I have been working with air lifts in Aquaponics and wondering if anyone else is trying them.
We first tried the air lifts to deal with a problem of theft at school locations. Submersible pumps were being stolen regularly. So we put the air pump in the class room, a super quiet model, and ran the air line out the upper window to the fish tank. We had to invent our own pump because we could not find a commercial model.
If anyone is interested I will email them our manual for building several models.
Some of the advantages are....much less electricity.
The piping does not clog, like the filters on submersible pumps or external leaf filters.
The air lift picks up the fish solids and pumps them to the cinder bed were the Indian Blue worms eat the fish waste.
There is NO electricity in the water.
Since the air pump is located inside the building or a dry location, no GFI outlet is required.
The air pump super aerates the fish water on its way to the cinder. Most of our systems have no additional air pumps or air stones.
We have never cleaned or had to clear a air lift pump. No clogs.
The air lift is not bothered by sand or corrosive salt water or gritty water. Since we use volcanic cinder that gets sanded, this is a big deal.
We are pumping 150 gallons of water with 24 watt air pump, 24 inches high.
with a 38 watt, I can pump 300 gallons per hour at 24 inches head, and at 36 inches head only drop down to 200 gallons per hour.
I will post some pictures ASAP.
Aloha,
Glenn Martinez
Comment
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,
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
© 2024 Created by Sylvia Bernstein. Powered by
You need to be a member of Aquaponic Gardening to add comments!
Join Aquaponic Gardening