PET Bottle Funnel

Everyone will have one of these, okay.. deep in the Amazon maybe a bit difficult but most of us that have a pump and can do Aquaponics surely can get hold to one of these.... :)

My main concern from the start of introducing the reducer was difficulties in getting it elsewhere. That's the reason for the flared funnel, now another addition. I know some have made siphon totally out of PET bottles, but it is difficult to get it to be deployed on growbed without worrying that maybe tomorrow it will leak or fall apart.

This I made partly using the PET bottle, its a combination of plumbings parts and the bottle.

Get one of these bottle.
Strip it naked, this depend on your preferences.
Use a hair dryer or an open fire by burning old news papers :) make the 20 mm or 3/4" PVC soft and gently insert the PET bottle into the PVC openings.
Trim excess PET bottle to make it fit the bell, I use 50mm or 2" bell so I trimmed it to roughly 32mm reducer size.
In it goes, replacing the reducer stand pipe.. for a testing. BTW being threaded for screw cap these PET bottle funnel can be unscrew from the PVC pipe to be replace if needed.
Flush is good and cutting OFF water is also good. I'll monitor this.


BTW the PET bottle fit tank bulkhead adapter nicely. So it can be done this way below and the bell you could use the bigger PET bottle, it will work.
Something like this.
or if you want to use bigger stand pipe like say 25mm or 1" this Gatorade bottle looks good.
With some gentle persuasion these 25mm PVC and be made to accommodate that Gatorate bottle and use to replace the reducer for testing.
Its in and trying out.
A short video on it.

12 comments:

  1. As per our convo on youtube just recently - when I suggested this to you - inverting the top lip of the PET bottle using heat decreases the time to siphon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Adam, its can be made as what you suggest, but I'm trying out this and see how reliable it is. Slight improvement on siphon start time may not be giving significant advantage overall.

    But it's still another way to do it, and its great for others to try too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have three beds running off one of these - and it is in one of the beds. With a lip on top, mine siphons within about 250mls of overflow. I honestly think the lip/waterfall makes a big difference, as the water is coming from a higher angle of incidence and crashing together. Before the lip, it took up to 10-15 seconds. Now it is instant.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Adam, its correct as what you say, the water fall effect will make the siphon better. These are one of the way to improve it by making it more efficient.

    On siphon, the most important aspect of it is its reliability, ability to start and stop. This is what I basically looking at first, what you did is an improvement that add slight advantage on timing, on the reliability issue is still maintain the same.

    Its good, to have variations in design so that others have choice to try.

    If you could provide photos, let me know. I am keen on putting it here, (with credits to you) so that more could try.

    Affnan.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No problems Affnan - I will make another tomorrow and upload a pic.

    I cheat with my siphons - I use a pipe to break the siphon at the top ;). I got sick of siphons not breaking - especially when using one siphon on multiple beds. But now it doesn't matter what I do - water on high or low, one bed/three beds etc.

    Thanks for the blog and all the advice over the years!

    Great job on the site upgrade! I like it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Adam

    My intention of doing these blog is to share knowledge. During my initial involvement with Aquaponics its was very difficult to get enough information.

    Hopefully with this little effort from me, more people will find it easy to start their own system.

    Affnan

    ReplyDelete
  7. As always, your blog and videos are wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing all your hard work!

    ReplyDelete
  8. If i were to use your multi growth bed system but the pot i replace it with pet bottles, whats the size of the pvc pipe should i use?? Ty sir in advance..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Boldy, the PVC shown with PET Bottles funnel is a 25mm PVC pipe.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ok ty btw what type of medium should i use (recomendation) for aquaponics?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would recommend pebbles/gravel about 15 ~20 mm size aggregate, its best to get what ever easily available.

      Delete
    2. terima kasih atas segala nasihat.. *nods...

      Delete