I GOTTA LOSE THE AIR PUMPS! HOW?! Plus my awesome mini DWC :)

Hello folks.

Many of you have probably seen my mini RDWC. It’s still kickin ASS and preps all my vegging clones for flower. BUT I have upgraded the setup and have gone with some short and wide storage containers with netpots in the lids for keeping moms and weeding out males. I just HATE having the air pumps being so noisy all the time, I’m reeeeally sick of them and honestly, I can’t turn away from true hydro. It’s too simplistic and fun to use nothing but water and get these kind of results. But if any of you have any ideas on what kind of remedy to use to keep oxygen in this small area for the rootzones, I’d love to hear your two cents. THANKS!!!

Nice setup!

I had one like this before, that sounded like an airplane jet engine. (below).


This one below is much better.

Joint Monster said:

Nice setup!

I had one like this before, that sounded like an airplane jet engine. (below).
View attachment 4107412

This one below is much better.
View attachment 4107411

Click to expand...

I’ve heard those are fairly quiet, but nothing like a true LINEAR AIR pump such as Air Force or healiea. But I think I’m going to just run Venturi valve fertilizer injectors to a small pump on the inside of them. 2 per container. I think it will actually work better than air pumps and is quiet.

Looks cool. After struggling with f&d I'mma do the same tote approach to run multiple plants. That would transfer better to an rdwc system as well.

Have mom's in 5 gals, cloner tote with 24 sites, week 1-2 veg tote with 8 per tote. Week 2-4 tote with 3-4 sites per and then move them to the rdwc. The cloner tote can double as a seed starting tote

After years of using bubbleponics this grow I decided to use low pressure aero set up

Pics are of 3+ week old roots from seed. Much more root hairs than I ever had in my bubbler which used a 4 head pump and 4" disc stones

I run my timer 3 minutes on ~ 40-60 minutes off

Airwalker16 said:

I’ve heard those are fairly quiet, but nothing like a true LINEAR AIR pump such as Air Force or healiea. But I think I’m going to just run Venturi valve fertilizer injectors to a small pump on the inside of them. 2 per container. I think it will actually work better than air pumps and is quiet.

Click to expand...

This is what i've gone to seeing how well the oxycloner works for me, i ditched the stock airpump/stone from the oxy and run straight venturi for reservoirs large enough for the small pump. They still make some vacuum/whispering noise but you don't get the 60Hz & harmonics buzzing or the bubbling.

firsttimeARE said:

Looks cool. After struggling with f&d I'mma do the same tote approach to run multiple plants. That would transfer better to an rdwc system as well.

Have mom's in 5 gals, cloner tote with 24 sites, week 1-2 veg tote with 8 per tote. Week 2-4 tote with 3-4 sites per and then move them to the rdwc. The cloner tote can double as a seed starting tote

Click to expand...

That won't work. Roots entangle each other within days.

Airwalker16 said:

That won't work. Roots entangle each other within days.

Click to expand...

How are you using it to weed out males then?

You can't just rip them apart?

Airwalker16 said:

Hello folks.

Many of you have probably seen my mini RDWC. It’s still kickin ASS and preps all my vegging clones for flower. BUT I have upgraded the setup and have gone with some short and wide storage containers with netpots in the lids for keeping moms and weeding out males. I just HATE having the air pumps being so noisy all the time, I’m reeeeally sick of them and honestly, I can’t turn away from true hydro. It’s too simplistic and fun to use nothing but water and get these kind of results. But if any of you have any ideas on what kind of remedy to use to keep oxygen in this small area for the rootzones, I’d love to hear your two cents. THANKS!!!


View attachment 4105652 View attachment 4105653 View attachment 4105654 View attachment 4105655 View attachment 4105656 View attachment 4105657 View attachment 4105659

Click to expand...

I'm tempted to try wavemaker myself if its quieter than the air pump.

Airwalker16 said:

That won't work. Roots entangle each other within days.

Click to expand...

If you use a bigger tote with more distance between net pots you should have no problem. Hammocking occurs when plants are too close together

Airwalker16 said:

That won't work. Roots entangle each other within days.

Click to expand...

I veg in oxycloners now, seed starting and cloning, hydro roots separate fairly easy as long as you split them up early enough before they become established plants. It's not ideal but can be done with minimal stress to the plants.

PetFlora said:

If you use a bigger tote with more distance between net pots you should have no problem. Hammocking occurs when plants are too close together

Click to expand...

