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Big problems with bubblers – DWC, RDWC grower's opinions

-TheShortTexan-

Active member
I use brass tee's to match the size of the air line. I've never had them clog, not once. Their definitely not fine bubbles but once the roots fill up my dwc buckets, it doesn't really matter. They don't float either.

Plus, less air flow restriction means it's moving more air and the pumps will run cooler.

Brass tee's are a good idea. I'm sure it's been argued here somewhere, but what's the advantage of smaller bubbles anyways?
 

Big Nasty

Active member
That's what works for me:200 lph airpump with a small airstone in 10-11 lt of solution,when i harvest the plant i put the stone in bleach for 24 h and it's ready to go again. it has never clogged and the next will be 5th cycle with this stone.Good and healty rootmass till the harvest.
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-TheShortTexan-

Active member
That's what works for me:200 lph airpump with a small airstone in 10-11 lt of solution,when i harvest the plant i put the stone in bleach for 24 h and it's ready to go again. it has never clogged and the next will be 5th cycle with this stone.Good and healty rootmass till the harvest. View Image View Image

The infertility ad on those cigarettes.... that's some funny shit
 
How often do you have problems with bubblers stopping up, making less or no bubbles?
What brand of bubbler (diffuser) stops up least?
Can you clean bubblers and make them work good again or just pitch them in the trash and buy a new one?
Thanks

After tinkering with the DWC design for years and doing all sorts of silly things with it, I just run air lines weighted with fishing weights and no air stones. Just barebacking. I like each DWC to have it's own individual pump and I've been converting over to each DWC having two different air lines from a two outlet pump. This is what has worked best for me but different strokes.

I really don't notice any difference with air stones after playing with a bunch of different ones from the disks, to the wands, to the cheap block ones to the long tube ones. It doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference to me. But also, I don't mind losing a slight bit of performance in this regard to just not have to deal with them.
 
Come to think of it, in my last grow. I was experimenting with those new ball airstones that are supposed to be the latest greatest thing for air diffusion. I had one in a 5-gallon DWC out of three Strawberry Blue plants and a couple throughout the grow. Really no difference between plants or yields that I observed.

I can only report from my own experience and my own knowledge, but I really don't think they do much. However, I believe in maximum amount of air in the bucket possible. So I'm probably different from a lot of people in that I run each DWC with it's own air pump. And I've been experimenting with multiple airlines going into the bucket. Surprisingly my last grow, the biggest yielder was a sativa from a beat up old single outlet pump.
 

-TheShortTexan-

Active member
I run open lines from a large vivosun air pump. I give it it's own little fan blowing across the heat sinks to keep the air pump cool. My personal largest problem is res temps. From what I understand it doesn't matter how much air you pump into the res if it's too hot. Won't hold the dissolved oxygen. But I'm still learning and I like to see that water rolling with bubbles... I did grow some awesome bagseed years ago in a shoebox sized clear Tupperware container with bubbles that looked more like someone was blowing through the opposite end of a straw lol... still actually managed some nice bud. But very little of it... learned a little bit since then.
 
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