RAS 2.0 Part 4 The Siphon, Pump, & Clarifier - 02/28/16 08:44 PM
A part of my systems at the present time (I'm always changing) is a u-tube siphon made out of 2 inch PVC. The nice part about it is it runs on gravity displacement so it never needs to be plugged in or consumes power. (Thank you Steven VanGorder in his book Small Scale Aquaculture!)
Very simple with two elbows and a piece that is not glued that goes on and comes off to facilitate extending the length to push in suspended solids as far down in the barrel as possible from the fish tank. This allows for more net contact time for better filtration. When draining the clarifier tank and spraying solids off the netting, the extension is removed and the siphon is capped.
It looks like this:
And illustration from VanGorder's book.
The purpose of the siphon it to keep water flowing from the fish tank into the bottom of a barrel packed with garden fence nettting. (The clarifier tank) A small submersible pump sits on top of the netting in the barrel. This pump pulls water up through the netting trapping the suspended solids that come with the water. The pump then moves the cleaned water from the top of the clarifier to the moving bed filter. (Will be covered in part 5.)
Here you can see the siphon in position.
One side of the u is in the fish tank and the other side in the clarifier tank. To get the siphon going initially, you submerge the siphon in the fish tank making sure no air is left. Cap the end that is coming out of the water to place into the clarifier tank. Once in position remove the cap. The siphon will run flawlessly indefinitely as long as there is no air in the siphon and either end is not pulled out of the water without the end cap.
Note: Due to the minor varied tolerances of PVC, the end caps can be a pain to remove. An alternative is to install a cap that can be screwed on and off.
Very simple with two elbows and a piece that is not glued that goes on and comes off to facilitate extending the length to push in suspended solids as far down in the barrel as possible from the fish tank. This allows for more net contact time for better filtration. When draining the clarifier tank and spraying solids off the netting, the extension is removed and the siphon is capped.
It looks like this:
And illustration from VanGorder's book.
The purpose of the siphon it to keep water flowing from the fish tank into the bottom of a barrel packed with garden fence nettting. (The clarifier tank) A small submersible pump sits on top of the netting in the barrel. This pump pulls water up through the netting trapping the suspended solids that come with the water. The pump then moves the cleaned water from the top of the clarifier to the moving bed filter. (Will be covered in part 5.)
Here you can see the siphon in position.
One side of the u is in the fish tank and the other side in the clarifier tank. To get the siphon going initially, you submerge the siphon in the fish tank making sure no air is left. Cap the end that is coming out of the water to place into the clarifier tank. Once in position remove the cap. The siphon will run flawlessly indefinitely as long as there is no air in the siphon and either end is not pulled out of the water without the end cap.
Note: Due to the minor varied tolerances of PVC, the end caps can be a pain to remove. An alternative is to install a cap that can be screwed on and off.