bubbling?

would like to start bubbling my nutrient solution for aeration and ph, before I apply to soil. Just bought the equipment...

question is, bubbling for 24 hours, should I use the airstones I bought or would it be more efficient to just put the air tube to the bottom of the res? is there a benefit to the what I assume will be smaller bubbles from the airstone?

Why do you want to do this? Are you using organic nutes? Some nutes should not be bubbled. You may also find big ph rises from bubbling as well.

Drink!

Metanaturals organic liquid... two problems with my last application - (to one week old indicas in inert soil)

1) the ph of 1/8th base, 1/16th nitrogen, 1/16th calcium in distilled water was ~5 so I had to add 1/8 tsp caustic potash as ph up (all per gallon). turns out that wasn't such a good idea ... so a natural ph rise would be nice .. all metanaturals proponents are also bubbling proponents I see.

2) I don't know if I stirred it enough, as I killed one seedling and light-medium damage to 4 or 5 and the rest are pretty much fine - so 24 hours of movement + aeration should get it nice and consistent as well

Question is, why do people use an airstone instead of just sticking the tube in the res? Are the smaller bubbles more easily absorbed?

cant answer the airstone question but thats what i would do. just use the airstone. i would assume the airstones little bubbles would cover more surface area.

smaller the bubbles, the better. smaller bubbles make more splashes to wet roots, and dissolve more o2 into the water than large bubbles.

The Smaller the Air bubbles the better. I use 3" Air Disk, and i also us a 280 gph pump with a tee fitting just to keep my NUTS nice and fresh and mixed. The Air Stones smaller bubbles will help get Oxygen into the water. Mixing your nuts a few times a day will also help some.

I can not understand why adding air to your organic nuts would hurt. Unless they would degrade faster. But then again, I know nothing about organic Nuts for Hydro. I asked about them in here for a few weeks, and most of the answers I go was that there were no organic NUTS ment for Hydro.. I thought Hmmmmmm.. Isn't that what Advanced Iguana Juice is??? But anyway, I steered clear.

But as far as my systems go. I always have at least two 3" airstones, and a water pump that is always mixing and churning.

Yes...if you're using organic nutes...some brands require bubbling for 24 hrs to get the ph to come back up and stabilize. I wouldn't add any ph up until you allow them to bubble for 24 hrs...then check the ph and adjust accordingly.

Drink!