I think your airlift method should work just fine as long as the tubing at the bottom near the hole does not kink. I suggest that the bottommost tubing be wider than the rest. (maybe the 5 to 6 inches of tube near the turn where the hole is could be a “sleeve” fitted round [...]

Hi, Windowfarms, just note that I still don’t know if cleaning the tubes or ‘dirtying” them is the answer. I have not done a bunch of experiments on this issue. Only a couple. It might be that running dirt or clay through the tubes before you use them is more effective. In my experience a [...]

I think you could try the T-joint method too. T joints are made to connect directly to tubing so it might be simpler especially in a class situation. I have found a few combinations of tubing sizes where all you have to do is slip one tube over another and then 2 different sizes can [...]

Hi, Georg, your t-joint might be a little high (submergence too low) or as you suggest, your airspeed might be too much. Tony has a video where he looked inside an air pump and he thinks that your can throttle the air (after the pump) without damaging the pump. So, I suggest that you put [...]

How deep is your T under the water? It does not seem deep enough to me in the drawing. If you cannot find a 1/4 inch T you might be able to squash the 1/4 inch tubing INSIDE a larger T joint (rather than pushing the tubing on the outside of a proper sized T. [...]

Are you using the aquarium as a reservoir?

Well done, and very nice blog post too.

An easier solution would be the pulser pump nano. We can credit it to Eileen (a windowfarmer) and me. If you have a little stream on your property with a tiny waterfall or dam. (1 ft (30 cm) high) dam or waterfall is all that is needed. You pipe water from the dam straight down [...]

Check his diagram http://our.windowfarms.org/files/2012/03/PLANS1.jpg and make X as big as possible and that should solve your problem. Many of those pumps can only pump 2 and a half or 3 ft deep so if you make X to be 3 ft, the air cannot go round the bend and it must go up the tube [...]

http://our.windowfarms.org/files/2012/04/contest-with-u-April-7th.jpg is a better diagram from me and shows what I think is a good size for the U to prevent backflow of water. http://our.windowfarms.org/files/2011/11/t-valve-full-line-diagram.png also shows the U very well and http://our.windowfarms.org/files/2011/11/t-valve-diagram.png is good too. I have a windowfarms research video playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL17DC16567E0712FA&feature=view_all and really you can take your pick from those. Numbers [...]

http://our.windowfarms.org/files/2011/04/contest.jpg is a diagram that shows a T-joint. (I have a 24 inches max dimension for the airlift competition). However that dimension can also be 12 inches to 15 inches in a normal windowfarm and still do excellent pumping. If the “U” below the T-Joint goes about 1 ft down, you should have no restarting [...]

ca. 2 m plastslange, tykkelse: 10 mm utenpå, 7 mm inni (dette er den slangen som skal frakte vannet opp til blomstrene).
5 mm inni – 7 mm inni langen som skal frakte vannet opp til blomstrene) er god.
Brian

Hi, Sylvia, if your water flow ever slows down, you can move your T or Y joint a bit deeper down and it will speed up the water flow.
Brian

If you slow down the airflow, it drips gently and splashes less. Less noisy too. I presume that the splashing at the top is the problem. Many people use thread or twine to let the water drip down from container to container. That might help too.
Brian