Air lift pumps in Aquaponics

I went ahead and emailed the people on this list who requested the file, but again the link below worked for me this morning for others who want Glenns pdf.

I built one of these systems today.   Not exactly to spec, but did lift water up higher than I have had before in my 2 inch pipe.    Used check valve from Lowes and a 40 watt air pump.     I did not drill a hole in the wall as shown in diagrahm but put the base of the pump in the bottom of the tank   I am wondering if the system might be improved by putting a check valve for the air, or perhaps an air tank to smooth out the demand for air.    At present thinking thru if I could take a standard air compressor and regulate it down to give the same pressure for an extended period of time.    Was wondering how long a scuba tank would run the system....

Glenn,

Please send me a copy of your plans for the airlift pumps, they are very impressive soundaquaponics@gmail.com

btw, I have relatives in Lanaki, just down the hill from you'all

Be Blessed

Don

Reposting because DNS is not forwarded properly from aquaponicscommunity.com and links are still broken : http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/page/glenn-martinez-aquapon...

Chris, double check your link, it does not work for me.   But I have a link to the file that works -.>

See my comment below

>>Comment by halemart on September 29, 2012 at 4:03am

The link I just posted works fine and yes I am aware you linked the file directly as well. I figured if we keep re posting it enough times in the comments, people will stop asking for it :)

Glenn would you send me any information you have on air lift pumps to lee.in.billings@gmail.com Thank you

You can email sistahcash@gmail.com for our manual $50 or look at our Olomana Gardens face book page for pictures, drawings and videos.
More coming, inventing every day. Hard to keep up with it.

Glenn

Mine has been working since before the convention and keeps the bell siphon working.  I don't ever have to wash the pump.  I tested it on my solar generator without the panel.  25 hrs of 24watt air pump used 20% of the generator power.  My regular water pump used 80% of the power. Long live the air pump.I just need money to buy more,

Good to hear. We are quite pleased. Just designed a new version, that we can pour handfuls of rocks thru....cannot clog it. 

I have some running since last january in very didrty environments, no problems.

Glenn

Wow that is great to hear Raychel, any chance of you posting some diagrams of how exactly you have it setup on your system to make it work, or pictures of the setup????

I can post some pictures, but we are applying for a patent, and do not want to screw that up.

On the patent we only reserve the manufacturing rights and allow individuals to make their own, and we will be selling plans etc. to make it easy for folks. Should all happen within the next week. We have 14 patents we are going for, so it is a lot of work.

GLenn

hi! interesting. would this work on flood/drain growbed or only if you have NFT?

The air pump is used to LIFT water. It excels in lifting dirty water, full of solids, fish poop etc. 

But we use in in the Philippines to lift clean city water up to water towers over thirty feet high.

If the city water pressure or a small pump can lift the water 8 to 12 feet , our air pumps take it from there to the height desire. If no city or water pressure and no electric pump, we use air displacement pumps to give the 8 to twelve foot of head needed.  This fills the water tank using less energy, smaller pump and quickly in the range of 600 gallons an hour. Once you have pumped the water clean or dirty to a height, then you can use it at will. NFU, fill a bio filer, have pressure to clear fillers, fill reservoirs ...what ever. The unique thing of our air pumps is they can drain a container to zero, and we know on air pump in the world that can pump to zero. 

Any update on selling the plans? 

Comment by Glenn Martinez on November 17, 2012 at 12:56am

Glen, thanks for the tour  yesterday I wasn't expecting to see and get as much as I did you could say it was a information overload. Thanks for your encouragement and enthusiasm it was contagious, when would it be possible  to get you over for a consultation or would you prefer me come back to learn how to build a air lift?

can I get a copy of the design? thanks

I could not find the drawings on the proposed site - I wonder if anyone can re-send them out or redirect me to where they can be found? 

I messed up sending a friend request to you, Glenn, I didn't add a message. 

Get back to me when you can. Or if anyone else has the infor please contact me.

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/page/glenn-martinez-aquapon...

I could not find the drawings on the proposed site - I wonder if anyone can re-send them out or redirect me to where they can be found?

DITTO BOB


Get back to me when you can. Or if anyone else has the infor please contact me.

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/page/glenn-martinez-aquapon...

Aloha, Glenn!

