Ive been doing research into this all night since i was looking into fogger cloners on youtube and stumbled onto the o2 grow. Ive seen these generators built diy on the tubes before and im kicking myself for not thinking of this before. There are a couple of things to consider though.
The generator actually wont work very well if the water is to pure. There has to be conductive impurities in the water for it to be efficient. Which RO water BY ITSELF is not good, but with nutrients mixed in you are good.
Ive heard reports that CALMAG in the water will cause buildup on the metal plates, and the generator will affect the calcium levels in your water. I also saw a response from someone at O2 grow saying that as long as PPM is kept below 1000 (i think) it wont affect levels of disolved o2, and the generator can be cleaned by soaking in Muriatic Acid
This is disheartening but might not be to much of an obstacle. Im almost positive there are hydro nutes that do not contain the nutrients in salt forms.
Im going to look into this, because im pretty sure ive seen some videos on youtubers Nurdrage channel where he uses electrodes almost exactly similar to what O2 uses, and all the O2 grow is basically are the electrodes wires and a driver, it can absolutely be built for less than the ridiculous 200+ dollars O2 grow charges. I feel like there is alot of promise in this tech and i want to do a controlled experiment with strawberries where in the end we compare the results and see if the friut/root zone has any extra mass that would justify the 200+ for O2 grow or the effort to build one yourself. The only problem here is that i dont have a DO measuring device or really any meters at the moment. Keep an eye out for this experiment in the next month or so.
You are correct in your research.
I will tell you what I have found out so far.
I have switched to RO and even some Deionized water that I have been buying from Wholefoods for .39 cents a gallon which frankly is cheaper than buying filters.
The RO water has PPM averaging about 0.012 the Deionized is a flat ZERO.
Both have zero chlorine.
The RO water will work with the Emitters but not nearly as quickly as if you put basically anything in the water, but after running for an hour there is still zero chlorine.
The Deionized water is around 5.7 pH and the RO about 7.7 to 8 so I sometimes mix the two and get a pH in the 6's.
Now as far as the emitters creating chlorine, that was just from my plain filtered water that still had trace amounts of chlorine usually 0.03 to about 0.13 and PPM of between 95 to 116 after being filtered, the natural salts in the water from the tap are what created the chlorine.
Now what I was doing to remove the chlorine was after using the emitters I would take the peels of one orange and throw them into the water and stir and leave them for 30 minutes the peels would neutralize all the chlorine AND Chloramine as tested with a Hanna Total Chlorine Tester.
I have a smoothie every morning and an orange is always in it so I have plenty of orange peels.
Straight deionized water doesn't work because it literally has nothing at all in it, the RO water does work just at a much-reduced capacity.
I have tried putting just Aphrodite's Extraction in the water which is basically just sucrose, fructose, chelated nutrients, vitamins, and organic acids and then the emitter creates an absolute fog of O2 nano-bubbles. None of my nutrients are supposed to have nitrates and salts.
Though I hate putting anything in the water prior to using the emitters because I am not sure exactly what it is doing to the nutrients.
I would never put in my Recharge or Mammoth P or any other microbes for instance before doing the electrolysis because I think it would just fry them.
So I mostly just use it with the RO water for about 45 minutes and then add just a splash of Aphrodite's and let it go another few minutes I can visibly see the oxygen in the water which is FAR more than any bubbler would ever produce even after days of bubbling away.
Also, I think the less there is in the water the longer the plates will last, I have one that I use and one for a spare so basically I bought two emitters and between them I hope for them to last about 5 years and that would be worth the $243 price tag if they do.
They are supposed to last 1600 hours I believe and I only need to use them about 3 hours a week at most and that is in flower, in Veg they don't need as much water so less usage. So technically I won't use these more than 160 hours a year max so IF they, in fact, go for 1600 hours then they should last me the rest of my life which is a really good deal.
As for the price, it is steep and I am sure you can jerry rig something to do basically the same thing.
I bought the 2020 emitter which comes with two of the emitters for 10 gallons and it cost $243 and I only do about 3 gallons at a time. With ideal water, the single emitter would totally oxygenate 3 gallons in about 20 minutes, with the RO it takes an hour which is still way better than the 48 hours of a standard pump and stone which can't equal 20 minutes of the emitter no matter how long you run them.
So far my plants seem to be loving the extra oxygen, one OG Kush, and one White Widow today is the first day of week 6 in flower, they should have 4 more weeks to go more or less and I suspect will be double this size by then.
No tent, no fancy anything, just grown in a bathtub in 7 gallon fabric pots with living organic soil, organic nutrients, under 614W of LED lighting.