Aeration or oxygenation – many claim the point of water chillers, water falls, air bubblers, big bubbles, tiny bubbles, H2O2 is to increase dissolved oxygen in res water, more oxygen is better than less oxygen. At least that’s the story I see repeated over and over again.
All I see here is misinformation, myth, old wives tales, confusion and chaos, forum gurus and dudes promoting oxygenation and calling air – oxygen, refer to ambient air as oxygen and visa-versa.
It is crystal clear to me that ambient air and elemental O2 is definitely confusing for the average Jack because Jack cannot smell, taste, feel or see the difference between air and O2, therefore no one can question the difference between plain ole ambient air and elemental oxygen, nitrogen, helium or hydrogen… how many of you ever actually tested the DO in res water?
Did I hear you say that no one ever test DO in res water because a DO meter cost too much, is not necessary and guessing is cheaper?
Did you know that aerobes (DWC cannabis roots and beneficial microbes) in res water can have plenty air and suffocate from lack of elemental in the blink of an eye, in minutes in low DO environments? And, that dead decaying roots are the precursor inviting fungal outbreaks and disease? Now who in the world here would ever think that sick dying and decaying roots come 1st before the fungal outbreaks and mass colonization happens. And that a common cause of root death and rot is suffocation or lack of elemental oxygen (DO) and not lack of ambient air or low elemental Nitrogen - Dissolved N2 (DN2).
Hey dudes, I Googled ambient air, had a Eureka moment and discovered that ambient air is a mixture of different gases at sea level consist of elemental Nitrogen gas, 78% N2, air is whopping 4/5ths Nitrogen, 590 mm/hg partial pressure out of 760 mm/hg atmospheric pressure and change.
I also found that ambient air at sea level does have little dab of elemental oxygen, 21% O2, air is only 1/5th O2… that’s only 159 mm/hg O2 partial pressure out of 760 mm/hg total barometric gas pressure.
Isn't that something!
Most people really believe that when they are depending on ambient air to insure minimal "safe" continuous oxygenation for roots and microbes in a DWC/RDWC… if they add more bubblers, say increase from 1 bubbler to 2-3 bubblers, buy a bigger air pump and that pumps 2 X more air than 1 little air pump, use a higher water fall and so on that the low O2 matter will be fixes because they will 2 times as much oxygen out of the air, 42% O2 or more than 318 mm/hg O2 partial pressure.
Twice the volume of air = 2 times as much O2… low o2 problem solved and plenty O2 is guaranteed – a simple no brainer solution to prevent low oxygen problems and root rot.
Hypothermia, water chillers. Do you know that aerated fresh water @ 65F res fresh water saturates DO at 100%. Aerated fresh water @ 80F saturated DO @ 100?
The tiny difference in aerated water DO concentration @ saturation between 65F water and 80F fresh water is only 1.1 PPM DO concentration.
That means for the cost of a water chiller, electricity, noise and chiller maintenance, the DO Chart says that you can possibly increase the DO with no roots or microbes in the water consuming elemental O2 by only ---- 1.1 / 1,000,000.
Now is that impressive or what?
