Hi Jason,
The equipment that generates the fine bubbles for fish
tanks does not achieve 20 micron bubble sizes, so the application is not the
same. The track record of the Aerob-a-jet working with aerobic bacteria
in the sewage treatment industry doesn't remotely suggest a problem with
too much air in suspension in the water. In fact, it shows that there is
a significant benefit in the performance of the aerobic bacteria. So, there
seems to be a contradiction between what the Aerob-a-jet people are saying
and what Elaine is saying. I believe it is worth some investigation. It
seems to me that DO has a limit no matter how many bubbles are present.
I don't know where she came up with the idea of more air than water because
the micro-bubbles are so small one can't easily see them. That sounds and
looks like a lot more water than air. I remain skeptical. It would be
interesting to see Elaine's data on her experiments with fine bubbles, but
then I'd still wonder about the micro-bubbles which are different than fine
bubbles. On the Aerob-a-jet web site, they cite quite a few people doing
successful experiments with the Aerob-a-jet. Perhaps some of those could
shed a little more light on the use of micro bubbles? The way I read what
Elaine wrote, the aerobic bacteria don't like such an environment, but the
Aerob-a-jet people claim the aerobic bacteria do well in such a setting.
Thomas Giannou
----- Original Message -----
Sent:
Monday, May 12, 2003 12:15 PM
Subject:
Re: [compost_tea] Pumps and Aerob-a-jet
Thomas Giannou wrote:
Hi Peter,
I don't remember seeing anything from Elaine on
this topic. But who knows, she sometimes replies but doesn't copy text
from the message.
Sometimes ? <grin>
Here is Elaines's message from May 6th under the heading of Simple CT
maker
Compost tea brewers are a
bit different from fish tanks. Fish don't get growing quite as fast
as bacteria. When you feed bacteria well, they can use up all the oxygen
in any amount of water within minutes, and therefore the aeration rate
needs to be high enough to offset bacterial and fungal growth.
The fine bubbles are not the preferable condition. The fine bubbles
are really hard on the fungi and seem to break them up and shatter them.
If you suspend fine bubbles in the water, by over-aerating, you end
up with problems. Too much air, and not enough water (supersaturation?),
and the organisms will be killed because the environment become too
oxidizing.
Cute, huh? Not too much, not too little..... Goldilocks strikes again.
We need some additional testing on the fine bubble versus coarse bubble
situation. The fine bubble work we've done suggests that fine bubbles
are quite detrimental. The bigger bubbles seem to do a better job of
extracting hte organisms from the tea, and keeping things as aerated
as possible.
Always something more to know. So, what is the optimal aeration rate?
Depends on how much food you add, the compost you use, the temperature
of the water.
Check the www.magicsoil.com web site. Some
interesting insights there about aeration.
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
www.soilfoodweb.com
Jason
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