![]() It took me a few days to figure this out but my fish are happier and I can sleep at night. If done right the gulb of air comes from the tube on the bell with no need for air from the outlet. It even aerates the water with oxygen pulled through the bed as it syphons the water. My system is next to my bed and it only makes a small gurgle when it is done and some bubbling when it starts. Between adjusting the water flow into the bed and adjusting the two elbows in the water you will be able to fine tune the syphon. Then place two 45 degree elbows that end up submerged you can twist the elbows to adjust the water direction and it also slightly adjusts back pressure. Next from your 45 degree elbow on the outlet reduce the size ( 1 inch to 3/4 or what ever your using as long as it us reduced to build back pressure) then put a 4 inch PVC pipe in with a slight bend down ( heat up the PVC and bend it at the halfway point about 25-30 degrees). You need first to drill a hole on the side of the bell at the point above the water line then run a small tube from that hole to the bottom of the bell ( externally) to the level you want the water to stop syphoning. I did get my bell syphon to work while the outlet was below the water line. I know it is kind of old but thought I would leave this for other people like me who came to this post from a search. With the lid on, it's really not too bad. Now it sounds like gurgling, flowing water as opposed to a flushing toilet. It took a lot of trial and error to get the setup to work correctly and be quiet enough, so buy a bunch of piping and basically just try it out until it works. I have mine set up so that the pipe is above the water level when the drain starts, and is completely covered when it stops. The end of the pipe can't be too far underwater though, or the grow bed won't drain fast enough to shut the siphon off. These also provide a venturi effect when draining, helping to oxygenate the water. This is as easy as drilling one or two hole around 1/4" in diameter that stay above the water line at all times. You can do this by adding a 45 degree angle fitting and rotating it so the terminal pipe is sloping downward.Īdditionally, you actually can stick the end of this pipe underwater provided that you allow air to enter back in to the pipe to equalize the pressure when the siphon shuts off. This makes the pipe long, and the key is that it MUST have a downward angle for part of the horizontal length (don't make it level). I have a similar setup to yours and got mine to be reasonably quiet by piping the water against the side of the tank. This obviously wouldn't add much O 2 to the system so I'd probably still need a bubbler/airstone, right?Īny other ways people use to reduce noise? Thanks in advance. Would a siphon work if the drain pipe were completely submerged in the bottom tank? I'm not sure the siphon would be able to push the air out initially and kick in if it drained straight into water. I've read Affnan's posts on reducing siphon noise and those seem like improvements, but is there any way to make it even quieter? I'm not very concerned about the gurgling when they break the siphon because that only lasts a couple seconds, but the splashing of the water back into the tank makes quite a bit of noise. One drawback to bell siphons is the amount of noise they make. Currently, though, I've had the grow bed outside for a few weeks while I rinsed my media and did a thorough leak-test on my grow bed and bell siphon. I've built a 2'x4' grow bed and it's going to be an ebb and flow system over a 55 gallon tank with ornamental fish. ![]() I'm (finally) close to getting my first system up and running.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |