about the plumbing i learned a little about siphoning and draining while building this siphon. This was my first video i have learned alot since then and have fine tuned my siphon in a simple easy to understand process(i hope). I try to explain it from siphon to drain to sump so that others can learn from my mistakes without making them theirself. I happen to think my siphon is easier to build and works better than the bs but that's just my opinion. I would encourage others to either build an abs siphon or buy a bell siphon from you. Either way i think they will save themselves some heartache. Or check out Affnan.
shannon cobb
Hi Shannon, I am glad you like your siphon. Having made and tested so many a few things occur to me. We often change the water height for such things as seeding directly in the media and it takes about 5 seconds to lift the bell and drop a 2" section of 2" pipe into the Bernoulli funnel and drop the bell back on top and now the water almost reaches the surface during germination. We do the same for seedlings with another adapter that drops the level to 1" below surface and we also drop in a 3" extension and leave the bell off which floods the the bed over the media which drives out cut worms, ants, slugs or any other critter that has set up shop in there. I do not see how your siphon can accommodate such an easy transition that we do all the time. We use no "snorkel tube" which is totally unnecessary if the bell is properly cut and during testing we found to be very noisy and prone to leaks at the glue joints as they are different materials. Our gravel guards are a compact 4" (speaking only to our 10" and 12" siphons here. Other sizes are obviously scaled appropriately all the way down to our 4" media model for kitchen gardens) cut on a chop saw leaving razor sharp cutters at the end of the slots so that the roots that will always grow thru the guard are easy to cut off and remove just with a quick rotation and we never cut past half way so that during flooding the chaff and bugs will never flow to the sump. The T siphon I see on YT has NO provision for clearing out roots without digging into the media to the bottom of the bed. A disaster that hasn't reared its head yet but it will. There is far more than meets the eye in a good design.
No it wouldn''t be as versatile as the bs. One thing i didnt like about the bs is since it was loose it would move around and sometimes that would cause it to stop working. But for a fixed siphon it has it's place. Since it is a shorter siphon overall it does have some advantages. You should tinker with it and see for yourself. it is very easy to build and will help some who are frustrated with the bell siphon. It already has done that. Looks like you have a pretty good setup. I am working on something now that you will be interested in so look back in sometime this spring. I will post it on my channel in a few months. I'm going to increase my cycle times without increasing my pump size and eliminate my airpump. Kinda the reverse of what the airlift pump guys are trying to do.
Yep, pvc version of a loop siphon. Far more reliable than a Bell.
Shannon Cobb, this may be the best idea in the history of the world, but you are not explaining it at all. Sorry, I just do not see how this works, or know for sure it is doing what you say. Do you have another video that takes this apart more, or can you point to what this is called and how it works? Thank you. I don't like those Bell Siphons either.
It's a gooseneck or U-bend siphon: this is the same kind of siphon a toilet uses to drain. The bend at the bottom helps the siphon start and the change in diameter gives you an unbalanced water-column, which helps the siphon to break.
Hey Mister, No explanation, how to build it at all.
Maybe it is nice but you don't show actually how connections and system are or how to proper do it.
U made an up-side-down "pee trap".
il sistema molto bello ma non si capisce molto e il produttore si muove di continuo
didnt understand at all what you are trying to explain??
That was my first video. It was a learning process for me. I have some other video's that show my progress and i hope that they better explain what i was trying to achieve and are helpful to you in some way. I think most people that have used the latest design of this siphon are using it in place of a bell siphon that is giving them problems while keeping the ones that are problem free. I hope i explain it better in my later videos. Thanks for watching.
U is way better than a bell, not as cool tho.
Toooo loooong
did you know, you can seek just like dvds, vcrs, cds, mp3s, and pretty much anything that plays over time? or do you only watch things while squinting at your oversized phone screen?
"oversized"
that's a loop siphon or u siphon. Very common. you didn't invent shit
Thank you for your insight and wisdom , you are so correct.