Aquaponics - Cluster siphon success

I'm getting more and more confused by this idea of mine by the minute.

But anyway here's a simplified version of the Bullwinkle Siphon working at a range of different water flows. Possible advantages include not having to calibrate it, and perhaps using it in a solar or wind powered aquaponics system where there might be variable flow rates. Within reason it should start and stop without any trouble regardless of flow rate.

One of my better ideas.

Just to clarify, my idea is to have multiple standpipes in a bell siphon. As usual, as far as I know this is an original idea and blah blah blah. I give it freely to the world to make whatever use of as you see fit. Enjoy it, profit from it, hate it, etc etc etc.



By the way the mandarins are just there as packing to hold things in place.

That's all well and good, but this older version is driving me crazy. It should work over an even greater range of flow rates, and did on a few different occasions.

Intermittent faults drive me nuts.

Things should either work or not.

The first attempt at my anything in, anything out original recipe siphon, at least worked a few times. Now it seems I'm taking one step forward, and one and a bit back.

I made a new version of the uber siphon with a little more precision.

Only a little.

But I felt sure it should do what I asked of it.

I also made a nice clear top for the uber bell so I could see all the mini bells inside.

Brown tape is the new PVC.

To recap, it has a cluster of three bell siphons inside a forth.

The forth is set so that it's cut a little lower so that it triggers first.

The plan is that the forth siphon, the one without the glass jar on it, should trigger first, fill the big coverall siphon with water, and thus decisively trigger all the other siphons because of the increase in depth.










But on this version, the forth siphon didn't even trigger!

It's a full centimetre below the height of the others, and yet they all triggered. A tiny amount of water would trickle into the standpipe, then the large bell water height would drop, as the other 3 siphons triggered.

Now what this all means is that all I need to do is make a 3 into one siphon that has an air breather to break the siphon at the end of the cycle and all's well. The thing will do its job just fine as seen in the video, but it's driving me nuts that I don't understand what's going on with that forth siphon in the other version.

It turns out if you agonise over intermittent faults to my invention engine it groans in reply, "Occam's razor".

Go figure.