Can anyone explain the Ben Glenn Aquazen?

[Hollis Armstrong]

I watched several videos but cant follow them to well. I would love to use a solar charger and air pump. Can anyone help me to better understand it. Some drawings would be great. 

I need to pump from the bottom of a 5 ft pool and go 1015 ft above ground so total would be about 20 ft. I saw one video that said the air would pump higher if the air went down first? I plan to have a 3000 gallon pond.

Any help would be appreciated

[Michael Rollins]

I found this by using the sites search engine.

Ben, Glenn & AquaZen - Airlift Pumping

There are some links in the original post that may help and some of the comments have more detail.

[George]

My airlift is rather simple - pump about what the videos recommend, 40 watts - max lift about 3  to 4 feet or so from the bottom of a 4 feet deep tank.

To reach 10 to 15 feet, you need more equipment, a water pump, I think and possibly a check valve.  I didn't understand the videos either but I love my airlift pump.

Solar is a tough gig this time of year when the days are short.  You'll need more than a cheap kit to run much of anything.

good luck

[Mikio McCulloch]

I dont know if you can tell from the pics, but the piping in the trench is my diy aquazen.  Through trial and error, i was able to find a configuration that allows me to use a 40w air pump to both aerate the water and pump it up into my fish tank (the ibc) from my sump tank (the orange barrel).  It pumps approx 300 gallons an hour.  I havent set up the solar yet-

After 3-4 ineffective attempts, the keys were-

1) using a horizontal check valve to restrict backflow

2) having a three inch pipe attached to the bottom of the sump barrel and trenched into the ground a few feet-  seems like the increased water pressure helped.

3) having the air pumped into the tubing in the trench.  Injecting the air at a lower depth seemed to allow a bigger buildup of air, which caused more water to be brought up with it.

I havent done much more work since these pics, as i have been digging a 12 inch deep trench through rock and roots about 150 feet between my house and greenhouse for electric.  Will try to find the best pics that shows how the piping needs to be- i cant remember what site i saw it on. 

[Mikio McCulloch]

p.s. the hole on top of the pipe in the ground is where i made an attachment to inject the air from the pump into

[Stuart Polkinghorne]

like the idea very much, I wounder if this could be place inside a below ground cement tank or if you need the pressure from the tank outlet.

I'm going to keep researching this as water pump are my solar killer. 

[Jeff S]

I am using a DC pump that has 5 settings. I run it on setting #1 because my tank will overflow if I run it higher. I am pumping 10ft up and 10ft horizontal with no problem. Being DC it uses less electricity. It's a Jebao DC12000. You can check it out on Amazon.

[Hollis Armstrong]

Thank you

Mikio McCulloch said:

I dont know if you can tell from the pics, but the piping in the trench is my diy aquazen.  Through trial and error, i was able to find a configuration that allows me to use a 40w air pump to both aerate the water and pump it up into my fish tank (the ibc) from my sump tank (the orange barrel).  It pumps approx 300 gallons an hour.  I havent set up the solar yet-

After 3-4 ineffective attempts, the keys were-

1) using a horizontal check valve to restrict backflow

2) having a three inch pipe attached to the bottom of the sump barrel and trenched into the ground a few feet-  seems like the increased water pressure helped.

3) having the air pumped into the tubing in the trench.  Injecting the air at a lower depth seemed to allow a bigger buildup of air, which caused more water to be brought up with it.

I havent done much more work since these pics, as i have been digging a 12 inch deep trench through rock and roots about 150 feet between my house and greenhouse for electric.  Will try to find the best pics that shows how the piping needs to be- i cant remember what site i saw it on. 

[Rob Nash]

the Jebao pumps are very nice.

[Stuart Polkinghorne]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5meLFUh58L8

In this video Ben says you can place his pump inside the tank.

So come tomorrow I think I will try a small scale one on one of my IBC systems.

[Stuart Polkinghorne]

Found this one where you see it working inside the tank.

http://www.olomanagardensaquaponics.com/?p=149

[George]

Please let us know how it's running after a year

Jeff S said:

I am using a DC pump that has 5 settings. I run it on setting #1 because my tank will overflow if I run it higher. I am pumping 10ft up and 10ft horizontal with no problem. Being DC it uses less electricity. It's a Jebao DC12000. You can check it out on Amazon.

[George]

Interesting.  I need to try the check valve.  Right now, my air lift runs without one but I'd like to get more volume out of it and more lift (height) too. 

Stuart Polkinghorne said:

Found this one where you see it working inside the tank.

http://www.olomanagardensaquaponics.com/?p=149