Ever since reading the compost tea brewing manual, and actually scoping my compost teas I've been more and more interested in "properly brewed compost teas" and even more than that various different types of brewers. I know that there are a few different threads about specific blades building their brewers and ideas on their creation concepts before actual construction. But I haven't seen a thread where we all share our different brewer designs and help each other to create brewers. Again, I've seen various different designs. And I've also seen constructive criticism about where this brewer is better than that one and so on and so fourth. Honestly I can see Pro's and Con's on just about every type of brewer out there. Weather it be that it cost too much to buy, or it aerates but doesn't properly mix / agitate or what ever. I am kind of hoping that we could all share our designs and explain the experienced pro's and con's of our own personal brewer and possibly either help other blades to build their brewers or just solve problems that they have or may have with the current brewer they have or are currently building or are in the concept process of the build. I personally have a vortex brewer that i constructed. Pro's - Built for a relatively cheap price (in comparison to buying a brewer.) - Mixes and agitates very well (in my opinion) - Lots of aeration, and no (conceptual) dead air pockets. - Creates a "properly brewed compost tea" - It's aesthetically pleasing Con's - Needs very fine particulate mater (compost) to properly brew, or you could have cloggage. - Foam in the brew could be a problem to proper mixing. - Can be time consuming to clean. Please join in with your brewer or concepts of brewers or concerns...
Wow! That is a very nice brewer. Did you get a big enough pump? LOL What is that pump - 60 LPM or so? CQ
Here's my White Trash system according to the experts...... First up is this airstone which measures 7" x 1.5" and because it's designed for ponds on farms and for large irrigation set-ups the actual holes are larger than the Toys for Joy at PetSmart, Petco or even aquarium shops. 80 LPM pump like you're running and that model shows up under at least 15 brands. Exact same everything but different colors and the harps (worthless) come in different configurations. Finally an empty 5-gallon paint bucket from Home Depot Pitiful isn't it?
Nice construction sean! So give us a break down on your thinking. What are the hoses coming out of the top of the PVC standards holding everything together? That's kewler than the scenery off your back porch (fortunate mofo that you are ) Sweeeeeeeet!
[quote name='"ComfreyQuery"']Here's my White Trash system according to the experts...... First up is this airstone which measures 7" x 1.5" and because it's designed for ponds on farms and for large irrigation set-ups the actual holes are larger than the Toys for Joy at PetSmart, Petco or even aquarium shops. 80 LPM pump like you're running and that model shows up under at least 15 brands. Exact same everything but different colors and the harps (worthless) come in different configurations. Finally an empty 5-gallon paint bucket from Home Depot Pitiful isn't it?[/quote] Pitiful? Id say not at all! Looking at that simple set up there are a lot more pro's than cons (from what i can tell). First off its a money saver! At 80 lpm, you're getting huge aeration and agitation. And clean up must be what? A whole 3 seconds? What are your own personal cons to your brewer if there are anything? Oh and my pump is a 110 lpm. Good enough... [quote name='"Possuum38North"']Nice construction sean! So give us a break down on your thinking. What are the hoses coming out of the top of the PVC standards holding everything together? That's kewler than the scenery off your back porch (fortunate mofo that you are ) Sweeeeeeeet![/quote] The hoses at the top come down the "side legs" or "tubes" and stop about 3/4ths the way down. The diffusers are there pumping air in to create an air lift. Thanks for the complement! What are your brewing methods? [quote name='"ComfreyQuery"']Wouldn't it be kewl if SeanDawg is actually the son of Dog Chapman?[/quote] Thats scary CQ! How do you know who i am? Lol
SD 110 LPI? That's lot of air. Even using my White Trash arithmetic (Spittin' Holler Grade School in Butt Crack, Oklahoma) and convert the 110 to 27 GPM and then knock off 20% for manufacturer's hubris and weird non-standards on this class of pumps, you're still at a minimum 20 GPM. That's more than enough for a 50 gallon cistern using Microbeman's recommendations. I think you have things covered on air volume. The only con to my rig was the cost. The company is located on the East Coast so back to the S&H scam that companies use to realize a true profit. Whatever - that delivered was around $75.00 or something close. Then I screwed the pooch on the air pump and bought it from an online aquarium supplier. Brilliant. So in the end I had about $140.00 into it. I brew an actual AACT maybe 2x a year for the raised beds. I put my efforts into producing a quality worm casting material that others would want to use to make a tea. Right now I'm sitting on almost 2 yards of worm castings. I think I have my microbe thing down well enough for us. CQ
lol yeah, I figured with a pump like that, i could run three of those brewers at the same time! lol Over kill? Maybe? but at the time i wanted to make sure i had enough air, rather than not enough air. OMG! $75 for shipping? that's more than what i get charged for shipping! My entire brewer cost me about $150 total. im totally shocked!
i just bought the bountea brewer in a 5 gallon bucket but the pump works awesome. it was $140 which i thought was ridiculous but it came with a few boutea boxes and bags of alaska humisoil. i figured i could make the same brewer for like $50 tops but i dont know if it would work good enough. this one works rather well even though i dont know much about them and dont really know the difference between them and the vortex cone bottom brewers. is the bountea brewer in the 5 gallon bucket good enough to make a proper AACT? this is it http://www.bountea.com/index.php?id=65 seems the same as the KIS brewer.
