You’re welcome! Just as an update, I’ve found that the height of the t-valve is very important in relation to the flow of water. If the t-valve is too low, too much water will flow out of the airlift (and the air may possibly flow backwards into the reservoir). If the t-valve is too high [...]

Here’s my entirely non-scientific explanation: It works because the air will flow along the path of least water pressure. Increasing the loop size below the t-valve increases the amount of water that the air would have to push through to go backwards through the reservoir. If this amount of pressure is greater than the pressure [...]

Joel: Do you have a picture you could show us? Is there a loop at the bottom, below the t-valve? There must be a loop to prevent the bubbles from pushing down instead of up. You could try increasing the size of this loop, if possible. You could also try raising the height of your [...]

Brian, here is what I did to make mine perform better in the last few days: I shortened the airline above the t-valve by about 6 inches. That’s it! This raised the t-valve to be about level with the bottom of the reservoir bottle. Now that there is less water trying to push up above [...]

Honestly, I’m in the same trial-and-error stage as you. I don’t know what the drips per minute are supposed to be, and I only believe it needs to be turned off to prevent the roots from getting *too* wet. I think it’s because they need to get some exposure to air, but I’m not really [...]

That sounds like it is performing exactly as it is supposed to. The water is supposed to drip constantly. I think most people use a timer on their air pump to have 15-minute intervals, so water is not dripping nonstop. I think you just need to find out what works best for you by trial [...]

@BK Do you have a variable speed air pump? You might try decreasing the air flow. Also try raising the location of your t-valve, so there is less much water flowing upwards at any given time.

Joel,

All of the work I’ve done on this is listed here. Did you have a specific question about my setup?

Brian, I have not measured it, but I do know that it is smaller than 3/16″ ID. It is standard diameter airline tubing for aquariums. It is black silicone airline, and I would not say it is unusable at all. It does not slowly drip, however; the water that is pushed out seems to come [...]

Greg,

I think I just posted a guide that addresses your exact issue. I used a sport bottle cap, just like the V3 instructions say to use, but I used silicone glue to glue the air line in place to create an airtight seal.