Currently I'm using a custom made flood and drain hydroponic system. I flood every 6 hours in each of my bins. I'm running 5.7 ph constant with sensi A and B and I am on a 24/0 photoperiod. I was tweaking with my different types of water pumps and air pumps, trying to form a hybrid of sorts. I created a lot of effects injecting massive amounts of air into the hose of a 375 gph water pump. I got lots of different effects, not so impressive, bubbles moving through the water tube to the grow beds big deal..... But then after some more tinkering what I discovered was that if air is injected into a specific area of a high pressure water line at the right angle and just the right flow with the right shaped head, you cross a threshold and it makes a very fine hissing sound resulting in billions of microscopic bubbles with optimal surface area; I'm talking aerosol baby.... The water comes out in a jet and fills the 65 gallon grow bed, and there is a super thick white solution of microscopic bubbles that dont float, but rather just whirl around suspended in the water. I noticed oxidation in the form of fizzing around the root masses. And there is a type of foaming around dead veg matter leading me to believe I may be pushing upper thresholds of naturally forming hydrogen peroxide. I will label this method the AquaponicHerbs 5 micron bubble method if it has significance. I will refine this and draw diagrams, this could be an alternative to numerous air stones for certain systems.......
Hi there I would love to shed a little light in the phenomenon that you discovered. What you have discovered is called a venturi and what is happening is that a tiny bit of air is making it into the intake of the pump and the impeller of the pump is chopping the bubbles into even tinner bubbles resulting is a super oxygenated water and also explains the foaming around the dead plant matter. You see venturi pumps have been around a long time and are mostly used in salt water aquariums. The venturi pumps are used in a device called a protein skimmer, which sends water bubbling up a cylinder and the foam is caught in a cup and the foam is basically fish waste. So it works two ways in the tank it first gets organic waste out of the tank and it oxygenates the water. If you wanted to take your experiment a bit further you can look into a venturi pump with a needle wheel which results in even finer bubbles. The only problem you may encounter is that if you are removing all of this foam you risk the chance of skimming your nutes out. Just let me know if you want any more info on the subject as taking care of reef tanks was my thing before MJ.
ive confirmed that I am using optimal oxygen intake. The water is a milky color with microscopic bubbles. The tolerances on this phenomenon are so exact its insane. I have to calibrate it for about 5 minutes, then once its set its set.
If you want to make it easer to get the bubbles going you can add a pvc fitting to the intake that has a small barb for small airline hose and just run the airline out of the water so it can suck in air and it will work every time.
It should work perfectly. I used to work in the aquarium industry and that is what we would use to turn a normal pump into a venturi pump, or a pump that sucks in air and chops it into tiny bubbles.
thanks for the info. im suprised no one uses this technology? why not? large air bubbles are inefficient and do not stay in the water as long as the smaller ones.
Yea im suprised also. This stuff has been around for a while but it looks like your the one to introduce it to mj.
OK, I made a venturi adapter. I used Bernoulli's principle to figure out the constants so I could adjust the angles just right. What I got now is an airhose coming out of my res which sucks in air on its own- injecting it into a 375 gph waterline. The design consists of several layers of different sized tubing, hose, plastic vitamin bottle, air flow regulator, screw-clamp for the seals, and pieces of a plastic pen with fanlike serations in it to atomize the bubbles to 5-20 microns. I then took it a step further, and attached an aquarium air pump rated for 150 gallons. What happened next was strange.... I heard a fizzing and popping all around, and the the tubes leading to the trays emitted a super high frequency whine, possibly a mach threshold. I could hear bubbles being smashed and smashed and smashed and cut and smashed again inside my venturi; fittings and a plastic bottle designed like a vortex, so the bubbles spin around the inside and get cut and smashed many times before escaping into the system. The water turned as white as milk, so opaque that I couldnt even seen 1 inch into the solution, like milk I tell ya. After looking more closely I realized they were billions of microscopic bubbles. The few I could actually make out with my eyes I estimated to be in the 30-40 micron range. There are many others of smaller size which I cannot make out that form the white hue in the water. I estimate these to be around 5-20 microns? this cant be right..... These small bubbles stay in the water almost indefinetly if there is current. Eventually they will rise to the top after 20-30 minutes but they are so tiny they tend to just move with the water back down into the res again for a double dose. There is also a foam, similar to what you see in the ocean when large waves crash, or in riptides. A rich bubbling foaming froth that oxidizes all the pathogens and dead organic matter it touches. This "surf foam" lingers but subsides and does not leave a soapy foam or residue. I'm am going to post some pictures soon dont have my cam. But most of all I'm looking forward to the results from my plants. I wish I could measure my oxygen levels. I may be close to aeroponic levels of oxygen, I dont know... I know I stumbled onto something significant because I have not been able to reach this kind of effeciency with aeration; I always just bubble the hell out of my res, but then once that water gets to the beds its all clear again with hardly any oxygen. I mean this is why some deep water cultures have an advantage over flood and drain because of the direct bubble to root action. I use to put airstones in the beds themselves- its a pain in the ass, lots of stones, and when the trays drain the airstones make noise and splatter water all over the plants. Now I just use 2 air pumps, and 2 375 gph water pumps- modified with my custom venturi adapter with spiral bubble cutting action. Thats it. My venturis and I got more than enough oxygen for about 15 4x4 grow beds with the following reasoning: Since all the water coming from the res is white with saturated microscopic bubbles that stay in the water for over 20 minutes, then the oxygen coverage is therefore an even 100% to all flooded beds since my water returns back to the res in less than 15 minutes before the cloudy bubbles eventually pop and the water turns clear again. Because I use stronger pumps I can cover this kind of volume with not delays. My airpump and waterpump come on at the same time. So I have no oxygen stones running when im not flooding. I have a single large bubble airstone to keep my res mixed. I wish someone had told me about this before, or on one of these forums. Given the science is out there, but I guess I had to just figure it out by mistake... I'll keep you guys posted...
What you are looking for is an Mazzei Injector http://shop.ebay.ca/i.html?_nkw=maz....l1313&_dmd=2&_odkw=mazzei+injector&_osacat=0
The injectors were popular years ago but most people whan they saw them and then saw the cost of $2 worth of plastic selling for $150 were turned off from them. What you really want is an Oxygen generation machine which also can be used along with a Mazzei Injector to mix in pure oxygen into your water. Mind you this is out of reach for most of the growers here but at $2.5K its not that bad OGSI: Oxygen generator manufacturer: Oxygen generators, oxygen tanks, pressure swing adsorption, og 15 portable oxygen generators equipment