10 min $10 DIY aerated compost tea ACT brewer

Scrappy4 · Apr 11, 2011

scrappy
i'm of the opinion that in an air lift scenario, bigger bubbles move more water than smaller ones (ie the diffuser isn't helping, plus it can rob you of a lot of your CFM)

Could be, but i also could see a wall of small bubbles being more effective than fewer large bubbles. Once we got a flow, it was time to go, so we did not try each way. i can do that in the future but my friend (where I'm working on it) has a work gig for ten days so it will be awhile untill i can work on it again.

The biggest key seemed to be the smaller diameter of the up riser. The smaller diameter seemed to allow for higher pressure, and less water for the air to push, and was enough to get some flow.

I re-read my previous post and now realise i did not mention the upgrading the pump to a commercial eco # 3, so part of it was the larger pump, but even with a bigger pump, we still had to reduce the size of up riser to get flow......scrappy

Microbeman · Apr 11, 2011

supuradam said:
It was a one piece bend vs. hooking up a couple pieces of pvc. I just thought it would be a smoother ride.

Oh. Okay.

Microbeman · Apr 11, 2011

Using a diffuser, once you have your ratio of pipe diameter

ump output:height of rise figured out, is going to be more efficient for increasing dissolved O2.

supuradam · Apr 15, 2011

I guess it was just a really stupid question.

Going even smaller, with a 3/4" pipe helped. I also redid the way I had it secured so the return was just about 1" above the water level. I was trying to use a 5 gallon bucket, but only had 3 gallons of water in it, and the old one was a lot higher. I think I was just trying to fight too much gravity. You live, you learn.

Que sera

thatgreenstuff · Apr 18, 2011

Hey guys I am planning on building an airlift brewer, but im wondering on what size pump I am going to need. I have read some of microbe man's info but I cant seem to figure out because all the pumps I have are rated in gph. I am going to be using a 5 gallon bucket probably trying to brew about 3-4 gallons in there. If anyone could suggest a link to a pump or a specific ghp rating that would be enough for headieblunts design. Also (sorry im rambling) Im wondering if there are any dreaded "Dead Zones" in this type of airlift design?

Microbeman · Apr 18, 2011

thatgreenstuff said:
Hey guys I am planning on building an airlift brewer, but im wondering on what size pump I am going to need. I have read some of microbe man's info but I cant seem to figure out because all the pumps I have are rated in gph. I am going to be using a 5 gallon bucket probably trying to brew about 3-4 gallons in there. If anyone could suggest a link to a pump or a specific ghp rating that would be enough for headieblunts design. Also (sorry im rambling) Im wondering if there are any dreaded "Dead Zones" in this type of airlift design?

You can do your own conversions here.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/flow_rate_volume.htm

There is a lot more to preventing dead zones than just an airlift. A conebottom tank with an airlift is best but more expensive. Dead zones are not that big a deal really. If you have a little compost sitting on the bottom, it provides a good spot for fungal hyphae to grow. Also a few anaerobes are okay, maybe good. Some anaerobes (& facultative anaerobes) are very beneficial and anaerobes which are pathogens can boost the anti-pathogen strength of your microbial consortia similar to germs and your immune system.

Scrappy4 · Apr 18, 2011

Still a work in progress, but I'm getting closer.

I'm using an eco air 3 commercial pump. It is rated at 65 liters per minute, I would not go any smaller for an air lift design as it is barely enough to force the tea up and over.

But just the pump and diffuser in the tank without the air lift return up riser agitates better than the air lift, but i have no way to measure dissolved O2 difference each way.

The tank came with threaded nuts embedded on one side of the tank, so I screwed the tank to the plywood, then U bolted the plywood to the cart.

The bottom pic shows the homemade diffuser. It is simply a piece of pvc that has been plugged and jammed into the female end of the barbed fitting, and is inside of the return up-riser. It has tiny holes drilled on an angle to force the air up......scrappy

Diffuser:

Microbeman · Apr 18, 2011

Scrappy4 said:
Still a work in progress, but I'm getting closer.

I'm using an eco air 3 commercial pump. It is rated at 65 liters per minute, I would not go any smaller for an air lift design as it is barely enough to force the tea up and over.

But just the pump and diffuser in the tank without the air lift return up riser agitates better than the air lift, but i have no way to measure dissolved O2 difference each way.

The tank came with threaded nuts embedded on one side of the tank, so I screwed the tank to the plywood, then U bolted the plywood to the cart.

