Fine Tuning the Swivel Siphon

I have spent several days of flow testing periods trying to figure out how to make my swivel siphon work.

To summarize, I have one main pump to pump the water to 2 separate growbeds. Though my siphon setup is almost identical (meaning they’re within plus minus 1-2 cm of tubing in the siphon) the flowrates which is critical to start the siphon and the flowrates to kill the siphon varies between the two separate beds…not a surprise really…

Then I got into fine tuning my siphons. On the outflow of the pump, the flow is separated into three (3) diversion, one goes straight back into the fish tank (this is to reduce the overall flow to the growbeds) while the other two pumps water into the growbeds. Now, while it is very well known that you can control the flow from the pump to make it start and kill automatically, but at times it can grow frustrating, especially when one pump is flowing into two growbeds or more!

So, with the valves I have installed, an adjustment to one diversion will lead to changes in other diversions…all in all, you have to first know what exactly the problem is with the siphon, is it that your flowrate is too much to kill while being too little to start the siphon? Do some tests and you will find the answer…
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Here is my innovative solution…which is to cut the tailpipe of the siphon at an angle…

This angled cut will make the siphon easier to kill…

Here is a picture showing that the angled cut and the angle of the tailpipe actually makes it harder for the water to fill up the pipe which translate into making the siphon harder to start while being easier to kill…

Next up is the angle of the tailpipe itself…click picture to view enlarged size…

I hope the picture tells a thousand words but do remember, while you make the siphon easier to kill it will also make it harder to start. However, I find that to start the siphon is almost always easier than to kill it. You just have to try it yourself and find that perfect balance!

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