Alternate pump performance data

In the spirit of R&D, here is the performance data to my alternate pump design that  I had shown in my first post.  http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/03/10/just-getting-started-with-slightly-different-pump-design/  The design is easy to assemble and has been very reliable.

 The data shows the relationship between resevoir height, pumping height and flow rates.   I do not know how the air pump pressure effects these since I can not change that.  I think the general conclusions will hold true for any pump design including the standard 3 plant windowfarm design. 

As mentioned in the troubleshooting guide, http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/03/05/airlift-troubleshooting/ the resevoir level is very important.  Small changes in the level really effect your pumping rate and how high you can pump.  My one gallon resevoir level naturally drops about an inch a week.  As it drops the flow rate goes down, but it keeps working.   If I let it get near 5 inches, then the pump would stop working completely.

Ran across your site a while back and thought I would give it a try.  Spring is almost here and I am iching to do some gardening.  I made a free standing system since I have nothing to hang it from.  I had most of the parts laying around like the pump from the kids old fish tank.  They only things I bought so far has been the 3/8″ tubing and a 3/8″ tee.  I wanted to share the pump design since it worked pretty good.  The long 3/8″ tube goes in the top end of the tee.  A short piece goes in the bottom end with half cut off so water will get in when on the bottom of the tank.  A small piece of 3/8″ tube goes in the middle tee and then the 1/4″ tube from the air pump fits snug inside it.

I sprouted some seeds and put them in it, but they died.   I think they died since the leaves were too small and stayed wet all the time and I do not have any hydroponic solutions yet as well.  I enjoy the experimentation and will try again.

We are almost there on kits, Folks. We would love your input on a couple of things.

For more about why we are making kits, read this.

Here’s how kits are looking.

You will choose between a 2-column or 4-column windowfarm. You WILL have to be able to screw at least 4 screws into your upper window sill. The bottom bottle of each strand will be the reservoir.
We will probably produce the first batch by hand ourselves here in the Brooklyn shop but the next batches may be handled by an awesome little organization that hires the disabled just North of the city.

Get a sneak peek of the one we have in Brooklyn headquarters here.

Major points up for debate:
1) To give you the bottles or ask you to supply your own. If you supply your own, you need to drill through the tough end very precisely and this can be a dangerous task with a drill or a red hot cylinder. However, sourcing the bottles and getting them to you is very expensive on our end. What do you say? Would you be willing to pay a premium to not have to find, drill, cut, and paint your own bottles?

2) To include the pump or not. The petco pump is the best one we have found and it comes with air valves. However, some people have found that their pumps are duds. Having to deal with Petco’s duds will be a big burden on us that will take away from our mission work. We’d prefer to simply have a button while you are buying you kit that you press to order your pump from Petco separately. Is this a deal killer?

3) Lights. Almost everyone really needs them but no one ever wants to get lights. That is, until after they start raising their little baby plants and the plants come out looking leggy/scrawny. You can pump them full of nutrients but if they don’t have enough light to process the nutrients through photosynthesis, it is very sad =<. Anyway, I'm thinking we will sell lights as a separate kit. You would buy individual strands. Sound good?

Also, if you have a great business mind, experience with this kind of production setup, and some time to volunteer, we would love to hear from you. Send me a message by finding Britta under members.

So, here’s the thing about collective R&D. It isn’t pretty. Just like science, a lot of times, things don’t work out right at first and sometimes they never do. But you learn a lot as you try to fix them. We are all working through this together and these things will be awesome and foolproof one day, but you are an early adopter. You have my promise that these #%#$%@ things can work, have worked, do work. We just need to find the problem with yours. Deep breath.

It is so much easier to SEE what should be adjusted. If after following these instructions you are still having problems, PLEASE CREATE A NEW POST AND UPLOAD PICTURES OF THE PARTS YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, TAG IT AIRLIFT TROUBLESHOOTING, & THEN JUST LINK TO YOUR POST in the comments below.

1) Please make sure you have the latest version of the how-to for the airlift system. Updates (like software updates) have been made to the instructions. The updates were made to correct issues that we found people were running into. The file should be called “3plantairliftHOWTO_3_4_10.pdf”.