The bottom pic shows the homemade diffuser. It is simply a piece of pvc that has been plugged and jammed into the female end of the barbed fitting, and is inside of the return up-riser. It has tiny holes drilled on an angle to force the air up......scrappy

Diffuser:

The air lift works on the principle of a full container (or almost) That's why your flow is low. You'd be better not to use the screw in brass fitting for your airline, as noted on my webpage. It restricts your CFM by at least 20%. (quote below)

http://www.microbeorganics.com/#So_You_Wanna_Build_A_Compost_Tea_Brewer
All of these pumps come with a little threaded brass fitting for screwing into the air output. DO NOT USE THESE! Put them in your parts drawer. These constrict the air and reduce your CFM by at least 20%. Rather, find tubing which slides over the nipple into which the threads are tapped. In the case of the Eco Plus 5 and the Hailea, 5/8ths inside diameter works. Slide the air tubing over and secure with a gear clamp. The Eco Plus has a very short nipple so I score the metal with a couple of swipes with a hacksaw to create barbs for the tubing to grip. You can find tubing at a building supply like Home Depot or Rona in Canada. I use the braided reinforced stuff which does not kink

Scrappy4 · Apr 18, 2011

The pics show two gallons of tea in the ten gallon brewer. I started with one gallon and got some drips for a return flow, then worked my way up in liquid just to check the flow at different levels. Your right MM as the head pressure from more water increases so does the flow.

But, and there's always a but isn't there? When I plugged the upriser with a rubber bung, the agitation inside the tank was much better, it actually was moving the cart a little, and with the splashing around inside I suspect the dissolved O was close to the same. I've read MM's links showing that breaking the surface tension ups the dissolved O greatly, so I don't say that without some thought, it really agitated that much more without the air dump, but that effect might decrease when the tank gets more filled, I'll have to think/smoke on it....

Anyway I'm kicking around the idea to simplify by using a T on the bottom. One leg going up to the tank, the middle leg to a piece of plastic tubing for a simple to clean drain that could be secured near the top of the cart somehow, and the last leg going to the air supply line....scrappy

Microbeman · Apr 18, 2011

The airlift does not just increase dissolved O2 by breaking the surface, the spacetime continuume times the equivalency diameter divided by pii times the elevation normalcey factor continues the worm warp tesseract. Just kidding! The pressure created in the riser increases the dissolved O2 capacity of your CFM output. To see the real math look for the PDF I posted earlier.

heady blunts · Apr 19, 2011

scrap that thing is pretty sweet. i love the mounting situation.

yea like mm said, it's not gonna run with 2 gals in a 10 gal brewer. i recommend on my itty bitty one that the spout is positioned 2"-3" from the water surface. this means that the top of the lift is less than 6" from the water surface.

it takes a lot of energy to move water up, so the less distance above the water level you make it travel, the less force you're losing, and the better your flow will be.

RipVanWeed · Apr 19, 2011

I've found that if I run the lift more than 2" above the water level the splash out is excessive.

MicrobeMan (Thanks) relieved my concern regarding minimum waterfall distance, originally I tried to keep the drop over 4".

Even at 2" the flow back into the bucket is vigorous.

Respect,

Scrappy4 · Apr 19, 2011

Thanks Heady blunts, as you can see, I borrowed from other posters previous designs and MM's web page. Thanks to all.

Actually it does run with only two gallons of tea in it, although that would close to the minimum, at one gallon the return line drips and spits a little, two gallons maintains a flow, and the flow increases as the volume goes up. I only tested up to 5 gallons because my outside water is still not hooked up yet because we still are getting below freezing temps in my neck of the woods. So 5 gallons is all I hauled for this test. I ran it 24 hours with two gallons of tea, it did foam up nice, but I doubt the tea was very biologically active due to our low temps. I poured it on my compost pile. I did have some build up of mud on the bottom of the tank. The "cone" is more like a pyramid and has a flat spot on the bottom, so that gets a little build up, but I doubt it is enough to worry about. When set up as an air dump, there is not much agitation, when it is run as a bubbler style, it agitates real well. I wish I had a meter to check the dissolved O2 each way......scrappy

Edit although it's tuff to see in my pics the upriser is reduced from 11/4 to 1 inch. This helped get better flow.

thatgreenstuff · Apr 20, 2011

Well here is my first attempt at an airlift design. Its pretty much an exact copy of headies. Im brewing about 3.5 gallons . I found a pump today for 22 bucks at a pet store. It says up to 150 gallon tanks. I found out when i open the manual that it is only 11 lpm. Unless they mean 11lpm per outlet which i doubt. I have an extra dual pump sitting around maybe i could throw to airstones in the 5 gallon jug as well if that pump isnt enough. Let me know what you guys think. If I have to just get a 50 lpm pump at the hydro store i will but ide rather save the 40 bucks if I can. I cant really tell if the lift is getting enough pressure or not.