You may not remember meeting Jacquie and me on the bus in Denver last year, but we remember you fondly.

We finally have our system up; up but not running. The problem (aside from a heart attack in late March) is getting water up 14' from the fish tank (surface) to the grow beds. I recall your saying that you have raised water at least 30', so I figured half that wouldn't be a problem — turns out, I was wrong.

I've tried (obviously poorly) to adapt your air lift system to our REALLY tight situation. All the dimensions are small: height (the water is only 2½' deep; but the lift required is 5 times that), width (we have about 3½' to work with left-to-right), and depth (front-to-back, we have only 4" above the water line, and 2' below it). The fish tank itself is 9'x9'x3'. Above the tank and below the grow beds, we have 3' where we raise rabbits. There are two levels of grow beds, each 11½'x 2¾'x12" with an NFT gutter above that (all duplicated on either side of our greenhouse — it gets COLD in Colorado).

We have two (redundant systems) 100 LpH Matala air pumps, running through ½" garden hose to the bottom of the fish tank and into the 2" pipework/valve assembly. It has failed to raise water more than 4½' in 1", ¾" or even ½" riser pipes. (It does push one huge bolus of water well past the air escape at the top, but that's the last we see of water that high.) Up top, I built your 45° offset air escape assembly per the diagram/instructions. Down below, I used 2" pipe (including the one-way valve), but I had to use 90° elbows because of the limited vertical space. If that means the pump won't work, I can rebuild that section, but there doesn't seem to be any reason my adaptation isn't working. Of course, I can't see how any of it is the problem, but a problem there is.

If you (or anyone else reading this) can give me a pointer or two, I'd really appreciate the help. We are perplexed beyond description and frustrated past breaking. Not saying this caused the heart attack, but, hey!, it could not have helped.  And, naturally, any answer received last week would be the most use...

All the best,

Le

Well, that sucks (no pun intended, really).

Well, it looks like we'll have to get a water pump. Any suggestions?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52815627@N06/8660038327/ is airlift in a bucket. I need to change the name but it works great.   I did limit tests by letting it go until the water in the bucket went as low as possible when I was pumping the water to about 5 ft high (about 1.5 meters). Water in the bucket stayed pumping (slowly of course) until it went down to less than 10 cm deep. Less than 4 inches! So, of course that is a limit condition and not of much use but lift to submergence was over 20 to 1.  Far better than I ever thought possible.  I now use the air from 2 little aquarium bubble pumps something like 7 watts total, I think to run 2 vertical pallet planters  and 5 "pallet gardens" a titanic planter (shaped like a boat with water in the hold) and a fish pond all at once.  The pressure in the system is about 18 inches of water.  (less than 1 psi).   I have youtube videos about it in a playlist at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL00C41C26C91A76BB and it has been going for a year.  The airlift in a bucket has been tried in the windowfarms community in Usa, Denmark, France and Cambodia and probably more places too.  I started airlift in a bucket  in January 2013 and prior to that I used "t-joint" airlift pumps. T-joint has better performance but  not so useful because you need to make a deep hole for it  to prevent backflow of water. Brian

I just found this group and I am interested in the airlift manual you have developed.  Could you please send me a copy at sha_man_1 @yahoo.com.  I would like to check it out for fesability in my systems.

thanks

Hi Glen or anyone...question on this airlift system...do you have to put some kind of blocking mesh on the out valve from the bottom of the ICB Tote?  Basically to keep the fish from ending up airlifted out from the bottom?  Or is it not needed and the valve is small enough that the fish don't try to get through it?

Great system...and thanks in advance for your or anyone's reply who has tried to build your system.

Dan

Glenn,

Would you be willing to e-mail me the manual on airlift pumps?  I'm in the middle of a build and just discovered the concept and would like to implement it.  dmageetx@gmail.com

David

Go to our web page www.olomanagardens.com or email Natalie at sistahcash@gmail.com

The Patent papers have complete drawing and parts lists with all sizes.....get it if you need it.

