Easiest way I found to start a siphon comes from my waterbed days: with a
water hose, run water INTO the "to be drained" item, until the air bubbles
stop. Then disconnect the end at the water spout and drop the hose. It will
drain immediately!

Lee


"Remydog" wrote in message
news:IqCjc.54765$_L6.4336050@attbi_s53...
What are you siphoning from and to? How big is this siphon?

I have a small gravel vac for my aquarium that has a small one-way valve
in
it. As with all siphons, the discharge must be lower than the intake.
Then,
moving the big gravel pickup part back and forth under the water in a sort
of jerking motion, you begin to get water to flow past the little valve.
Or,
if you're so inclined, you can use the old suction method at the drain
end.

If you are talking about something larger that is intended to pull larger
quantities of water, say a 1 inch hose, a trick I was just shown might
help.
Take a smaller hose and shove it up into the air space formed at the top
of
the arc of the siphon. Suck out the air using the smaller hose and the
siphon will start on its own.

If you are talking about something even larger still where that method is
not practical, you need a sort of vacuum breaker system which essentially
taps you in at the top of the arc by letting water pour in to replace the
air.

Remydog


"Daniel Phillips" wrote in message
...
I bought a relatively inexpensive siphon that's for aquariums, the
Ultra Gravel Vac. Unfortunately, I must be doing something wrong
because it barely siphons. The picture displays putting the siphon at
an angle and apparently the siphon's tube must be lower than the
aquarium--the latter which wasn't really met. I put both together in
a test trial after trying it in the water garden, and it only barely
worked one time. I didn't want to mess around with it more in the
water garden today after making the two fish jittery when they seemed
to have recovered. I did heed the advice of a sales rep to be careful
to not suck one of the guys in. However, the fish stayed clear of the
siphon.

I'm thinking that maybe I don't have the right tool for the job. If I
do, though, I'll just try tommorrow. When I was thinking of a siphon,
I was thinking of just what I have, with the exception of there being
a compressor to help pump water through.

Daniel Phillips

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