15 MM StrainerBell Siphon

The 25 mm (1 inch) Funnel Bell Siphon was the first siphon that I made after few months of trying out various siphon style to get a good water control of the aquaponics growbed. It is reliable in its operation and has made my aquaponics quest a breeze.

I later made a smaller 20 mm siphon which are able to do same function as the 25 mm but with less parts, smaller and lighter to shipped. Smaller siphon will requires less water inflow to operates thus making power consumption of the water pump less as compared to its bigger brother.

I had been toying with even smaller siphon ever since I started aquaponics, in fact the first siphon that I made make use of 15 mm size stand pipe, however it was without the funnel for that venturi effect making in operationally unreliable. Again the smaller 15 mm siphon was use when I was testing hydroton somewhere early 2010 as here and photo below.

The siphon that I use in the above photo around February 2010 was a 15 mm siphon with strainer and bell enclosure. I did not use this design much because at that time it was very difficult to control.

Video of my earlier 20 mm Siphon just as a reference, this siphon has been replace with the current StrainerBell design which is easier and cheaper to make.

Since then I had gain more and more knowledge in the operation and tuning of the siphon making the 15 mm size standpipe a viable option again.

Few days ago I made a Crayfish tank and I decide to make use of the 15 mm siphon, this time it is a StrainerBell design to be use with the tank for water circulation purpose as in photo below.

The smaller the siphon, the more difficult it is to get right. This is due to its operational tolerance is very small, e.g. the water inflow required is small and the pump that being use also will be small, if there is degradation of pump in the case of blockage or age then water flow affected thus making the siphon fail to operate correctly.

I'm making another 15 mm siphon for my Ornamental set which currently using 20 mm siphon. The main reason why I am keen on trying this smaller size siphon is only for one reason that is for energy saving. Due to smaller inflow requirement, this siphon will be able to operate with a 5 watt pump, this small power requirement is ideal if we want to be off grid and operates aquaponics with solar energy.

Smaller water inflow also means that we may be able to get the siphon to operates with water from an airlift pump which we could powered by compressed air from a hand pump reservoir or just a tiny aerator which consume even less power.

On the left is the 15 mm StrainerBell siphon and the right is the 20 mm, all parts are the same just that it is 1 step smaller.

The siphon is installed to my spare Ornamental set for testing, which I need to verify it operational reliability and problems in actual growbed environment for at least six months before I can make any recommendations.

Installation is same like the 20 mm, it is just smaller. The extender tube is a 25 mm size then a 25 to 15 mm reducer to do the venturi.

Capped and ready to go.

I use as smaller pump, 20 mm siphon uses 1000 liter per hour pump, this 15 mm siphon uses 500 liter per hour pump.

Even at 500 liter per hour with 2 ft head, water inflow is still too much for this siphon. Above pump is rated at 7.7 watt, from my test a 5 watt pump is sufficient. This 15 mm siphon can do growbed size up to 10 sq ft. 

The energy requirement is 5 watt for each siphon, the electricity cost is calculated as below for Malaysian electricity tariff;

• 5 watt x 24 hrs x 30 days = 3.6 kwh which will cost about RM 1.30 (USD 0.42) per month of operation.

• It work out that on average this 15 mm siphon requires 1/2 watt of electricity per sq ft of growbed space.

Siphon top part is fixed in its design and tuning it can only be adjusted to set water level, what left is the outlet to be tune. Like a two stroke bike, the entire air path need to be tune for optimum operation, which will include air intake right down to the exhaust chamber for balancing the airflow.

Siphon is the same, we will need to tune it making an optimum water path and since the inlet part is already fix what's left will be the outlet part to be adjusted to suit. As a baseline design, standard double elbow arrangement works in most cases, but it has its limitation, if water inflow above or below the baseline for the siphon, the outlet needs to be modified.

Below are various outlet style that I am trying to get the optimum operation with water inflow more than what is needed.

Few more as follows, it is for illustration only. Each of these will require a long explanation of why it is that way.

Each outlet is tailored to specific condition of what we want to do to the siphon, either to reduce noise, to increase aeration or to compensate for too much or too little water.

There is more that the above design of outlet that I am currently testing for this 15 mm StrainerBell siphon and so far it's holding fine after few hours of operation. Now let see whether it can still hold after six months.

StrainerBell Siphon Stand Pipe

Made few of these today, seven to be exact. One of which rejected due the threaded part a bit stiff to rotate the PVC nut. This rejected marked Not For Sale (NFS) will be for own use, it still work but would be not good to sell.

I need to make few more tomorrow for order that waiting for next week shipping.

My handmade 20 mm StrainerBell Siphon for sale.

Making this 20 mm StrainerBell Siphon for sale world wide, detail of which can be obtain : HERE

Email any queries : HERE

A Boxing Work Round

I have been trying hard to make the siphon simpler, smaller and lighter. The whole idea is to make it more reliable and at the same time reduce cost so that it can be easily made or made available to others.

I had manage to do just that, however there is one major stumbling block when it comes to sending the siphon abroad. The shipping cost, it is just too expensive and make it uneconomical to do. Reduction in size has help a lot due to weight reduction and the shipping cost has reduce a bit.

