they can. it depends on the design and where they are used. if you use them on the impeller and make the bubbles very small you may get very little waterflow restriction, however if used on the mainline you can get drastic waterflow restriction. trick is to get the water moving fast with atomized bubbles that go through the impeller and chopped up and then pumped to system. here is a venturi installed on an impeller.
great link by the way once i'm done with my video which is having problems i should have time to write a good diy for a venturi. once you get the hang of it you can make them out of anything, and make newer and newer prototypes. anyway you cut it though they are gonna give you the best aeration hands down, because it is systemic aeration.
wow the third picture is so awesome! talk about maximum oxygenation. the dual air intake is sick too. air needles are a great idea, so simple. i bet you could just heat them up and stick em thru. what GPH is that pump in the second pic? and am i correct in assuming that one has a stronger output with only one air inlet as opposed to 2? make sure you let us know when the video gets straightened out. keep up the good work and thanks for the pics!
hey i had a question... the water out of my tap is 658ppm, and the evaporation out of my system is about 5 gallons a week. if i keep topping off with tap water my ppm is going to go through the roof, could that cause some nute lockout? edit: system totals ~140 gallons. how long would u guesstimate it would take 15 3" koi to get N levels up enough to grow a lettuce? cuz its been like 2 months now n my plants are lookin real hungry still...
Ok I am back. Here is my video by the way: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9cqRUHBgOw]YouTube - Hydroponic Improvisation[/ame] On to the questions: First off, that pump was 30 bucks at the hydro store, it is a mag drive 400 gph pump with 12 foot lift. The lift is important cause that gives you torque. I use 2 needles on some of my pumps but they are more or less around 400 gph each. It allows further finetuning of bubble quantity and size, not the mention it is handy for direct injection of nutrients. Your ppm will affect lockout. You should flush and reset your solution to optimal levels every week or so. With the fish you are going to have to balance it. You want to make sure and have your bacteria established and make sure your tank is cycled "nitrogen cycle". Dude this is key and sometimes people add water to their tank and kill the bacteria. Flouride, Chloramines, and Chlorine will all effectively kill the nitrosomonas bacteria and you will have to wait weeks or months to get nutrients to your plants again. Get some bacteria if you don't have some already. The nitrates which are present when bacteria are active, is what feeds the plant. Once your system gets acclimated, you will get good growth. You should have about the same volume fish tank to your grow bed, and I would use several koi per plant. Focus on the bacteria and keep your fish healthy, and you will not believe the growth you get from ion-form aquaponic nutrients. Also you will not get nute burn.
I can see it now, recirculating buckets with 4" hose and goldfish swimming from bucket to bucket,lol.....you go man your shit rocks!! (and so does your fish's!!)
nice dude! thanks for all the great info. with a surge that strong out of the bucket though i cant imagine how the roots dont clog up the net pot. did you really get 7g/w?
it was about .7 grams a watt. as far as the roots go yea there was development in the aero chamber very close to the drain. the drain is redundantly guarded and protected. the water must go down, up, and back down again to get out the drain; there is theoretically about 12 inches of space from the outside of the fitting all the way through the exit hole. I actually think the surge acts to dominate or possibly break the roots away from the area of concern. I configured those badboys once and they fired every 3 or so minutes like a charm for several months with no clogs.
hahah that makes alot more sense. so for nute delivery did you have to slightly lower your amounts because you're not injecting it directly to the roots? the way you have it set up now is so frickin sweet with the little venturi
yea. I only gave half-strength nutrients and it was calculated on water volume. It was injected daily or every other day in small amounts. The volume of the system made up for the light-nutrient dose but the plants did not endure stress or burn so they produced.
I mean comparing the old way to the new way, like the first video directly injecting to the roots vs this video of putting it in the waterline, did you have to lower the concentration slightly? It seems you could get by with a little more doing it the old way, but it would be such a pain in the ass for a large system compared to how easy the venturi is that the trade off wouldnt be worth it do you find some strains do better in aqua? thanks again for all the knowledge man
Yes. I have applied logical analysis of a proposed method I am trying to implement. The results show that it will work based on science, math, and other peoples experiences. I will be able to get high bloom nutrients to the plants in an aquaponic grow with little or no casualties. The old system was the best I had at the time, and what I am working on right now is better and for now I regret to say it is under wraps. The old system is seemingly more effective but when I initiate this approach you will see what I am talking about. As far as strains, I would guess any plant with vegetative vigor would do well, but I suspect that all plants will do better in aquaponics with the exception of "!hydro bred" plants; plants that just don't do good in wet environments but have lackluster characteristics like many sativas. I did have to lower concetrations. I measured it in raw PPM and furthermore I formed a ratio to the PPM in my fish tanks. I put as much as twice the PPM in my rootsystems while the system absorbed the bleedoff and peaked slightly. The new system I am working on is easy because everything is systemic, and the aeration and nutrient injection is centralized so there is no moving around the room. I do all of my upkeep in 1 area and my controls and dials are all right there. The one drawback is I am so immersed in this research and so busy with prototypes and builds that my personal life has taken a huge beating. I guess everything really is a balance. I am going to try to accomplish this but my girlfriend has had it and I have blown off a lot of gigs. It is frusterating because I have planned for everything, and applied as many variables as you could to a scenario like this. Aquaponics is going to be "The Way" to grow cannabis in the future, and very soon many in the industry will be using it.
