Bell Syphon - Flood And Drain System

A

Absorber

Well-Known Member
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January 2024
Grow room is 90cm x 90cm x1.8cm high , 20ltr bucket with clay balls as the medium ,one plant OG Kush .
Its a flood and drain system controlled via a bell syphon, pump is 100ltrs an hour .
The water is constantly filling bucket when water rises above bell syphon it pulls a syphon draining bucket while pump is still running when bucket empties the bell syphon sucks air in stopping syphon and the bucket starts filling again and the process keeps repeating.
Sorry for terrible picture phone camera is about stuffed 😊plant has been on flowering light cycle for 2 weeks so far.
Ph 6.4 currently and flowering solution is at 1200ppm
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This is what the bell syphon looks like ,for those unfamiliar with them.

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Two questions! How often does the table flood with that system and isn't 5.8pH better for hydro?

Also, when does the new camera arrive? :cheesygrinsmiley:
 
InTheShed said:
Two questions! How often does the table flood with that system and isn't 5.8pH better for hydro?

Also, when does the new camera arrive? :cheesygrinsmiley:
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Yes ph is a little high currently ,it takes about 3min to fill 20ltr bucket and 1min 20 seconds to empty
 
Absorber said:
Yes ph is a little high currently ,it takes about 3min to fill 20ltr bucket and 1min 20 seconds to empty
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So it floods every 3 minutes? Is that standard? Been a while since I've seen one but if he's around @Jack420 runs flood and drain as I recall. Maybe he'd like to sub in!
 
InTheShed said:
So it floods every 3 minutes? Is that standard? Been a while since I've seen one but if he's around @Jack420 runs flood and drain as I recall. Maybe he'd like to sub in!
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I can vary fill time by slowing inflow but it just means roots will be submerged for longer and id prefer if they where in air more so I leave it as is ,this is my first grow using the bell syphon, i designed and 3d printed it .
 
Absorber said:
I can vary fill time by slowing inflow but it just means roots will be submerged for longer and id prefer if they where in air more so I leave it as is ,this is my first grow using the bell syphon, i designed and 3d printed it .
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Wow that's cool! There are other 3D printing folks on the site so you can compare notes.
 
InTheShed said:
Wow that's cool! There are other 3D printing folks on the site so you can compare notes.
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Cheers , took a bit of trial and error to get it to work flawlessly with a low inflow .
But pretty sure I've got the design down pat now
 
Much clearer plant pic, thanks! Looks good. Is that an HPS fixture?
 
Thanks @NickHardy for the tip on how to upload a video.
Here's the bell syphon working. :snowboating: :snowboating:
 
Nice start to your grow journal @Absorber

Mind if I tag along?

Stay safe, and grow well my friend,
Tok..
 
Science and weed growing! I'm in!
 
Bell siphons are pretty cool and work like your toilet when you pour a bucket of water in them. Once the water exceeds a certain level it automatically drains without any other input.

Balancing the inflow with the drain function can be tricky to get right especially in small systems. I have one in an aquaponics system I built 5 or more years ago and it's still going strong. No moving parts to wear out or replace. The whole thing works on physics.

The 3D printing just brings a whole new aspect to it. Well done.

@AspenCultivator and @NickHardy have used the 3D printing in their grows.
 
Azimuth said:
Bell siphon are pretty cool and work like your toilet when you pour a bucket of water in them. Once the water exceeds a certain level it automatically drains without any other input.

Balancing the inflow with the drain function can be tricky to get right especuallybin small systems. I have one in an aquaponics system I built 5 or more years ago and it's still going strong. No moving parts to wear out or replace. The whole thing works on physics.

The 3D printing just brings a whole new aspect to it. Well done.

@AspenCultivator and @NickHardy have used the 3D printing in their grows.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes that was the trick with this design getting it to work with a low flow ,it has a 100L in an hour pump and it will still trigger on the flow being restricted to about 25L an hour aswell .
It will be interesting to see how this plant goes the trunk is pretty chunky plenty of potential crowns ,time will tell. Im interested to see the root system on it . :snowboating: :ganjamon:
 
Here's the initial post @AspenCultivator made showing the start of his 3D printing SIP stuff. Pretty cool tech.
 
Absorber said:
Thanks, yes that was the trick with this design getting it to work with a low flow ,it has a 100L in an hour pump and it will still trigger on the flow being restricted to about 25L an hour aswell .
It will be interesting to see how this plant goes the trunk is pretty chunky plenty of potential crowns ,time will tell. Im interested to see the root system on it . :snowboating: :ganjamon:
Click to expand...
I don't recall the specs on mine but I used (I think) a 1/2" drain pipe and had to scale up the upper lip to something like 1 1/4" maybe to let enough water in to trigger the siphon. Otherwise the inflow would just trickle in and flow out constantly.

Sometimes when my pump gets clogged and the flow slows down the syphon stops working, but a quick clean out of the grill on the pump resets it like new.

Mine takes 12-15 minutes to fill and maybe a minute to empty and reset which it does with a big belch. Kinda funny actually.
 
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