by Josh
airlift system not working
6:43 pm in electronic components, Getting Started, How-Tos, kits, questions, Seeking Advice, Uncategorized, Water flow by Josh
The air pump only produces bubbles and does not lift water slugs to the top of the column. I’ve tried crimping the valve in the reservoir but it only works for a few minutes and then the water fails to climb to the top. What can I do to further close the valve or otherwise address the issue? Also, should I close the valve entirely with duct tape or something else? Thanks for your help!
You need to post a picture. It is usually easy to solve problems but without a picture, we have no way to see what the problem is. Your air could be too fast or too slow or submergence too small or it might be something else.
this happened to me for a while. Have you tried turning the dial on the pump up to full strength? That’s what solved it for me
This issue arises on my Tee valve airlift system when the reservoir is not deep enough or when the end of the open 5′ line in the T valve is not near the bottom of the reservoir. I’m not using any air needles in my system.
I am having the same problem with my system. First water slugs go up fine, then it stops after that. I will post a picture soon.
I uploaded four pictures of my windowfarm, it seems like I get a long column of water that can not reach the top and if I turn up the pump it just bubbles and does not help.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39067401@N04/sets/72157631687924756/
Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks for your responses, everyone. I fixed the problem!
After adjusting the air flow from the pump with no success, I went back to crimping the valve. Turned out that 4th try was the charm–I used regular pliers instead of needle-nose and and put a lot of strength into closing the valve as much as possible. I pinched hard from three angles all along the length of the (black plastic) valve and finally got a good, consistent airlift going. I’ve found that the lowest air flow setting works best.
So the lesson from me is that closing the valve eventually works–just keep trying and don’t be afraid to really squeeze those pliers hard.
Fantastic! I think we will revise the images to show regular pliers. I’ve also found that moving the airflow back to low helps. Great job!
Hello everyone,
Like Josh and Chris, the airlift system was not working well on my newly purchased Windowfarm Kit. Bubbles came out from the bottom, into the water tank, instead of pushing water upwards. I tried crimping the T-valve as depicted in the online instructions but to no avail. Frustrated, I read comments from the community and even tried modifying the system by adding a coiled soft tube in the bottom of the tank (to convince the air that going up into the lift tube was easier than going down into the tank). That didn’t work either – water would bubble in the bottom of the airlift tube and not lift to the top.
I was getting really worried that my kit wasn’t working properly. And finally, I found this thread, and I realized that perhaps I needed go back to the original instructions but try to crimp the bottom of the T-valve even more. After multiple attempts at crimping, squishing and twisting it further and further up… IT WORKED!!
So, for those who purchased a Kit, crimped the bottom of the T-valve like the picture, and still got bubbles in the tank: CRIMP AGAIN! My T-valve is pretty ugly now. It’s really deformed. The lumen is only a small folded slit. But it works!!
(Side note, it might be very helpul to thread was also tagged with the “Kits” tag)
I hope this helps!
Air needles is not effective and you may have problems with air flow…use T valves is effective.
Are you all saying that after getting the biggest air pump I could find, rated for a 40 GAL aquarium, and trying every method on this site and the suction 12″ in the water and only being able to get 2′ of lift, that all I needed to do was cut back the air flow?
Thank you all so much, after several crimpings it’s working beautifully!
I’m having the same problem with my kit. I’ll go back to crimping!
Hello everyone.
Finally set-up my two-column Windowfarm starter kit a couple of days back. I am now wondering if I have set it up with a correct water flow as it seems that there is too much water flowing down on one column even at the lowest pump setting. On the other hand, the other column does not get any water flow at the lowest pump setting. Increasing the pump setting to get water flowing on the other column further aggravates the strong water flow on the opposite column. Tried adjusting all the tubes and connections but still the same results. I obviously have to get water to all pots in both columns, as a result, water transfer from pot to pot for one column is a continuous flow of pouring water for about 3 seconds at 2 second- intervals. The other column gets a little less only because of longer intervals. I can not seem to just get the water to drip at a consistent rate and volume regardless of how much adjustments I do at the pump settings and the tube connections. Three pots containing the baby plants included in the starter kit have already died (2 for the strong water flow column, one for the weak water flow column) as a result. I did follow the timer setting suggested on the set-up instructions (15 mins./hr.).
Any advice on what to do and what should be the ideal and correct waterflow (i.e. just a few intermittent drops/drips every couple of seconds or a faster, almost continuous flow of drops of water), and also how to attain this, would be greatly appreciated. Hope to get some help, otherwise I’ll soon end up eating clay pellets instead of healthy leaves.
Thank you.