Not enough bubbles

shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
Hi
Im having a headache with a plant in a single DWC. I was checking it last night and i swear my pump is not producing as many bubbles as last grow. I checked the airstones, they seem fine, but i checked with 2 different pumps (both 4W) and theres just not many bubbles coming out, certainly not as many as i remember.
So how can you tell if you dont have enough bubbles? What does it do to the plant?
Cheers!
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Bubbles don't feed the roots their oxygen. All the bubbles do, is help break the surface tension of the water allowing gaseous exchange at the surface level. So as long as your water isn't stagnant. You're probably fine. But you're supposed to have something like, @fragileassassin , 25-30litres pet hour of air per 5gal?
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Bubbles don't feed the roots their oxygen. All the bubbles do, is help break the surface tension of the water allowing gaseous exchange at the surface level. So as long as your water isn't stagnant. You're probably fine. But you're supposed to have something like, @fragileassassin , 25-30litres pet hour of air per 5gal?
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15Liters per minute per site is pretty much the cutoff. I've seen it said many places and played with it myself. They just dont work all that well below that from what I've seen and experienced. If you can push 20-30 that's even better imo.

I run around 20LPM per site plus the sprayers in the flower system. Lots of bubbles in my boxes.

The active aqua hydrofarm air pumps are pretty nice for the price.
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
fragileassassin said:
15Liters per minute per site is pretty much the cutoff. I've seen it said many places and played with it myself. They just dont work all that well below that from what I've seen and experienced. If you can push 20-30 that's even better imo.

I run around 20LPM per site plus the sprayers in the flower system. Lots of bubbles in my boxes.

The active aqua hydrofarm air pumps are pretty nice for the price.
Click to expand...
Bro, take my word. I've ran with out Air Pumps for 2 years now. And my waterfalls are just direct 90° 1/2" barb fittings(smaller than PVC) and have no "sprayers" or "back pressure."
Lose the air pump. You're wasting electricity, running unnecessary air lines, and buying replacement air stones that don't need to be there in the first place!
You simply just DON'T NEED THEM My Friend!
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
Airwalker16 said:
Bro, take my word. I've ran with out Sistine's for 2 years now. And my waterfalls are just direct 90° 1/2" barb fittings(smaller than PVC) and have no "sprayers" or "back pressure."
Lose the air pump. You're wasting electricity, running air lines that don't need to be there, and buying replacement air stones that don't need to be there in the first place!
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I plan to when I can play with that venturi stuff or get my new pump. I dont use them in the veg system and its fine there.
Its been mostly just a "i have them, why not throw them in there" and its been working well so I havent wanted to mess with it much yet.
I throw them in a pot of peroxide and bubble them over night between every crop and theyve stayed clean and still flow well after nearly 2 years. I know its overkill but its me were talking about here. Its a nice backup to have until I get a more reliable pump than this cheap one.

Airwalker16 said:
It's completely expected. Almost everyone, including myself, is misled in to believing that. Just not the case though.
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I was also convinced this was the case as the root balls love to eat the airstones and grow around them.
 
shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
Ok but supposing youve got an aeration issue in your tank, how would it show up in your grow?
Cheers!
 
P

PhatNuggz

Well-Known Member
IF the F & D has the drain on the bottom of the tray/tote then Airwalker is 100% correct.

Unfortunately, with my DIY F & D I had to put the drain on the side: the drain line also acts as the feed line. Why? Where I live mosquitos get into house very easily. I've had tons of problems with them laying eggs until I put lids on my totes and rez. However, with the drain plug on the side ~ 1" of nutes would be trapped inside (no bueno, or am I overcautious?) so I compensated by tilting the totes toward the rez. Better but some nutes are still trapped and now the plants are leaning way forward. So...

unless someone has a better idea (Im all ears!) I am getting ready to order Oxygen Pots from Grow Ace and will figure out how to cover the bucket openings.

I think it was Airwalker who convinced me to eliminate air stones, but due to the mosquitos, water fall is out of the question. So.... to create both O2 and circulate the nutes during floods I devised an experiment: I am using a plastic soda bottle, I drilled holes in the sides and filled ~ 80% with platonic solids and marbles (search structured water for why). I then connected a 80 gph pump to the mouth. The pump goes on at the same time as the flood pump. As the nutes are sucked into the pump and through the bottle a strong spray exits the holes, causing turbulence until the water line drops (from the flood pump) to a point where the turbulence turns into a spray, aerating the rest of the nutes

The picture inside the cooler was taken before I added the bottle sprayer. I used this last grow too

hth
 

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shiva71

shiva71

Well-Known Member
fragileassassin said:
theyre just too small. a 4w air pump is going to be around 5lpm on a good one less on a cheaper one. youd need 3 of those pumps per bucket to have enough air.
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OK thanks. Its the same pump (Eheim 400) and 2 x 13cm air discs i used on my last grow which was fine, but yes from what you say i need more pumps.
Cheers!
 
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