Dropping Science - SpicySativa's Microbe Wrangling Experiments

[Microbeman]

Maybe more air holes. Soft rock phosphate is pretty optional. Try sticking to the percentages; eg. 2.38% compost or VC; 0.5% black strap molasses - grocery store, feed store quality is fine. Eco1 is plenty for 5 gallons. You only need one airlift for a good vortex. See my videos on youtube. Kelpmeal can cause serious O2 loss; Maximum 0.25% of just plain livestock quality.

Try your first run with VC & molasses. Do you really need a heater?

Edit: I use SRP to feed a certain type of microbe, not for its inherent qualities.

 

[SpicySativa]

Microbeman- Thanks for the tips! I've checked out your videos. Very helpful. Next brew, I will use the percent concentrations you recommended and see how that works out.

As far as the heater... I'm not sure that I NEED it, but without the heater my brew temp is about 58-60 degrees. It's chilly in my basement. My goal is to brew at approximately the temperature of my soil, which I guesstimate is about 65-70 degrees.

I'll post up my results, and I'll post my airlift/vortex when I get it built.

 

[Bennyweed1]

I think you need to make an air lift system.

You could have made on cheaper then buying the supplies needed to make your current X manifold possibly

I use this in a 5 gallon bucket with a 40LPM pump. With a little modification it works awesome:

http://compare.ebay.com/like/150984336967?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

This kid did a ghetto job of setting his airlift up but if you watch he will show you the notches you have to cut out of the bottom to make it work really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCeA9Vdp02Q

 

[SpicySativa]

Benny- An air lift is definitely in the works. I actually had the majority of the parts for the bubble bucket, so the only cost there was the pump.

Stay tuned

 

[SpicySativa]

Airlift/Vortex Brewer

Airlift/Vortex Brewer

What's up everyone?

I'm back with some more brewing experiments. This time, I'm running my newly built airlift/vortex brewer. First off, I gotta say I fucking love this thing... It's easy as hell to set up, break down, clean, etc... No glued connections, evertything just pulls apart, gets a quick scrub down with a bottle brush, and gets dunked into a bucket of dilute bleach. Take-down/clean-up takes about 5 minutes. Setup takes about 5 minutes. Can't complain...

I just started another batch of tea yesterday afternoon, and I have been monitoring pH, DO, and temperature periodically (nothin' scientific about my timing here, just proving to myself that it's running smoothly).

Ingredients:
~1.5 cup of EWC from the local worm farm (couple miles from home)

~5 TBSP molasses

~5 gallons of chlorine/chloramine free tap water

Conditions at the beginning of the brew were:
Temp: 17.3 degrees
DO: 9.58 mg/L (ppm) (over 99% oxygen saturation)
pH: 4.5 (this Earth Juice Hi-Brix molasses seems especially acidic... I won't be buying it again)

Conditions now (18 hours later):
Temp: 19.8 degrees
DO: 9.12 mg/L (this is STILL over 99% oxygen saturation )
pH: 5.3

I checked on the brew several times between these two measurements and I didn't record any DO measurements below 99% saturation.

Me and my plants are lovin' it... I've been doing brews back to back, and pouring them all over my landscape, fruit trees, raised beds, flowers, etc...

The design is pretty self explanatory, but I'd be happy to answer and questions if you're looking to build one.

I've gotta give credit where credit's due. This design is obviously not entirely my own. I have taken ideas from the resources below, and "made them my own":

~Microbeman's site and the DIY design he links to.

~Various YouTube videos, and google search results

~Countless hours of reading and researching other peoples ideas. If this design looks familiar... THANK YOU for the ideas!




~

 

[Old_Headbanger]

Cool set up, spicy. Nice and simple. How'd you seal up the return on the bottom going into the water jug?

 

[SpicySativa]

The connection between the bottle and the "Tee" is a 1.5" rubber coupling (couple bucks at Home Depot). It stretches over the bottle (securred by a hose clamp), then slides over a short section of 1.5" PVC, which is then slipped into the "Tee".

Here's a picture that might be easier to see:

 

[BugJar]

I use my teas at about 14 hours personally. perhaps my laziness has been a blessing

If the tea was drastically warmer when you took this reading some of the o2 may have come out of suspension due to that factor

 

[SpicySativa]

Bugjar- are you referring to my previous run with the bubble bucket (DO dropped to about 1.0)? It's true that rising temperatures lower the "ceiling" for how high DO can be, but at 21*C the saturation concentration is still up around 8.9 ppm.

 

[Microbeman]

I use my teas at about 14 hours personally. perhaps my laziness has been a blessing

If the tea was drastically warmer when you took this reading some of the o2 may have come out of suspension due to that factor

At 14 hours the liklihood of sufficient protozoa for optimum nutrient cycling is minimal.

 

[SpicySativa]

14 hours seems pretty quick to me, too. That's primarily based on my research, as I'm still learning this stuff...

 

[anonymousgrow]

Did you end up doing more DO experimenting? I have yet to get a DO meter So I would love to see what you are learning.

 

[xmobotx]

yeah some more experiments would be interesting

 

[robotwithdreams]

What's up everyone?

I'm back with some more brewing experiments. This time, I'm running my newly built airlift/vortex brewer. First off, I gotta say I fucking love this thing... It's easy as hell to set up, break down, clean, etc... No glued connections, evertything just pulls apart, gets a quick scrub down with a bottle brush, and gets dunked into a bucket of dilute bleach. Take-down/clean-up takes about 5 minutes. Setup takes about 5 minutes. Can't complain...

I just started another batch of tea yesterday afternoon, and I have been monitoring pH, DO, and temperature periodically (nothin' scientific about my timing here, just proving to myself that it's running smoothly).

Ingredients:
~1.5 cup of EWC from the local worm farm (couple miles from home)

~5 TBSP molasses

~5 gallons of chlorine/chloramine free tap water

Conditions at the beginning of the brew were:
Temp: 17.3 degrees
DO: 9.58 mg/L (ppm) (over 99% oxygen saturation)
pH: 4.5 (this Earth Juice Hi-Brix molasses seems especially acidic... I won't be buying it again)

Conditions now (18 hours later):
Temp: 19.8 degrees
DO: 9.12 mg/L (this is STILL over 99% oxygen saturation )
pH: 5.3

I checked on the brew several times between these two measurements and I didn't record any DO measurements below 99% saturation.

Me and my plants are lovin' it... I've been doing brews back to back, and pouring them all over my landscape, fruit trees, raised beds, flowers, etc...

The design is pretty self explanatory, but I'd be happy to answer and questions if you're looking to build one.

I've gotta give credit where credit's due. This design is obviously not entirely my own. I have taken ideas from the resources below, and "made them my own":

~Microbeman's site and the DIY design he links to.

~Various YouTube videos, and google search results

~Countless hours of reading and researching other peoples ideas. If this design looks familiar... THANK YOU for the ideas!




~

Thanks for sharing. Wondering if you used eco 5 or 1 on this vortex setup.

I have used eco 1 on similar vortex with seemingly good results. I think I made the mistake of using 1.25" pvc. 1.5 " Pvc seems like a better idea.