the other night i was burning the midnight oil and ciphering on how to get reservoir solution to drip into the tops of the net pots in my bubbleponic units until the roots have grown down into the solution. the issue i was having is that the thought of buying 6 water pumps for 6 units and running the splitters, having power cords coming out of the units and running the cords, blah, blah, blah... yuk then it came to me like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist... bubble lift the theory that air will lift water so i devised these cool, simple, inexpensive bubble lift drip emitters. they use air to pump the nutrient solution up out of the emitters. they can be used instead of an air stone at transplant time in a bubbleponic unit until the roots have grown into the solution. it is possible that these could replace the air stones in bubbleponic units entirely if the solution is being aerated enough. this would have several advantages including practically eliminating root tangling with air delivery units (stones, diffusers), simplifying design and materials, and ease of maintenance. this is a prototype. use black vinyl tubing, a smaller diameter lift tube (maybe 10mm interior diameter with 4 mm air tubing, more efficient perhaps), and a water tight non-reactive stopper (not wood). if you drill a hole in the bubble lift tube slightly smaller than the air tubing, the compression fit will seal the connection from water leakage to use simply insert the air tube into the bottom of the bubble lift about 3 inches and submerge into the solution which will then flow from the emitters in spurts and gurgles, apparently rather highly aerated. i drilled a hole in the top of a unit and slid the bubble lift down in, up to the emitters. there are 4 emitters because that's what i needed. parts: bubble lift drip emitter unassembled 1.jpg assembled: bubble lift drip emitter assembled 2.jpg working video: bubble lift drip emitters.wmv this unit was receiving 150 gph of air in a 12 gallon res have fun!
cool. but, uh, how do they work? what's the structure and how is it assembled? fine if you are using pickle buckets i guess. essentially your post is of little help to anyone and i see you have 400 posts in one month. perhaps you should do less talking and more listening
huh? Whats a pickle bucket? It's essentially the same thing from what I understand you wrote, I am sorry the pun pissed you off. I love puns and sometimes when they are out there I just cannot help myself. They work like an air lift, a tube runs air down the inside of an outer 1" casing at the bottom it hooks into another tube that carries water back up and out of that ringed dripper. It works pretty well, the premise is that it also oxygenates the water but I would say just about everyone in the world that has one supplements that with some bad ass bubbles. They sell kits for like 14 bucks that allow you turn a 5 gallon bucket into one. Perhaps you could use your particular version to improve on the concept to where it is legitimately independent of a separate bubbler? It is my understanding that the waterfarm system has been around for quite sometime. Finally, It is a very common method of pumping a well, particular if you are just trying to dewater or develope and not drink it. So what I am saying is it is done on an industrial level everyday and has been for many years. So perhaps by looking into the methods used there you could get some inspiration to improve the concept. I have always been a big fan of air lifts, it's nice to not have any pumps to fuck with, just a compressor and some pipe. Hope that helps a little more than my first post. Sorry.
can you tell me if the water flow in the waterfarm is a smooth stream or spurty like in my video? thanks
It's spurty and gurgley. I was thinking about this a little more while I was driving today. Let me get you up to speed with a typically industrial use. Here is how it works in like a 40' dewatering well. You drill the hole throw in some big ass PVC casing, usually 6", the you take some 1" and run it down the hole to the bottom, then you rent a compressor from united rentals or where ever, and hook the hose on to the 1" and boom! In a pinch you can just run the hose down the hole but that is frowned upon, if you want serious efficiency you have have another 4" inside as well so that you are not losing any of your air to the formation. You're pumping some serious water, and it is very spurty and gurgley. So what this is going to come down to I think, is being able to get a significant amount of oxygen into the water, while still being enough to lift water for drip feed. Now if we were going to try and oxygenate the water in the ground rather than pump it out, we would do something not dissimilar, we would drill a hole and install directly into the ground a 1" PVC with a screen on the end, same thing, hook that bitch up to a compressor and go. (the purpose of this is to feed the bugs that eat the pollutant as a remediation technique) Perhaps that information helps.
you have re-invented the Waterfarm ..and I know cause I use em ..and yes it is "spurty" .. just like yours.. and BTW the guts they cost about 15 bucks... I build mine with a five gallon buckets and aero lids.. with guts and air pumps it comes to about 35 bucks a bucket ... not cuttng down your work .. pretty cool actually.... but if you hit any DIY site they have all sorts of videos/instructions on making air powered hydro systems... peace Wharf.