Aquarium Airators

Will these work in medium to help get air to the plants? I have several, and I was just thinking ...

In medium no, that should have more than enough air as it is, in hydro yer why arent you already

cock roach said:

Will these work in medium to help get air to the plants? I have several, and I was just thinking ...

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air stone in anything but water is not gonna do anything.
they make fabric pots and air pots to help air flow in the growing medium

Adding gypsum (or any calcium for that matter) to your soil will create more pockets or space for air/oxygen as opposed to magnesium with is much smaller. There is always going to be a balance between the two in soil.This is why gypsum is considered a soil conditioner and heavy soils are often much higher in magnesium than lighter soils which have more calcium. Think of large stones vs sand. There is going to be much more air in between the large stones than with sand.

What about just taking the air stone off and using?

cock roach said:

What about just taking the air stone off and using?

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Dude it's pointless in soil. If you're determined to use them aerate your water before you water, or make a bubble cloner.

Ok Ok ...I got it...lol Yea my medium is fluffy, or loose I should say.

Actually it can be an awesome addition. There was a grower that used to be here named Natmoon. They had a tech called an "air basket". They took and air pump and ran a hose into the center of a big yellow sponge. The sponge got placed at the bottom of the medium. It's important to have plenty of perlite in the medium so it won't compact, and adding some water crystals to the soil mix helps ensure it doesn't dry to much but keeps an optimal balance between wet and dry. The air pump forces fresh air into the sponge which dissipates the air out to the soil and directly into the roots. Natmoon did this all in a large 10-12 inch net pot thus the name "air basket". The fresh air is both good for the roots and plant, and it also helps dry the medium which allows more frequent watering and promotes higher growth! Natmoons plants speak volumes for this technique. It definitely increases plant performance.

It's a great system, I've tried it! I did it on 4 plants in 5 gallon grow bags along side 6 others that did not get air. They weren't all clones or anything super scientific but the plants with air grew really well!

I've actually been working on different ways to incorporate this idea into my flood and drain pots. I think pumping air right into my roots will feed them more o2 as well as dry them a little faster and let me flood more times per day for potentially pumped up performance.

Thundercat said:

Actually it can be an awesome addition. There was a grower that used to be here named Natmoon. They had a tech called an "air basket". They took and air pump and ran a hose into the center of a big yellow sponge. The sponge got placed at the bottom of the medium. It's important to have plenty of perlite in the medium so it won't compact. The air pump forces fresh air into the sponge which dissipates the air out to the soil and directly into the roots. Natmoon did this all in a large 10-12 inch net pot thus the name "air basket". The fresh air is both good for the roots and plant, and it also helps dry the medium which allows more frequent watering and promotes higher growth! Natmoons plants speak volumes for this technique. It definitely increases plant performance.

It's a great system, I've tried it! I did it on 4 plants in 5 gallon grow bags along side 6 others that did not get air. They weren't all clones or anything super scientific but the plants with air grew really well!

I've actually been working on different ways to incorporate this idea into my flood and drain pots. I think pumping air right into my roots will feed them more o2 as well as dry them a little faster and let me flood more times per day for potentially pumped up performance.

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How is o2 going to prevent overfeeding from increasing floods?

DWC has o2 direct to the roots.... Increasing feed rate values. Still causes overfeeding...

Not trying to sound sarcastic , or insulting here.....

To accomplish the same thing in soil (as to above). Use water that's aerated and adjust to watering everyday at lights on with enough to get you to the next day...

Dr. Who said:

How is o2 going to prevent overfeeding from increasing floods? I don't over feed in the first place!

DWC has o2 direct to the roots.... Increasing feed rate values. Still causes overfeeding...

Not trying to sound sarcastic , or insulting here.....

To accomplish the same thing in soil (as to above). Use water that's aerated and adjust to watering everyday at lights on with enough to get you to the next day...

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Your missing the point it's not about increasing the strength of the feed, it's about getting more wet and dry cycles to allow more waterings. It's also about more oxy for the roots.

I don't over feed my plants to start with. So I'm not concerned that adding more oxygen and watering a few more times will cause over feeding.

That's one of the advantages of flood and drain. More wet/dry cycles as opposed to dwc that just stays wet.