the centralization of nutrients and aeration is a biggie for me, so is simplification(which i struggle with!). im going to alter my plans to adopt this system so i dont have to deal with the extra headache of having a 1/4" line going to each plant. after all, we're not really supposed to use nutes anyway right? hah i feel for you on the girlfriend part.. its hard to have a strong passion and a girl sometimes. my obsession with growing has also cause me alot of trouble with my girlfriend over the years. i hope it works out for you in the end. the balance is really hard. the economy is still falling, that is why i am interested in this more than on the hobby level. anytime in history a country has created a currency to use in place of gold or silver, the currency has ALWAYS eventually gone back to its true value, nothing. the dollar is going to be nothing soon, thats going to cause some problems for some people! i want to be able to provide food at a cheap price, and what not a better way than to grow it as cheaply as possble. my original dream ideas were to have the runoff from the ganja go to other plants that would absorb more of the bloom nutes before returning to the fish tanks. that would be cool, but from what i've researched, pretty unnecessary
This is what i've come up with to be able to have multiple fish tanks with different PPMs and not need to shut a valve that will leave water in a long length of pipe for the next month until the following cycle is ready. (was planning on bio bucket set up). pipe 1 is veg and start of flower, pipe 2 is flower, and pipe 3 is flush. the drain line will also need to same amount of T's and now after writing this i see a problem. 1.5" ball valves for the drain cost $10.... it looks like i might be settling for manual labor and moving plants to different sections. that would drop $100s in valves. i love designing but im getting tired of the complication surrounding multiple tanks, dead zones, and cost. it would be easiest to be able to control the fish tanks rather than however many buckets.. but i wouldnt wanna be moving fish every month back and forth between tanks
This is the most elegant method of growing I've ever seen. After some research, I went out and got everything to build a simple aquaponics setup. Once the fish tank is stable and healthy, I'll add some small tomato plants I have to the system. And after a month or two, when everything is well broken in, I'll switch the tomatoes out for some clones from my soil grow. Thank you for the inspiration; your research will without a doubt be priceless to me and many others. edit: By the way, this is the first time in the nearly two years I've had this account that I've bothered to actually reply to a topic. Congrats on making me stop lurking.
Hey man, we are bringing it back bringing it back Sounds awesome. Thats what I am doing right now as well. 1 tomato and 1 basil plant and some carp. Its all about the cycle and keeping that bacteria alive. Hey I forget about this old aquaponics video I made. I was so green check it out [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cSlc36H-2o&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Aquaponics in Marin County, California !!![/ame]
First off, awesome awesome awesome. I am a first time indoor with my last outdoor being wiped out due to a freak storm. Since I have been working on the idea of an indoor grow, I have been looking into aquaponics hybrid due to what Im using. What I'm working with is a 55gal tank with an emperor 2xbio wheel filter that sits on the back and forces the tank stand to sit away from the wall about 6-8 inches. The idea is to add onto the tank stand and make an enclosed stealth cab. Then set up a small water pump and use that to set up a drip system for watering/feeding the plants in a Fox Farms ocean floor soil mix. Then place the pump on a timer and make it an automated process. Since this would tech be my "first" researched grow I was planning on still adding nutes manually and turning off the pump to avoid over watering. Now, I'm working on ideas to build this as an aquaponic system. The only downside I could see would be the obvious... Adding the nutes.
Thanks man its my pleasure always. I would focus on keeping the soil contained and it will be difficult with the fish because your gonna get nute bleedoff into the water. If you contain the soil within a layer of lavarock and rockwool, that will effectively make it cleaner and less toxic for the fish when the dirty soil water makes it back into the tank. Its sounds like you might just plan on doing a run - to - waste aquaponic grow which can be great. If your knowledgeable about fish then your going to do really good with aquaponics because it is almost impossible to kill your plants if you know the basics about plant care. The fish are the hard part and thats what people struggle with. Also your going to have a truly Gourmet smoke. Are you going to run the water off or keep it in the system? How much light you planning on using and do you know what kind of fish?