Hi Martin.
I eventually settled for a combination of the perculator and the t-piece as the perculator pumps way less water on its own…
I’l post a diagram soon as well as updated pics!
@Bram: You were right

Hey Bram, I’ve got mine working 100% now, and it moves enough water for six grow bottles – which is all I can fit into my window, and still keep it reasonably see through There are some sprouts coming up already and the spring onion I rescued from my (failed) veg garden in the [...]

@Bram: Yup the 500ml bottle stalls too… Woke up to a pleasant bubbling noise this morning.

Remade the new percolator design with a 1l bottle and it seems to be working again.

Apologies, yes I mean the airlift system

I’m having an issue at the moment… when the water gets to a certain saturation of nutrients, the pump stalls. It almost looks like it is foaming in the upward pipe.

Perhaps there is too much of a pressure buildup? Has anyone run into a similar problem?

Ok. What did you have in the aquarium with your fish? Plants? The drip rate is quite slow, so I’m not so sure that the outside water will raise the temperature enough to kill your fish… You may have more of an issue with evaporation, though. Try it out and post your results. I’m curious [...]

If you use a waterpump, the whole airlift system is redundant, apart from aerating the aquarium… You can send the water+air directly up the tube, but I’m not sure if using a water pump would have the right rate of flow. You may flood your grow beds. Is your pump adjustable? How do you plan [...]

That is very cool!

Oh, by the way: it does let air out occasionally from the bottom of the bottle. This happens when the system has overloaded itself with too much water in the tube. Watch the droplets when that happens, and you’ll se that it corrects itself after a while. If it doesn’t, alter the length of the [...]

Fantastic. I’m excited to hear about your results!

Awesome! Can’t wait to hear what you think

Thanks