Hi Dan,
Yes. You are missing something. The smallest unit
can put micro bubbles (they are about 20 microns in diameter) into suspension in
the water. Don't think of the Aerob-A-Jet as a device to circulate the
water. It saturates the water with micro-bubbles. These kind of
bubbles are in suspension for a long period of time. For example. if you
were to saturate a gallon of water with 20 micron sized micro-bubbles, went to
bed and got up in the morning, they would be there the next morning. The
Aerob-A-Jet was designed to keep DO in large bodies of water at very high
levels. I have also seen venturie's that can produce 20 micron micro
bubbles.
If you think of the best ceramic air stone that makes small
bubbles, they are about 100 microns in size and will come out of the water
fairly quickly. With the micro bubbles at 20 microns, they have different
physical properties with respect to water tension and one can maintain a lot of
air in suspension for the aerobic bacteria and anything else that loves the
presence of continuous levels of fairly high DO.
The price of the smallest Aerob-A-Jet puts it off the list for
many CTers, but if one had a business of making and applying large volumes of
compost tea... such as a landscaper with hundreds of accounts or a large farming
operation, then the Aerob-A-Jet would be very desirable because with such a
device protruding into a compost tea tank, DO would never be a problem.
This device would also solve the problem of when you stop brewing the tea and
are now ready to apply the tea and are concerned about the DO levels dropping
and affecting the bacteria because the DO was too low. I think that
problem would be history as far as the DO component of that particular problem
is concerned.
I have seen tests with 20 micron bubbles in sea water and
there is so much air in suspension, the water looks like milk! You can't
see through the sea water. (pun intended!) With so many things
suspended and dissolved in compost tea, I would expect much the same
thing. With the Aerob-A-Jet constantly running, air is being pushed out
into the water at a high rate, but water is not being circulated through the
device. I don't think it would take very long for the smallest Aerob-A-Jet
to saturate and maintain a lot of suspended air bubbles in a fairly large tank
of tea water. If a lot of water had to be circulated through the device,
then it wouldn't be long before the process would efficiently clear out all of
the bacteria and fungi in the process of making those 20 micron micro
bubbles.
If you want to get hold of a distributor for the Aerob-A-Jet,
call the manufacturer and they will get you in contact with a distributor in
your area. I was talking with a distributor in Los Angeles, but don't have
the contact information. I didn't keep it because I figured I'd never get
such a device that would cost that much. But, with people buying $1,200
brewers, I guess the Aerob-A-Jet might have a place after all eh?
--Thomas Giannou
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