I'm not sure how you can't see the difference between pumping air into the roots 24/7 and pouring oxygenated water over them every few days....

When I ran soil my plants were in 5 gallon grow bags. Typically it was 3-5 days for them to dry out between waterings. Personally I liked only watering every few days, not having to worry about rushing to feed my plants everyday to keep them from getting to dry.

Its kinda funny watching all the other commenters on this thread try to talk the OP out I trying something kinda different. Trying new stuff leads to new stuff....

This technique happens to have been tested and proven to work in soil. My desire to adapt it to hydro is just to try something new.

Well I'm a rookie on all this, but I can't see what it would hurt, except maybe dry out the medium faster. I just can't see it hurting the roots, if anything it should help them. I sure don't want to do something that would hurt my grow.

It isn't going to hurt anything except using a few extra watts and some extra noise. Give it a shot but I wouldn't hold my breath on it making much of a difference.

The key to getting any benefit lies in distributing the air into the medium effectively. Regular air stones will clog up. I describe how I did it in my journal but I'm on my phone right now so I can't link the page.

Basically slice a large sponge down the middle. Take the last 6-7 inch so the air line and cut a few notches out to allow the air to flow out the side of the tube. Place this section of tube into the center of the sliced sponge and bury that about an inch above the bottom of the pot.

Soil has enough air in it already, no need to add more

Kingrow1 said:

Soil has enough air in it already, no need to add more

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You already said that, why bother repeating yourself with nothing beneficial to add?

Soil notoriously does not have enough air, that's why EVERYONE adds perlite.

Soil can also dry unevenly leaving the top of the roots dry and the bottoms wet.

No you don't NEED to add air to a soil grow. But we don't need to grow in hydro, we don't need to grow organic, we don't need to do lots of things.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try new things or that those things won't have a benefit to them.

The OP asked a question and has the hardware already. Why just shoot him down instead of trying to expand your mind and grow.

If you always think your doing things the best way, you will never learn to do them better!

I agree, the wet-dry cycles are beneficial.

@southernguy99 talks about keeping DWC buckets lower on fluid and increased bucket RH or air/spray than full to the brim DWC.

People add all sorts of shit to the soil to keep it airirated. Adding a pump would increase airflow and would definitely be a benefit imo.

@cock roach Go for it! Let us know what you find!

I've been wanting to do half organic, half hydro. Organic in net pot, hydro in bucket. Essentially DWC with hand watered organic on top to help with flavor ect, kinda crazy but you never know till you try!

Thundercat said:

You already said that, why bother repeating yourself with nothing beneficial to add?

Soil notoriously does not have enough air, that's why EVERYONE adds perlite.

Soil can also dry unevenly leaving the top of the roots dry and the bottoms wet.

No you don't NEED to add air to a soil grow. But we don't need to grow in hydro, we don't need to grow organic, we don't need to do lots of things.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try new things or that those things won't have a benefit to them.

The OP asked a question and has the hardware already. Why just shoot him down instead of trying to expand your mind and grow.

If you always think your doing things the best way, you will never learn to do them better!

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All new growers precieve soil as some wet airless root killer, it really isnt but go ahead, blow air into it... I'll wait

Kingrow1 said:

All new growers precieve soil as some wet airless root killer, it really isnt but go ahead, blow air into it... I'll wait

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Lol I'm not a new grower bud, and niether was the guy that came up with the "air basket" technique. Don't bother down playing the way others decide to try things just because you like how you grow.

Whether you would ever admit it or not is beside the point, this process has benefit for very little cost.

Also I've been there and done that, so there is no need for you to wait. If you don't have anything useful to add then just move on man. There are lots of different ways to grow really well. There is no point in going around shitting on other peoples grows and ideas. Especially in a case like this when your just talking out of your ass. If you can't understand the basic benefit of wet/dry cycles you need to do more growing and more research.

I have two airators I can put in the grow, each has two air lines running off them, Is that too much? I have seed topped and planted, but hasn't come up yet, it's only one in the medium now.
I had another one not open up, so I got another replacement in damp paper towel now. I'm going to try the airators on my new seed when it pops, ain't got nothing to lose ...I hope!

Kingrow1 said:

All new growers precieve soil as some wet airless root killer, it really isnt but go ahead, blow air into it... I'll wait

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What would it hurt?