I'll do a tester tote with 6 sites and see how it goes. If it doesn't work for veg it would be a cool SOG setup for clones where I don't care if it hammocks or not.

I like the water pump with sprayer nozzles from pet flora. Or a variation of. Misters maybe?
I hear from aquarium guys the DO is raised on the surface not when the air bubbles rise through the water, but when they pop.

coreywebster said:

I like the water pump with sprayer nozzles from pet flora. Or a variation of. Misters maybe?
I hear from aquarium guys the DO is raised on the surface not when the air bubbles rise through the water, but when they pop.

Click to expand...

It seems these nozzles are more prone to clogging. Their intended use is HPA. I had them so another experiment.

FYI: I traded a guy some of my seeds for 3 of these. Unfortunately, he glued all connections.Still, it showed me that I was onto something.

I'm gathering parts now to make my own, starting with a single pvc bar in the center of the tote running the long way. I haven't decided whether to get more hpa mist heads, or simply drill a bunch of holes in the pvc and cap both ends. My idea is to drill holes as small as possible in hopes of simulating the fine mist, which I think is the reason for these sweet roots (comes from hpa). Gonna test it: I will drill one row straight up with 2 more rows one @ ~ 60*s left and other right of center. I just talked myself into the latter since i have everything I need, but, the mist heads are cheap, so...

o2grow

Airwalker16 said:

Hello folks.

Many of you have probably seen my mini RDWC. It’s still kickin ASS and preps all my vegging clones for flower. BUT I have upgraded the setup and have gone with some short and wide storage containers with netpots in the lids for keeping moms and weeding out males. I just HATE having the air pumps being so noisy all the time, I’m reeeeally sick of them and honestly, I can’t turn away from true hydro. It’s too simplistic and fun to use nothing but water and get these kind of results. But if any of you have any ideas on what kind of remedy to use to keep oxygen in this small area for the rootzones, I’d love to hear your two cents. THANKS!!!


View attachment 4105652 View attachment 4105653 View attachment 4105654 View attachment 4105655 View attachment 4105656 View attachment 4105657 View attachment 4105659

Click to expand...

Buy an air force linear air pump. I know they are expensive, but man they are super quiet compared to the cheap ebay/walmart crap.

Even with DWC, running a bottom draw lpa pump (or turn a side DRAW on it's side + on a deep cycle timer ~ 3/20-30 minutes works great in my F & D rezes

Alas, photo loader not working again

I got rid of them by running a 1600 GPH pump from a res to 8 5 gal sites using a manifold and lines to water fall into each bucket from a 90 coming out the side wall through a grommet pointing downwards. 2" pipe and uniseals are at the very lowest point on the sides of my buckets kinda like an undercurrent system but my return is gravity fed and the fast flow of water, waterfalls, flooming in the res, and of course a chiller, I've accomplished a quiet RDWC that uses NO AIR PUMPS OR AIR STONES, with more than enough dissolved oxygen and I couldn't be happier.

As far as the totes on top shelf, they're now aerated by a venturi style fertilizer injector with an airhose just connected to where fertilizer is usually drawn from, to outside the tote for air suction, with 1/2" in/outlets connected to a pump on its side moving everything through it .

The mini RDWC system has also since been upgraded to 2Gal buckets with uniseals and 1-1/2" pipe gravity return lines for the same thing as my main. Only difference is an INLINE pump to supply the manifold so my water isn't heated as there's no chiller on this smaller 13-15gal of water system. It's Killing it without the help of air stones/pumps as well.

I'm so relieved to get rid of the nuisance and sound of loud air pumps.

is this stupid or not?

https://www.amazon.com/O2-Grow-Dissolved-Emitter-2020/dp/B01FROGNOA

zooolcsi said:

is this stupid or not?

https://www.amazon.com/O2-Grow-Dissolved-Emitter-2020/dp/B01FROGNOA

Click to expand...

This is very interesting.

The power consumption was a bit of a turn off, 0.5A/hr @ 120V is 60W which is quite a bit more energy used than some of my pumps but less than the large manifold pumps.

Added bonus of no noise, at risk of putting electrodes into the water (safety?)

If they aren't cost prohibitive it might be worth looking into a trial run.

What implications having electrolysis in a reservoir with nutrients are to be observed? Might spell disaster but i'm no chemist, thoughts?