alternatives to airstone?

[kushtrees]

Hi all Ive always used airstones in my resses but im pretty sick of them now. I was wondering what other growers did to keep nutes mixed/ aerated while sitting.

Ive looked into a couple of ways....

theres flooming which is just putting a upward facing pump in the res and letting it break the water level just enough to keep things mixed and aerated
(theres a thread on the advanced forums about this)

or

Venturi which is similiar except that air tubing is used with it to create tons of bubbles

either way looks better than stones to me but my only concern is water temps running a pump 24/7, might get pretty hot. I know water temp isnt as big a deal with coco as dwc but its still a concern.

Id love to hear what other people do and if anyone has used these meathods any probs youve ran into. thanks everyon1!

 

[xrob415x]

You can get a long straw, insert it in the res then blow on it. This seems to work great. jk I wouldnt go the pump rout because I have had many situations occur were it raises my res to 85+ degrees when I have forgot to turn it off. I dont know why you dont like airstones but i have not found a more effective means to aerate the water. you mentioned that high res temp isnt as damaging while using coco, it sure is when you are using teas or beneficial bacteria and the high temps cause the bad bacterias to overthrow the good ones. thats just my opinion

 

[Seamaiden]

Hi all Ive always used airstones in my resses but im pretty sick of them now. I was wondering what other growers did to keep nutes mixed/ aerated while sitting.

Ive looked into a couple of ways....

theres flooming which is just putting a upward facing pump in the res and letting it break the water level just enough to keep things mixed and aerated
(theres a thread on the advanced forums about this)

or

Venturi which is similiar except that air tubing is used with it to create tons of bubbles

either way looks better than stones to me but my only concern is water temps running a pump 24/7, might get pretty hot. I know water temp isnt as big a deal with coco as dwc but its still a concern.

Id love to hear what other people do and if anyone has used these meathods any probs youve ran into. thanks everyon1!

Anything that creates surface turbulence is going to aerate the water column, that's what airstones actually do, create surface turbulence. So! You can "floom", I would use a powerhead for this instead of something like a sump pump, that way you can just drop it in there and have no worries.

Do you understand, though, how a venturi is created? It is not as you describe. A venturi is created when you have a substance passing through a limited space at high pressure and the opening is increased and an opening to allow air to be drawn in is placed near this constricted area. This creates superfine bubbles which do add DO (dissolved oxygen) to the water column. They can also, depending on your set-up, pull DOCs (dissolved organic compounds) from the water column into a froth of bubbles, this is called foam fractionation (aka protein skimming) and is a form of chemical filtration.

DIY venturi: