DWC air pumps on a timer?

[mmjmon]

I bought loud pumps when I first started, but the noise was irritating. The noise was a lot better, but still to loud when I hung them with a wire. I finally bought 2 General Hydroponic duals with 4 ports and they are soooo much quiet-er. Anyway, I've read some have had problems with them but mine have worked great so far. Found great deals on ebay back when I bought them. Try amazon too.

Not trying to sell them to you, just letting you know what helped in my situation.

 

[AKrbb907]

I bought loud pumps when I first started, but the noise was irritating. They noise was a lot better but still to loud when I hung them with a wire. I finally bought 2 General Hydroponic duals with 4 ports and they are soooo much quiet-er. Anyway, I've read some have had problems with them but mine have worked great so far. Found great deals on ebay back when I bought them. Try amazon too.

Not trying to sell them to you, just letting you know what helped in my situation.

Got one of them GH pumps. quiet as hell!

 

[vostok]

As my veg tent is in my bedroom, and my wife is a light sleeper the air pump noise keeps her awake... I would like some expertise advice on whether or not its possible to
A. shut down the air pumps to the dwc tubs for roughly 7-8 hours each night or
B. run them periodically for 10-15 minutes every couple hours

anyone have experience in this field? I shut 'em down last night for about 4-5 hours with IMHO no ill effects....
I have always just ran the pumps 24/7 and never thought about turning them off or using a timer, I don't want my girls to drown especially being 6 weeks into a 10 week veg! I also don't want the wife to drown me!

Any thoughts or opinions or advice is appreciated!

Is the one reason why I quit DWC, the pumps(all) were way to loud even when I packed them in a polystyrene sound proof box they could still be heard in NY. ..lol
...even relocating the actual pump some 10 meters/yards away ...neighbors then bitched at me, OK OK I said and went back to soils, organic this time, everybody now sleeps, even better with tasty organic weed! ...lol good luck!

 

[FrozenChozen]

Well, I studied this and found another set of Ganja Myths. I stopped injecting hot air into water I want to keep cool. I went to a tiny lift pump, just 60 gpm.

It's called Surface Aeration or just Flooming.

You push water straight up from the bottom in such a way that is breaks the surface and spreads out into a raised surface. That surface takes in O2 by mass transfer across the surface area. It works better that air bubbles.

It turns out, air bubbles are only lifting the water from the bottom to the top.

The air bubbles DO NOT ADD O2. I've tested this with an O2 kit.

It is another Myth that the bubbles add O2 to the water directly. They CANNOT.

The physics of Mass Transfer, do not work in a tiny hot bubble of air.

It is super quiet to use a tiny lift pump.

That's exactly the info I wanted! I figured air bubbles did jack shit, but I personally don't have a way to test DO%.... I must admit that though the pump noise is still there with the 120gph the water noise is more comforting

it seems sort of extreme but you could smother her with a pillow

I thought about that.... actually more than once in the past week!

 

[Doer]

Woop typo... I meant 60 gallons per hour, of course.

 

[FrozenChozen]

My short answer though, grow in soil.
You need to chose a grow style that works best for you. Doesn't matter if you really really want to grow hydro, if its to loud, then you need to change. But similarly, if your lifestyle means that daily watering is a pain, then you need to change, be it autopilots, or indeed, hydro. Each grow style has advantages and disadvantages, you need to work out what your key priorities are.
The roots need oxygen and will grow better with it. I see no point on sabotaging the grow just for a better nights sleep. Get that better nights sleep some other way, not at your plants expense

I have made a commitment to myself, NO MORE SOIL
I personally have chosen this as my medium for stealth, ease, and cleanliness.
I feel as though the air pump is not helping 100% of the time, and if it is, its not as efficient as a water pump...
Guess I'll have to try it and find out.... last night it went off for 8 hours and again I saw no ill effects.... I'll have to do a side by side comparison...

 

[tip top toker]

Well that's exactly why I went DWC. I was growing in a bedroom with nice white carpets..

As I say, my two options, and I did both, were to suspend small silent pumps, which couldn't be heard at night from 1 foot away, and I also just drilled a couple of holes in the ceiling the size of the thin air hose, and kept the noisy pump in the attic. Also worked great, but not everyone can ðill holes in the ceiling. Do you grow in a tent or a cupboard?

 

[waterdawg]

Well perhaps it's time to rethink your setup as well. If the timer/air pump doesn't work out, and it may not, flood and drain may be an option. Good luck! A naggy wife can be an awful thing and leads to the need for more pot, it's a viscous circle!!!

 

[tip top toker]

Viscous circle. Is that like a bunch of lesbians mud "wrestling"?

 

[Commander Strax]

Viscous circle. Is that like a bunch of lesbians mud "wrestling"?

viscous
[vis-kuh s]
adjective
1. of a glutinous nature or consistency; sticky; thick; adhesive.

 

[Doer]

I have made a commitment to myself, NO MORE SOIL
I personally have chosen this as my medium for stealth, ease, and cleanliness.
I feel as though the air pump is not helping 100% of the time, and if it is, its not as efficient as a water pump...
Guess I'll have to try it and find out.... last night it went off for 8 hours and again I saw no ill effects.... I'll have to do a side by side comparison...

There is the 1/2 Way House. That's what I do. NO SOIL, but an inert media. I use 50/50 coco coir and hydroton. I still use top flow, feed ring tubes but, the root don't hang in the water. I have the pots over the reservoir, and pump feed up each day, an let it drain back.

That is how I cured my root rot problem. I sold the water chiller, big air pump and stones, and steadied into monthly production. What I did not like about hydro.....was everything.

What you might like to know, Chosen, is I uncovered another Myth. Keeping O2 in water is EASY.

Water naturally saturates with O2. It is miscible, like alcohol and water. I was very surprised to find my RO water comes out of the barrel completely saturated per my DO kit result.

Using air stones and pumps is just another Hydroponic Store rip-off to me.

 

[tip top toker]

There is the 1/2 Way House. That's what I do. NO SOIL, but an inert media. I use 50/50 coco coir and hydroton. I still use top flow, feed ring tubes but, the root don't hang in the water. I have the pots over the reservoir, and pump feed up each day, an let it drain back.

That is how I cured my root rot problem. I sold the water chiller, big air pump and stones, and steadied into monthly production. What I did not like about hydro.....was everything.

What you might like to know, Chosen, is I uncovered another Myth. Keeping O2 in water is EASY.

Water naturally saturates with O2. It is miscible, like alcohol and water. I was very surprised to find my RO water comes out of the barrel completely saturated per my DO kit result.

Using air stones and pumps is just another Hydroponic Store rip-off to me.

How do you put oxygen back into the water once the DO is used up? In the same light, why do ALL large fish tanks use airpumps?

 

[Doer]

Well, I said. I use a tiny lift pump.

The Aquarium guys is where I got this Surface Aeration technique from. It takes work to compress air. Compressed air is HOT. DO occurs quite naturally with cool water.

Just the act of spraying out of the top rings adds DO. Trickling down the leach trays adds DO.
And falling back into the Res, add DO.

Why do they NOT use air bubbles in wastewater treatment?

 

[tip top toker]

Well, I said. I use a tiny lift pump.

The Aquarium guys is where I got this Surface Aeration technique from. It takes work to compress air. Compressed air is HOT. DO occurs quite naturally with cool water.

Just the act of spraying out of the top rings adds DO. Trickling down the leach trays adds DO.
And falling back into the Res, add DO.

Why do they NOT use air bubbles in wastewater treatment?

I am well aware of how this works. Last I read growers called it the waterfall effect to make it sound glamorous. It was more based on your statement of airstones being a gimmick. Yet you have then stated top rings, in my mind, a gimmick. You use one type of pump to add DO, I use a different one. Both works. Why do you consider one a gimmick and not the other. In dwc drip rings and water pumps are completely unnecessary if you have an airstone. think this is more a case of buying A B and C is pointless, but each makes perfect sense if used on their own. And neither air pump and stone, or waterpump and drip rings are any more expensive than the other, both cost near nothing in the grand scale of things, probably 20 dollars for the setup whichever route you take.

And if the heat from a bit of compressed air is enough of an issue for you to raise the point, then no wonder you hated dwc, your setup was clearly very far from being suitable.

 

[Doer]

I am well aware of how this works. Last I read growers called it the waterfall effect to make it sound glamorous. It was more based on your statement of airstones being a gimmick. Yet you have then stated top rings, in my mind, a gimmick. You use one type of pump to add DO, I use a different one. Both works. Why do you consider one a gimmick and not the other. In dwc drip rings and water pumps are completely unnecessary if you have an airstone. think this is more a case of buying A B and C is pointless, but each makes perfect sense if used on their own. And neither air pump and stone, or waterpump and drip rings are any more expensive than the other, both cost near nothing in the grand scale of things, probably 20 dollars for the setup whichever route you take.

And if the heat from a bit of compressed air is enough of an issue for you to raise the point, then no wonder you hated dwc, your setup was clearly very far from being suitable.

And you are a jerk, well known. You don't know my set up and I don't care much for your agumrentative style.

THE POINT IS TO NOT ADD HOT AIR<

And you can suck your thumb if you think I will be drawn into a trollish right fight with you.

 

[tip top toker]

And you are a jerk, well known. You don't know my set up and I don't care much for your agumrentative style.

THE POINT IS TO NOT ADD HOT AIR<

And you can suck your thumb if you think I will be drawn into a trollish right fight with you.

I see. You're just a Dick, well known.

You made claims about airstones and pumps as being a hydroponics rip off, then state that you use a waterpump and drip rings instead . Try getting a clue before making retarded statements as if they are facts.

Strange how noone else has any issues using these darned hot air inducing airstones

you can sit there all you want trying to be high and mighty shouting troll, it doesn't do anything to change the facts though. Airstones are no more a rip off than drip rings.

Oh, and grow up, since when did shouting in cassock do anything but lower your standing in an argument?

 

[FrozenChozen]

@Doer
There's always at least one dick that won't understand a perfectly well thought out perfectly sound idea, I understand that both of you have 2 different systems, and that both of them work. For me, heat is not the issue, vibration noise is. Personally I am under the belief that merely breaking the water's surface with moving h20 adds DO.... If @tip top toker can't grasp that then that's his loss... I shut my pumps down AGAIN in the veg tent last night for 8 hours.... AGAIN, NO ILL EFFECTS.
I'm starting to think that there is a breaking point for the amount of usable DO that water can contain versus the amount of time it takes for a root system to use it....
After a total of 24 hours (nonconsecutive) without pumps being on I have seen nothing bad happen.
@tip top toker I appreciate your point of view, but you're being very closed minded and seem to just want to argue, if that is how you are going to continue, I ask you politely to leave this thread.

I am yet to get a straight answer from more than 1 person on whether or not shutting my pumps down for 8 hours a night could do harm to my plants...

 

[Doer]

Here is one
Yes and no

Get a DO KIT from a pet store that has fish

Check it in the morning to see for yourself?

 

[orangeade5]

@Doer
There's always at least one dick that won't understand a perfectly well thought out perfectly sound idea, I understand that both of you have 2 different systems, and that both of them work. For me, heat is not the issue, vibration noise is. Personally I am under the belief that merely breaking the water's surface with moving h20 adds DO.... If @tip top toker can't grasp that then that's his loss... I shut my pumps down AGAIN in the veg tent last night for 8 hours.... AGAIN, NO ILL EFFECTS.
I'm starting to think that there is a breaking point for the amount of usable DO that water can contain versus the amount of time it takes for a root system to use it....
After a total of 24 hours (nonconsecutive) without pumps being on I have seen nothing bad happen.
@tip top toker I appreciate your point of view, but you're being very closed minded and seem to just want to argue, if that is how you are going to continue, I ask you politely to leave this thread.

I am yet to get a straight answer from more than 1 person on whether or not shutting my pumps down for 8 hours a night could do harm to my plants...

It can do harm, a few people have stated already. Will it though? Probably dependent on how resilient the strain you're growing is. If you must do the 8 hours off I would try to get at least a 5 minute round in halfway through just to minimize the damage, that's just me though.

Best idea so far is hang that bitch (the air pump) in the attic and run the hoses through the ceiling.

 

[FrozenChozen]

Here is one
Yes and no
Get a DO KIT from a pet store that has fish
Check it in the morning to see for yourself?

price estimate? brands? what am I looking for?

It can do harm, a few people have stated already. Will it though? Probably dependent on how resilient the strain you're growing is. If you must do the 8 hours off I would try to get at least a 5 minute round in halfway through just to minimize the damage, that's just me though.
Best idea so far is hang that bitch (the air pump) in the attic and run the hoses through the ceiling.

I have a VERY resilient strain! I live in an apartment, I have no access to the attic area... I like the idea of a small increment of pump on halfway through.. I think I'll test the DO once I can pick up a kit....