thatgreenstuff · Apr 21, 2011

Ok so i changed things around a bit from my last post. First I added the general hydro pump which is 20lpm but with the current 1/2 piping it was really loud water splashing, so I changed from a 1/2 pipe to a 1 & 1/2 pipe. I also changed the hoses and how they enter the up lift. Before I had the hoses for aquariums from like petco and had them doing a u turn via rubber band into the up lift pipe. I bought some water pipe from lowes which is much stronger and sturdier. When i tried to bend it like how headiez has it they pinch up so I instead drilled holes and just have them going in horizontally. This should be ok yea? i included a picture to help illustrate. Everything looks like its working good now. What do you guys think, will she make good tea? ( i know it depends on the compost ) wich brings me to one extra question >< is eb stone ewc, and eb stone organic compost good enough to make a healthy and active act.

heady blunts · Apr 25, 2011

thatgreenstuff said:
Ok so i changed things around a bit from my last post. First I added the general hydro pump which is 20lpm but with the current 1/2 piping it was really loud water splashing, so I changed from a 1/2 pipe to a 1 & 1/2 pipe. I also changed the hoses and how they enter the up lift. Before I had the hoses for aquariums from like petco and had them doing a u turn via rubber band into the up lift pipe. I bought some water pipe from lowes which is much stronger and sturdier. When i tried to bend it like how headiez has it they pinch up so I instead drilled holes and just have them going in horizontally. This should be ok yea? i included a picture to help illustrate. Everything looks like its working good now. What do you guys think, will she make good tea? ( i know it depends on the compost ) wich brings me to one extra question >< is eb stone ewc, and eb stone organic compost good enough to make a healthy and active act.

very clean! congrats your new brewer!

Truthbesaid · May 5, 2011

my little 5 min brewer. my airstones broke so i set this up.. even with the slow flow rate its got more foam than with just the airstones(that pic was as soon as i added stuff) now woud it work better with a full U spout? just used pipes i had already so i plan on going to grab more tomorrow.

Scrappy4 · May 13, 2011

Scrappy4 said:
Still a work in progress, but I'm getting closer.

I'm using an eco air 3 commercial pump. It is rated at 65 liters per minute, I would not go any smaller for an air lift design as it is barely enough to force the tea up and over.

But just the pump and diffuser in the tank without the air lift return up riser agitates better than the air lift, but i have no way to measure dissolved O2 difference each way.

The tank came with threaded nuts embedded on one side of the tank, so I screwed the tank to the plywood, then U bolted the plywood to the cart.

The bottom pic shows the homemade diffuser. It is simply a piece of pvc that has been plugged and jammed into the female end of the barbed fitting, and is inside of the return up-riser. It has tiny holes drilled on an angle to force the air up......scrappy

Diffuser:

My homemade brewer experiment goes on. I've found that the up riser pipe gets clogged with organic matter after a while. The up riser pipe is only a one inch pvc pipe so with the diffuser in place (1/2 inch) there is not much room for large particles to get by the diffuser, so they clog there. Rather than bag up my compost I eliminated the up-riser completely and still use the diffuser but it is right on the tank bottom. The agitation is much better this way, although dissolved O2 comparisons are unknown.

I've now made a half dozen 7 gallon teas in this 10 gallon brewer. I've cut it by 1/2 to 2/3 with rain water. Most of the brews are just homemade compost, alfalfa, molasses and rain water. (i'm low on homemade ewc at the moment) In this short time my indoor plants seem to love the tea, in fact that is all they have had other than water throughout veg, I've never had better veg growth in fact, and outdoors in the flower garden the plants love it. I did not glue anything, so it comes apart easy for cleaning between brews, and so far it seems to hold together.

And the difference from my old brews in a 5 gallon bucket and this brewer is huge, I'm kind of shocked actually, how well it works.....scrappy

Bullfrog44 · May 30, 2011

I am trying to make my own compost tea brewer as well. I am trying to figure out what size container to buy, but I don't know how much tea is made with each batch. For example, if I buy a five gal bucket, does that make 5 gal of feed? Or is that concentrated and makes more like 15 gal of feed? Any info would be great, sorry if missed earlier in the thread.

Edit: I know you can't fill container to the top because of overflow, just wondering if the tea is concentrated.

Bullfrog44 · May 31, 2011

Bump:

I also figured I will be using about 25 gal an application. Any suggestions on what size container or air pump?

10 min $10 DIY aerated compost tea ACT brewer

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