Pretty simple airlift, just a tiny air tube moving water over 12ft!
This is the plan for the next phase of construction! Vertical air lift up to grow tubes and NFT system. What do you think of the new plan?
Vertical Airlift
Pretty simple airlift, just a tiny air tube moving water over 12ft!
This is the plan for the next phase of construction! Vertical air lift up to grow tubes and NFT system. What do you think of the new plan?
So cool Jessica how many watts does the air pump use and how many sites can you feed using this method? Was thinking of doing the same thing with zip towers.
Mike
It depends on the PSI of your air pump and pipe size for your flow. I don’t have my final model setup Ill let you know the flow rate when I get it all working the way I want. I am hoping to get the whole rack watered with one airlift 😉
Hi, I’d love to learn more about the airlift and its design. I am considering using airlift for my aquaponics system.
I am fascinated with them, Ill put my design and specifications up when I get the larger one built!
Check out ZipGrow towers. http://www.brightagrotech.com I think that they may work well for you.
Yes the ZipGrow Towers are pretty cool. I am building some that work very similar to those! I don’t have the budget for prefab ones unfortunately
>.. I, too, am interested in your lift capabilities. 12 feet is some lift. What size PVC tube and how much air pressure was needed?
>.. Any measure of flow rate? I’m looking to move about 6 gallons a minute about 12 feet above water level.
The test one I built was 1″ into 1/2″. I didn’t calculate flow rate yet, but it was only using one small hose of the main aerator. I’ll post an update when I get the 2″ one working! I might buy a small air pump to test with so we know exactly how much PSI we need…..
>.. There was a comment on either ZipGrow video, or Bright Aquaponics that they need 23 psi to function a 3″ lift reliably [I believe; might be 2″; it was a passing comment, not meant to be teaching] for their vertical towers. It might have been the UW Ag video and their vertical towers. All towers in the videos were 5 feet tall and hung over open water, as your design shows.
>.. I can’t say how high they were pumping, but measuring from the water surface to the top of the towers it would be less than 6 feet, I would guess.
>.. I have revised my own needs by making them simpler. Instead of pumping allwater to the ceiling and then distributing the water everywhere, I decided to just set up a small airlift for each of my strawberry towers. I’ll try with 1′ to 3/4 inch with a pump used for air brushing to supply the air.
>.. If, no joy, then 3/4 to 1/2. I’ll still need to climb the 10-12 feet, but I suspect it will go. If one works, then I’ll split the air and do two and then three. Three is the limit, this year.