Well, I had my equipment up and ready and I liked the way it looked. I filled my Rubbermaid tote tanks with water (no need to start with a nutrient solution since I don’t have anything growing yet) and turned on the pumps. I adjusted the flow level to where I thought it should be and within seconds the strawberry pipes overflowed. I had to turn the rate of flow way down for them. Next, the water level was rising in the growbed and the pump went wild. It was out of water. A 31 gallon tote was not big enough to hold enough water to fill the growbed. I let the water drain back out as I contemplated what to do next.

I had 4 totes so I decided I would connect two together to form one tank for each growbed. I got some PVC fittings and gaskets and made bulkheads and connected two totes together at the bottom with a 1-½” PVC pipe. Now I had 62 gallons.


I set everything up again and turned on the pump. Soon the water totally covered the gravel in the growbed. What, the siphon should have kicked in. It didn’t. I quickly shut off the pump to avoid it flooding over. I should have put in a second bulkhead fitting and an overflow pipe at this rate. I allowed the water to drain out the small hole in the stand pipe. It took more than an hour for it to drain. I then checked my siphon. I couldn’t see anything that should be stopping the siphon from starting so I tried again. The same thing happened, no siphoning. Water would begin slowly running out the drain pipe, but it would not begin siphoning. Maybe my flow was too slow. I tried speeding up the flow. There was no change. I tried slowing it down. Again, no change. I thought maybe my vent tube was too long so I cut it shorter, but that didn’t help either. Then I noticed the bell cover was leaking little air bubbles. I inverted it and filled it with water and, sure enough, it leaked around the cap and around the vent tube. Epoxy was not the thing to use to make a tight seal. I broke the parts apart and got a tube of Goop and glued everything back together. The next day, after the Goop had time to setup, I tried filling the system again. Still, it was a no go. With an opaque cover on the bell siphon I could not see what was happening in there. I then cut the innards out of the cap and cut a ¼” Plexiglas window to fit. Now I could watch the water level rise in the bell siphon. It did not rise as fast as the growbed filled so it didn’t flow over into the stand pipe. I again waited for the system to drain, then took the bell siphon apart and removed the stand pipe. I made a new shorter stand pipe and tried again. Still it would not work.

At this point I was very flustrated and saught help on the Internet. Neal Westwood offered his advice, which was greatly appreciated.

1)1) He felt my stand pipes and bell housings were too large. I had used an 1-¼” stand pipe and a 3” bell housing. There may be too much volume to produce an active siphon.
2)2) He thought there might be a problem with too much resistance to the water flow in my drain pipe. My 1” drain pipe had four els forming a p-trap and didn’t provide a smooth path for the water to drain out.
3) 3) He also told me that I really didn’t need to cement the parts together as the water pressure was low enough that it would not effect the siphoning. And he didn't think I needed the vent pipe on the bell for it to work.


I started with the drain pipe. I removed the pipe I had and replaced it with a 1” flexible tube that connects to the bulkhead in the bottom of the growbed and bends around over the tank and ends with one el to direct the water down into the tank. The bend includes enough rise that it collects water in the tube to seal it to start the vacuum to begin the siphoning action.
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I reconstructed new bell siphons using PVC pipe, 1” for the stand pipe and 2” for the bell housing. I used an end cap on the housing (which I found to be leaking some air and cemented it on). I assembled the siphon and turned on the pump. It worked! I had to adjust the length of the stand pipe a few times to get the fill level where I wanted it. I just made several different lengths and swapped them out. That was simple with no cementing them together. The task of getting the system to work was difficult, but it was now up and running.
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My Rubbermaid totes were spreading wider and wider and there was a slight leak from the bulkheads connecting the two totes together. I was afraid the totes would not hold up and would break, leaving 60+ gallons of nutrient solution on the floor of my basement. So, I decided i needed to change to a better tank. I couldn’t find anything that would fit my space or price range so I decided to build them to fit.

I had originally planned to build an enclosure that would hold 375 gallons and contain my fish. But without the fish I decided to build two separate tanks. That way I could adjust the strength of my nutrient solution to fit the plants I was growing. At least for two different growbeds.

I wanted to make sure my idea would work so I just built one to start. The inside is 14” deep, 17” wide and 79” long and hold about 75 gallons. I made a frame of 2”x4” studs and lined it with ½” CDX plywood. Then used 20 Mil pond liner inside that. It works quite will

I planted seeds and have things growing now, but the learning experience continues on. How often do I water? Right now, my system turns on every two hours for 15 minutes. What about lighting, since the system is in my basement? I found that my lights were not bright enough and I needed to lower them down to nearly on top of the plants. I have some very tall radishes and salad greens. I am in the process of adding more lights to my garden. What pH level do I operate at? I am having a problem with that. The level keeps rising and I keep adding acid to bring it down. What nutrient level do I use? Again, this is still part of my learning curve. I almost wiped out my “garden” by making the solution too strong.
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There you have it, I hope you can glean some wisdom from my adventure. Hopefully, by this time next year I will have a worthwhile garden growing.