2) Pump- Get the PETCO Air Pump 2-Way For 13-106 gallon Aquariums Model 9903 http://www.petco.com/product/109838/PETCO-Air-Pump.aspx

3) Tubing-
Get it at Canal Rubber.
x1 3/8″ OUTSIDE DIAMETER 1/4″ Inside Diameter Reinforced Kuritec Tubing at 4′6″ long
X2 1/4″ O.D. 1/8″ I.D. Vinyl tubing at 2′6″ long
x1 3/8″ O.D. 1/4″ ID Vinyl tubing at 6′ long

4) One-way air valves-You need these. Trust me. If you get the Petco pump, these come with it for free! Otherwise, you need to go to an aquarium store and tell them you want one way check valves for an air pump. They will cost about $3 each. You need to insert these in the line between the pump and your windowfarm. Be sure they are facing the right way (blow thru them to test) and turn on the pump with your valves inserted before you insert the tubing in water. Otherwise, your air tubes might fill with water and your system will not pump as high.

5) Bottom reservoir- You want your airlift tube submerged under the tallest possible column of water. That’s just how to physics work. So, if you use the 1 Gallon Poland Springs bottle, fill it up as high as possible. If you use something else, make sure you have picked a container that is going to create a tall column. By the same token, if your tube is curling so that it is effectively not submerged under a tall column, zip tie it to something rigid to straighten it out and create the max submersion height.

6) Angled bottom to tube- Cut your water intake tube (the Reinforced 3/8″ OUTSIDE DIAMETER 1/4″ Inside Diameter) at an angle at the bottom so that it does not just suck on the bottom of your reservoir.

7) More teflon plumber’s tape at the joints- you may have a leak somewhere.

Bad air valve? We have had a quality control issue with the air valves on occasion. Take the out. Blow through them. Is one harder to blow through than the other? If so, replace or try cleaning/soaking in alcohol.

9) Smoother interior walls for your tube and rigidity- If you’ve tried all of these things and they don’t work, go to canal plastics and get some rigid acrylic tube with a 1/4″ inside diameter and 3/8″ outside diameter. Go to canal rubber and get some vinyl tubing with a 3/8″ inside diameter (for a curved u back into the column at the top). Replace the reinforced tubing with this more rigid and smoother walled tube. It is what we are using for the next generation windowfarms . . . coming soon in kits.

I’m attempting to build a version of the Airlift Window Farm without plastic parts.

The initial version uses stainless steel tumblers, sisal rope, metal crimps, a glass reservoir, and natural latex tubing. The only plastic part is the air pump. Everything was purchased fairly inexpensively (mostly on the Bowery in NYC).

You can find images of the project in progress HERE.

If I can get this one to work, I will build a second system next to this one using Chinese bottle gourds, coated in beeswax (see diagram). We’ll see.

PROBLEMS:

1. I’m currently having problems getting the pump to push the water up the airlift tube. I’ve noticed others have had this problem and see that Britta posted some suggestions, which I tried– but they haven’t worked. The air forced into the air lift tube doesn’t seem strong enough to move the water up vertically. It goes for about 6 inches and falls back down again. It also makes a loud bubbling/spattering noise. The pump tubes are dry and the air lift tube is fully submerged and mostly straight. I have an ActiveAqua AAPA7.8L pump. — ANY SUGGESTIONS?

We are building the easier three bottle window farm, and have put it together according to the directions, but aren’t getting a drip!

Should we make sure the needle entrances are properly sealed or make a smaller drip exit?

Help us out!

Sami

This is from Jackson’s blog at Superforest.

I found my way into the vertical garden/hydroponics section of youtube, and there I feasted like a wild wildebeast.
I gorged on gallons per minute tables, pvc piping comparisons, and silicone sealant. I learned about pump volume ratios and outflow units and bleeder valves and plastic tubing.

And in the end I thought: I could design a system for growing food and flowers just like these but much, much simpler.

And so I went to the drawing board and tried out some ideas…

And here we are now.

My idea, which I happily share with you all, is to use a six-gallon bucket, a few lengths of pvc, an air pump, a short section of tubing, some zip ties, and one-gallon milk containers to create a personal, scalable, hydroponic (soil-free) drip-irrigation food machine.

I call it: The Jackpot.

An air lift is a wonderful and simple device. It’s just a length of pipe, open at both ends. You feed an air line into the bottom of the pipe and submerge it under water. The air bubbles within the pipe form an upward current and water is carried up to the top of the pipe. Simple, cheap, effective. Here’s a viddy to help explain.

The problem with a single air lift is they can only lift water a short height. Conceivably, combining multiple air lifts within a larger pipe would allow one to lift any amount of water to any height required, provided you had sufficient air flow. This idea probably originated in ancient Persia, I’m not making any claims to it.

So, a hanging garden set up, where water is pumped to the top and there trickles down through multiple growing containers before eventually feeding back into the main reservoir, all built around a central multiple air lift is the problem that’s been bugging me for the past few weeks.

P.S. I awoke from a fever dream and drew this schematic! Cool, no?