mest

at what point does adding more air/air stones to a bubbler become pointless, or is it the more air the better, also is one place better than another when it comes to placing air stones. need to know cause i'm looking into getting a large bubbler setup.

HydroSan

Hi mest,

The more air the better IMO, I doubt you'll get into the area of too much air, have a look at the colonels grow, a huge pump drives that grow and he still wants more, they are rather large plants though

If you're into huge air, an industrial pump would be far superior to an aquarium style pump, GAST do some good diafram pumps, look at a rotary vane type too

You have the option of H2O2 if you still require more DO, get some DO test strips so you can quantify it better.

Sanster

the colonel

there's a point of DO (dissolved oxygen) saturation in the water.. something like 8% (??) but you won't get even close to that with airstones or soaker hose unless you have compressed oxygen pumping into the buckets..

a venturi or powerhead will do a better job but they're more prone to breakdown, more expensive and consume more power.

didn't see anything tangible going from one airstone in the bucket to a bigger pump and two stones.. a very good start is a pump that puts out 600cc's of air for ever gallon of water in the buckets.. problem is, if you want to go bigger/better anything but a "diaphragm pump" is pretty noisy. you shouldn't need to spend more than $40 for a pump that'll do 8 buckets ime.

when you get to the bigger plants and run soaker hose you need big psi numbers out of your pump and you won't get that in a quiet pump.. the pistons and gast's or roc-r's or whatever are very loud.. not suitable for a home setup imo but yeah, the more air the better but you're fine with a $40 pump and an airstone..

that was a really scattered post, sorry bout that. pretty tiring day


peace y'all