Could Air Stones Be Doing More Harm Than Good?

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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I would not recommend doing this. Risk of toxic metals as the plates break down, gives falsely inflated o2 levels with a DO meter. These are a gimmick.

I bought an O2G 2020 but have not been able to put it through a full grow. It does have a built in timer to prevent O2 levels being toxic. I combined it with a low pressure pump on a separate timer to circulate the nutes every 1-2 hours as the O2 is said to stay in the nutes at least that long. So far, still stuck with airpump/stones
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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I bought an O2G 2020 but have not been able to put it through a full grow. It does have a built in timer to prevent O2 levels being toxic. I combined it with a low pressure pump on a separate timer to circulate the nutes every 1-2 hours as the O2 is said to stay in the nutes at least that long. So far, still stuck with airpump/stones
The micro bubble are small and stay suspended. They do not actually dissolve in the water. Because if this they fool o2 meters and give a false reading.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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The plates used to make them carry an electrical current and they react with the salinity in the water and break down over time releasing metals.
 
UC Quest

UC Quest

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I wasn’t thinking of the o2 grow emitters. I was referring to real nano bubble generators.
 
Roybart

Roybart

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if you are unsure about using air check this out. The idea that bubblers increase water temps is a stretch .. It may just a tad, but not enough to worry about. I tested using pumps and it became a maintenance nightmare. Roots get sucked into the pump, calcium build-up and yes a pump does get hot, and uses more watts. Plus I would need a pump for each bucket. For me, I use the General Hydroponics 706335 Farm kit. I set mine about an inch above the hydroton and an air pump. Bigger air pumps are better!!!. I have water trickling down all the time. I checked the flow rate and it was about 1 gallon per hour. ((but I will check it again) I have set mine up duplex so if a pump failed the other would still provide air. (at a reduced rate but some is better than none.)
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I don't know who suggested that air bubbles would increase temps, unless the air pump is in a warm air area

I'm excited to report I finally made a break through that many small number of hydro plant growers will want to employ. It is based on my DIY cloner.I have 2 plants that did well until they got to roughly the 4th node, then faded. One will likely not survive, but the other has developed nice new roots in just 24 hours.

I will post pics in a few more days, both here and on my thread
 
B

BroScience101

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Holy Cow! I can't believe my thread is still alive! I was bored today and decided to come by and see if any OGs were still here posting. Had to make a new account. After I left this forum I decided I was sick of the wastefulness of hydro so I ditched it all together after growing in the uc for almost 10 years and never losing a single plant.

I switched over to organic soil and being who I am, had to discredit so much nonsense like Coconut water with scientific studies.

PXL 20201202 004138043


PXL 20201202 004125266


Water only start to finish. Only use neem meal in the initial mix. The entire room only cost me a couple hundred to buy and fill 16 containers of 15 gallons each compared to the old $2,300 uc system.

I most likely won't continue posting but just wanted to stop in and say hey
 
B

BroScience101

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Btw the growth and yields are on par with my old hydro system
 
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Tubilcain

Tubilcain

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I decided to make this thread since I see a lot of people over think hydro. A lot of times "adding more" or "going bigger" is a solution to hopes of achieving those big tree dreams. In reality , could everything they are doing be setting them further back?

Halfway thru my last run I was doing some cleaning and/or general maintenance around my air pumps (still same size that came with my UC Double barrel 16) when I accidentally knocked off the hose that connected to the air stones. Now , I've felt this air before and knew it was hot. That was why Last year I replaced my metal air Manifolds that came from current culture with white plastic ones from the grow store. The plastic didn't heat up like the metal ones. I also replaced all the airline with blue aquatic airline to keep heat away.

This time I really thought about this super hot air. What good could air that is hot enough to be uncomfortable on my skin be for my roots . Skin is a protective layer that has been weathered by dirt, oxygen, sunlight, etc. If this air could do that to my thick skin l, what would it do to gentle sensitive sterile roots that have lived in water their entire lives which are more like our veins or organs rather than our skin.

I unplugged the air pump and left it off the rest of the entire run. Plants still thrived and produced the most fire flowers I've ever been able to accomplish. I feel the quality increase is mostly due to my switching to 600s from 1000s however not having any air stones roaring didn't hinder my success.

After every harvest I always toss my baskets, grow rocks, and airstones and replace them with new ones. Since I switched to 600s and lost yield I decided to cut costs and reuse my baskets and grow rocks and simply wash them. As for the air stones, i tossed them and decided to not replace them. I went ahead and removed all the airlines, air manifolds, and put the pump away into storage.

I made an educated hypothesis that the hot air blowing into my root mass was not only physically damaging from the force of the bubbles but also from the temperature. I also guessed that the hot air that comes up thru the water on its way to the surface is also exchanging heat with the water its directly in contact with this heating the system and being counter productive to a water chiller.

We know air bubbles don't oxygenate water unlike what most of us believed when we first got into hydro . Water takes in air from its surface area. The bubbles simply break up the waters surface exposing more of it to the air allowing more oxygen to be absorbed. So a standing calm glass of water will still take in oxygen just fine, and if you stir the water up it'll increase the surface area and take in more. You don't need roaring bubbles.

I figured with the AL15 still going in the Epi center and the waterfall effect in the epicenter from recirculating, id have plenty of DO.

So I took a batch of clones from my ez cloner and threw them into the system with no airstones.

View attachment 657059

I did water thru the top for first 3 days which also had me thinking that I plan to turn the rerun pvc into a feed and recirculate each bucket individually the way the epi center does. I'll just put the pump into the epi center and suck from the epi center and push thru the small pvc feed line and create a waterfall effect in each site.

Here they are 5 days into veg

View attachment 657060

Lights went out and here's a size comparison for you. 15 inches tall after only 5 days in the UC with no air stones.

View attachment 657061

And here are the roots after 5 days. Healthy and white. Lots of those little finger side growth where the bubbles would normally damage or rip those off. However, as you'll be able to notice there is a film starting to form at the top of the water from lack of agitation .

View attachment 657062

I only use RO and A+B so the water doesn't smell and it's not hurting my roots. I plan to change the system out every week until I can modify it for next run to waterfall in every bucket.

Hopefully this can help people cut costs and grow bigger , healthier plants.
Get yourself a dissolved oxygen meter. Water does not take in oxygen just fine on its own. I know this for fact as I have a dissolved oxygen meter. I bought it when I tried out O2 grow. I had timers to run pumps at night and the O2 grow during the day. Out of the tap your water has 8 to 10 ppm. The air pumps will maintain that, but will not go higher then 8 ppm. With the O2 grow I was able to get up to 15 ppm. But the O2 grow is better suited for a drain to waste system. Not very good for DWC in my opinion. But out of all this experimenting and O2 readings. I can tell you without air stones your water will come crashing down to 2 ppm in hours.
 
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mojavegreen

mojavegreen

707
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Get yourself a dissolved oxygen meter. Water does not take in oxygen just fine on its own. I know this for fact as I have a dissolved oxygen meter. I bought it when I tried out O2 grow. I had timers to run pumps at night and the O2 grow during the day. Out of the tap your water has 8 to 10 ppm. The air pumps will maintain that, but will not go higher then 8 ppm. With the O2 grow I was able to get up to 15 ppm. But the O2 grow is better suited for a drain to waste system. Not very good for DWC in my opinion. But out of all this experimenting and O2 readings. I can tell you without air stones your water will come crashing down to 2 ppm in hours.
Have you tried flooming?
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

26,480
638
Get yourself a dissolved oxygen meter. Water does not take in oxygen just fine on its own. I know this for fact as I have a dissolved oxygen meter. I bought it when I tried out O2 grow. I had timers to run pumps at night and the O2 grow during the day. Out of the tap your water has 8 to 10 ppm. The air pumps will maintain that, but will not go higher then 8 ppm. With the O2 grow I was able to get up to 15 ppm. But the O2 grow is better suited for a drain to waste system. Not very good for DWC in my opinion. But out of all this experimenting and O2 readings. I can tell you without air stones your water will come crashing down to 2 ppm in hours.
So the reason your seeing o2 increases its not dissolved o2 its suspended... this o2 grow emmiters produce micro bubbles so fine that they have less buoyancy so they stay suspended longer. It trucks the meter into a false reading of dissolved o2.

Not to mention those emmiters don't do well in saline water and actually break down releasing metals into the water.
 
Ladyera

Ladyera

1
1
Whats the conclusion for this guy?

Ive found that my latest rdwc roots growing so slow.

Should i change the chiller temp and stop the air pump?

Yikes
 
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