Weight is one thing, however there is another side of shipping that we tends to overlook. It size, anything measured bigger that 250 mm x 200 mm x 100 mm or weight more that 2 kg will be charge a different rate which is more expensive.

I have manage to get the siphon weight to less that a kilogram each and with packaging it is not more that 1 kilo as above photo, however this package exceed the post office small package size and it goes into the parcel rates which is double the posting price to most countries.

The different is significant and I do feel that this is unnecessary expense to pay. So I try to make a box and fit 1 siphon in it within the 250 x 200 x 100 mm small package size limitation.

So made a prototype box on my "kitchen table workshop" and it smaller that the dimensions given by the post office guide for the small package. It will be ugly but it saves a lot of money on postage, this I think more important that it looks.

All I need to do is stick some stamps and do a registered post to have a track & trace it is all done .. !!! Oh it takes some time to make the box .. :(

20 mm StrainerBell Siphon ready for delivery.

Made four set of these 20 mm StrainerBell Siphon, this is the first time I make these for someone else. This siphon were tested for about 5 months and it never missed a beat.

This siphon is very easy to maintain, just remove the white end cap for cleaning or water level adjust. I will be making more of this size, it is cheaper, lighter to send abroad and generally easier to make.

Strainer Bell Siphon - A Simplified Affnan Siphon

I made my first working bell siphon in 2008 after few months of trying various design to get it working correctly without the uncertainties of the siphon that were use during that period. It is no secret that I am constantly looking for ways to make it more reliable and easier to make.

Update : Made a smaller 15 mm which can be found : Here

Reason for it is, if I could make a trouble free siphon and easily made then more people will take up Aquaponics knowing that it is not that hard to do.

Strainer Bell Siphon

I had made this siphon a year back in trying to reduce parts required to make a siphon, the part that being eliminated is the inner bell and what I did was to make the strainer itself as the bell enclosure for the standpipe.

I did called this siphon as "Bell Less" but someone pointed out that technically it still has a bell in the form of the outer case. So I decided to use the name "Strainer Bell" Siphon as it was called initially last year.

That design still require some drilling work to make the strainer and it is quite a laborious to do, it also require some degree of skill doing all those holes.

The current design of this siphon make do without those drilling, instead I use a ready made venting cowl for a 3" uPVC pipe as the strainer and as the siphon outer case holder. The siphon shown is a 20 mm standpipe size and the standard 25 mm standpipe should be able to be accommodated within the same outer shell.

 All that is needed for making this siphon is to cut a few pipes and to drill one large hole for the stand pipe. This has made the siphon easier to be made. All parts are shown below and they are readily available from most local hardware shop in Malaysia, except the 3" endcap which need to be source since not all shops has them.

As a comparison below are two siphon, the one on the left was the older Strainer Bell and the one on the right is the latest design to replace the old.

The above siphon were use on my ornamental set and been running for the past 2 months or so without problem. I am further improving the set by using this newer siphon on right.

Below shows siphon strainer installed to the growbed with standpipe extender in place.

Completed siphon below shown outer casing and capped.

Finally Ornamental set completed with the new siphon in operation.

Video explaining the siphon that I posted earlier below.

Strainer Bell - A "Bell Less" Option

This second post on same topic to include diagram.

Not exactly Bell Less but made this siphon without its normal 80 mm bell. Its getting difficult to source the 80 mm end cap so I decided to try using the outer strainer as the bell itself.

Diagram below illustrate this siphon.

Nothing special just that the inner bell is removed and the vent cowl is replace with an end cap. This will make the siphon cheaper by a few ringgit and less components to worry about.

This siphon need to be tested against root growth.

Strainer bell can be of smaller diameter but this size was chosen on all my siphon due to ease of cleaning, that is the only reason.

Completed Strainer Bell Siphon above, that holes on the bottom needs to be of smaller size, this is using 10 mm drill. The bottom end cap will need to be drilled too making water drainage better.

As previous post, water cut off occur at top rows of drilled holes, in this set up there is about 1.5 inches of water left upon cut out.

Newer sample above with single row of drain holes, this from my latest growbed : Here that I'm testing that will drain really low.

Strainer Bell - Back To The Roots

My final growbed almost ready, lately getting a bit difficult to get the 80 mm end cap. While waiting for it, decide to try using the outer strainer itself as a bell.

This strainer is the type that I use that extra end cap inverted to form a holder, as in this posting  making it easier to try out various style for a strainer.

For trying out, this strainer I only made 2 row of holes instead the usual 4 or 5, this to ensure water level will be low. Siphon cut off will occur once it reaches the first top row of holes.

Above looking from top, without usual inner bell and below with the flat 110 mm UPVC endcap.

It works, and siphon cut off will be at the highest row of holes leaving almost slightly more than an inch of water. With just two row of holes I'm not sure how will it stand against root growth and clogging, normal it will be 4 rows minimum but this will makes water in growbed to be about 2.5 ~ 3 inches at siphon cut off.

Trying out on earlier growbed, remove the inner bell and capped the strainer. It work no problem but this strainer has 4 row of holes so water is higher.

This can be use if shortage of parts or to reduce cost of making one siphon, but it need to be tested against roots growth etc.