So do you feel like you are getting a quality tea? What do you feel are the Pro's and Con's to the system you are running? Does the pump you have push enough air to properly move / aerate / mix your tea as you brew? I like the simple paint strainer to strain out the solid material. Also that system looks simple enough to be built without too much stress. Why did you choose to buy this brewer over others or build one yourself?
both pumps are small (not sure of the actual rating one is from wal mart the other is a small adjustable one that i robbed off my old single shot bubble bucket.. bucket is about 8 gallons air stone is a 14 inch one also robbed from bubble bucket(even with both pumps combined it doesnt push enough air to run out the whole stone) which makes me desire MORE POWERRR i bough two 3ftx3ft peices of nylon mesh from wal mart fabric dept and i just throw my ingredients into them and double wrap, tie up with a rubber band and some binding twine and toss it in working on my first tea from them as i type as i make teas and my understanding grows a little i may attempt to build something but for now i will stick with the basics and learn
I started my tea brews very similarly. My original "brews" were one gallon at a time. In little milk jugs with small aquarium air pumps. Like i said earlier, after reading the compost tea brewing manual and taking a look at my tea. I came to the conclusion that my compost teas were no where in the range of what they could be. My original brews, wouldn't move so much water to properly agitate and mix the tea that i tried to make. In addition to my lack of knowledge at the time on what a proper tea was composed of. Now that I have most of the pieces together on what a proper tea brewer should do and proper ingredients can grow I am interested in other methods of compost tea brewing. Thank you for sharing MP! Hopefully with more brewing methods we can all find a "medium" range that creates and optimal brewer.
I'm just a microbrewer and all that which it implies - unsophisticated and simple in this sense. My teas are "good" on a "better/best" scale LOL. Dubious quality at best but the plants don't seem to mind. And simple: good compost, ewc, and a dab of gooey blackstrap. I see a point in the near future where I'll need a rig like what you have. I've stepped it up to 7g and 10g containers and I like 'em thus far. So in that sense I'll definitely need more tea as time moves along.
Shoot I even take in consideration of a bucket and stick methods! But my only concern to any of the methods first and foremost is, "is it making a properly cultivated diverse slurry or tea?". I know its a great idea to have faith that your brew is effectively cultivating microbes, but has the method been scoped and proven? Is really the first thing that matters. So lets say that you were hypothetically going to create your new upgraded tea brewer. What method would you now look into for your brewer? Would you choose CQ's method? Buy a brewer? Build a brewer? I've also seen this type of air lift system on youtube. What do you guys think about this method?
I was thinking of buying a small gph water pump to cycle water from the bottom back into the top but I wonder if the sediments would eventually clog the pump? Because I try to not make my mesh too fine for the simple fact that a little pulp can't hurt. And the small water pump would help agitate the mix a lot more. I use a small one gallon chemical sprayer with the sprayer heads drilled wider so the sediment doesn't clog it to apply the tea to my yard and garden
If money wasn't an issue and practical use was the first priority I'd probably pick a style something like the KISS style I think. I use "money not an issue" simply as a means of eliminating "money" from the decision point. Effectiveness is the ONLY priority IMvHO. But I really like yours man! I've seen the vortex brewers in action and have watched all the threads where peeps have been DIY'ing and also those that pay big bucks for brewers. I'm perfectly fine with a DIY personally. I like any style of brewer that keeps the sediment churning and the bubbles poppin'. I tell ya the truth about it. You're right on the money with your analysis for the use of the scope - it's otherwise just blind faith and hopefully a bit of science behind what we try. Me? It's blind faith as I have zero idea whether anything "beneficial" is living in my teas. That's kinda sorta why I personally keep 'em simple and never overuse them (again). Once, maybe twice is good for me and thus far I've found no use for more than a 1g-2g for my personal use. That may change real soon with the larger containers as they can withstand a lot more volume of liquid than my previous normal 3g-5g grow style. I typically keep my soil moist all of the time and never go through the wet/dry cycle. I just keep 'em moist. Thus, when I irrigate it just takes less liquid than the next grower, perhaps. Oh... and I would spend as much as was required in order to purchase a qualified pump that was <45dB. They're out there but they're ~$400. Living reef type pumps.
[quote name='"VooDoom"']I use a bucket and stick but I like "y'alls fancy" setups too.[/quote] pretty common method round these parts! Glad to have your input! [quote name='"moronparade"']I was thinking of buying a small gph water pump to cycle water from the bottom back into the top but I wonder if the sediments would eventually clog the pump? Because I try to not make my mesh too fine for the simple fact that a little pulp can't hurt. And the small water pump would help agitate the mix a lot more. I use a small one gallon chemical sprayer with the sprayer heads drilled wider so the sediment doesn't clog it to apply the tea to my yard and garden[/quote] This is one thing that i'd advise against the water pump idea. Inside most all aquatic water pumps have paddles inside of them that gives their actual ability to push water. The problem is that when brewing your tea those paddles actually chop up fungal hypha, smash and slash up bacteria and protozoa in your tea. So what happens is that the water pump actually becomes counter productive to your tea.
[quote name='"Possuum38North"'] Oh... and I would spend as much as was required in order to purchase a qualified pump that was <45dB. They're out there but they're ~$400. Living reef type pumps.[/quote] So a simple KIS style brewer with and awesome $400 pump?!? That sounds simple and very effective!