A few days ago I noticed some problems with my setup: when the pump would turn on sometimes the airflow would go back down through the source tube and start bubbling up the reservoir rather than lifting water up the lift tube. I could fix it by releasing the air pressure in the lines and letting the water re-prime itself.

Over the weekend I didn’t have much time to work with it, but thankfully every time I peeked into my office things seemed to be moving smoothly.
Today when I sat down to do some work, I heard the pump click on and once again the bubbling sound of air coming into the reservoir. I was perplexed as to why it only seemed to fail when I was around.

I didn’t have time to debug / re-prime the system at that moment, so I just ignored it for a few minutes. Then to my great surprise, it suddenly fixed itself and started delivering water to my plants again.

My theory is that sometimes, after the pump shuts off, water runs back down the lift tube and sits stationary at a height above the t-joint. When the system first turns on, the pressure from this thin, tall water column is too much for the air pump so the air starts to backflow into the reservoir. In a few minutes, the water stuck in the lift tube flows back down below the t-joint, and which point air starts flowing up again. The system resets itself and everything works.

Since I use black hose for my lift tube I can’t quite see what’s going on, but I’m curious if anyone else has run into similar problems.

Hey everyone. My windowfarm is setup and running however if the water line gets more than about two inches below the fill opening of the reservoir bottle there is simply not enough pressure to get the water to the top bottle. I’m using the 4+1 bottle setup with the 4 outlet petco pump advised in the instructions.

Has anyone else had issues similar to mine?

Thanks!

I noticed that the bean plant’s leaves started to look pretty bad. Something is definitely wrong and it doesn’t appear to be pest damage, so I’m assuming either too much or too little nutrients (too much is more likely) or too much water.

After testing, it seems like the pH was a bit low (5.5-6), and the water was probably running too frequently. One bean rotted off and died. I cut the total watering time per day in half, spaced farther apart and the starting sponges are still staying damp all day. Hopefully this helps the plants improve. I might have to cut back on the watering even more on colder/damper days.

I also took the vertical hoses down and cleaned them, washed out the bottom bottles and added new water, and a weaker nutrient solution. I need to be more vigilant about refreshing the water… but can no longer get the bottom caps off the reservoir bottles! I torqued at the lids trying to get them off for what seemed like an hour while the water dribbled out slowly. Finally had to remove the cap and chain support and force the bottom bottle off (didn’t twist off like it twisted on). The result, got it clean, but flaked off a ton of the paint. Lame.

Photos of the Beans:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mookmonkey/5489671051/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mookmonkey/5503582238/

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 was lucky enough to inherit one of the windowfarm systems that was used in the Whitney museum installation. It is essentially a suspended, 4-plant version of the basic 3-plant system, with the bottom container used as the reservoir.

I got it up and running today, with two plants (so far). The pump is doing fine getting the water through the system, but the airlift seems to be gurgling quite loudly, with corresponding bubbles escaping from the tube into the bottom of the reservoir.

Any troubleshooting advice for making the system a little quieter by reducing the gurgling sounds? Or if this is the level of noise that I should expect, has anyone come up with timer solutions that would allow me to reduce or turn off the pumps (especially when I’m trying to go to sleep)? I saw the Arduino-controlled timer, but don’t have Arduino skills myself…

Thanks!

First, try adding a one way air valve to each of the tubes on your system. They come with the petco pumps. Otherwise, they are about $2 at an aquarium store.

Second, make sure your tube is submerged under as much water as possible. If it is curling back up on itself and is therefore only a few inches below the waterline, attach something rigid to it.

If that isn’t the whole problem, try this. Take the whole Airlift tube system out of your bottle. Detatch the needleside portion of the air tubing from the little one-way valves. Blow through those air tubes to clear all the water out. Maybe leave it out to dry and if you see any waterdrops in the line. You want to try to dry out the air tubing part of it and have air pumping through it before you stick it back in the pre-filled bottom water bottle.

Here’s the logic. Water is going to want to get in to the air tubing through the needle. If it does, that water is a lot of extra “weight” that the pump has to counteract to get it’s air out of the tube before it even makes it to the needle. So dry that tubing out and then only reinsert those “guts” after you have hooked it up to the pump and the pump is on. This way it is always blowing air out so water can’t get back in.