The way I understand it, Not really and yes. In a basic setup water will flow out through the pipe as long as the water level is higher than the bottom of the highest point of the pipe. This can be just a trickle without actually creating a siphon. A true siphon action will not start until the pipe is filled enough that the weight of the water on the downhill side is enough to pull water up the intake. If there was enough water flowing to actually start a true siphon then the water would continue to be drawn through the system until until either the water drops below the intake pipe or siphon break vent pipe. Whichever is the highest will break the siphon. It is possible that your siphon system would never truly siphon but you'd still get the benefit of pulling "dead" water off the bottom of the pond if your intake pipe went deep enough.
Last edited by Ryan Freeze; 10/10/07 03:44 PM.