Danny,

I just went through what you are going through.  I started at 128gph and with Glenn's help I am up to 209gph.  Check out my Youtube videos as I went through this process.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy9zWmjgRT1O8cEBjnS8HlA

Danny,

Did you get the answers you needed to get more flow from your pump?  If not e-mail me a picture or pictures and I would be happy to help.  cgaquaponics@gmail.com

David

Danny-

  You stated that you emptied 25% of the water and still have a reading of 8.0.  Stupid question but, did you replace that 25% of water you removed??  If so I would doanother 25% water change and take another reading.  You only need to have 3 - 5ppm ammonia so you have quite a ways to go.  You may have lost the bacteria that you attracted but for this 5-day period, you didn't loose much.  After you do the changes, let your system run a few hours to "rinse off your media.  If you do a water change and immediatly check the ppm of ammonia you will get a false reading as your system will accumulate the ammonia that is in your media, and drain it into your FT.  Be patient and you will finally get the ammonia levels to an acceptable level.  Now you have learned what NOT to do and next time you will get it right.  A capfull of ammonia goes a long way, don't rush things.

no need to change just modify.  Willing to help, but need to see what you have.

David

Hakko 40 and 60 watt pumps are my foavorites.

The 3/4 is the ONLY way to go. Major difference in air and in water pumping. We use nothing else. Trick: when we buy a air compressor or a water pump, we immediately install and adapter, normally 6 inches of hose that will fit the output of the air pump, secure with a stainless steel hose clamp, and at the other end of the hose, we install a MALE hose repair end. On our air lines, they are rigged with TWO FEMALE ends. Whatever air stone, air diffuser or air lift pump we are powering is plumbed with a PVC 3/4 inch slip to HOSE male fitting. Easy to screw on the female hose fittings on to male fixed ends. Hose fitting handle 40 to 60 psi of water, and hold air with no problem. We can change a pump in the dark with NO TOOLS! When experimenting with different size pumps etc, 

Yeah, I've followed your advice Glenn....it really is a good way to go. Being able to unscrew the pump and use it for different applications is great :) Hakko pumps seem to do their job, but I haven't compared them to anything else as of yet.

We were in American Samoa, where 1/2 inch water hose was as large as we could get. Had to re-engineer and run 3/4 PVC pipe 50 feet out in the garden and then a short hose to the fish tank and air lift pump. 

Back home we tried a set up of a fish tank on the ground, 20 inches of water depth, a 350 gallon per hour water pump, submersible, ran water in 3/8 tubing, 1/2 tubing, 5/8 tubing and 3/4 inch tubing. Pumped to three feet above fish tank water level. Got 120 gph,155 gph, 180 gallon per hour and finally 250 gallon per hour. We fill a five gallon bucket, and time it. Such that is bucket fills in 2 min. 60 min in hour divided by 2 minutes is 30 x 5 gallon or 150 gph. If you look up the resistance for air lines and friction, it is just as dramatic. As pressure and volume increase, the resistance increases. 

I recommend that everyone go watch a FREE webniar that University of Hawaii shot and published on our Olomana Gardens air pumps. Shows many different models......

https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p43gk3jhher/?launcher=false&a...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9B9c_QLD-E  

I posted a new YouTube on the subject of Siohons. I will shoot another one on the bottom portion of our siphons, they start on as little as a cup of water, the most minimum flow we have ever seen, and never have runaway, not breaking.....I will try to shoot it later today. The futrie of commercial aquaponics is electrical control. For home systems, or folks with limited electrical....siphons rule.

Glenn

Hi Glenn. I am a newbie but ready to set up an aquaponics project from scratch. I would love to build one of your air-lift-pumps. Would you be willing to send me a copy of your manual? 

Many thanks.

Richard

Glenn-

Could I please get the info you have on the air-pumps.  Sounds fantastic.

Thanks

WB

Take a look at my youtube video on the airlift pump I built designed by Glenn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX91CYgQphY

Hi David - Many thanks for the link. Great job!

It is still working without fail since April 2014

Hi Glen, I am very much interested in your manual. Kindly send me a copy. Thank you! Francois

Glen - This is my second request for your air-lift manual, do you still have it available?  If so could you please send me a copy.

Do a google search - it's very easy to find...

Email me directly and I can send you a copy.

Well I have been requesting this info from others and have not received any reply one way or another.  If you have the info you described pertaining to the air lift system, I am VERY interested, please forward me the manual you have developed.  Thank you for understanding me as others didn't bother to respect my request.