Tom -- While I really appreciate your putting this suggestion up on your
site, I don't think this is a good one.
At 3000cc of air per minute, the rate of the suggested pump - that's ~.03cfm
(point 0 three!), just a little over 49 cubic inches of air per minute, a
very small amount (I believe we air animals breathe at greater rates...) -
I'm willing to entertain such a pump might be able to keep 5 gallons of tea
stable, in a "hold" state for a while, but I'm not willing to believe it can
produce a good tea using any nutrients. At that air rate, any molasses
would cave oxygen it seems to me, as a for instance. If there's any oxygen
challenge, I think you need more air.
I also wonder about the soaker hose, having been recently exposed to
"recycled" anti-biotic hoses here. Obviously, it shouldn't be antibiotic,
but I wonder what other chemicals or particles are loosed with it. I have
no data to support this, the stuff just looks really strange and often
smells strange, too. "Air stones" from many aquarium suppliers seem both
better and safer, and reusable.
Cheap, wimpy aquarium pumps aren't a good idea for making compost tea, imho.
Maybe as a supplemental air source, maybe for holding tea? Better to get a
heftier pump and simply loose it in the water with a hard pipe at the
bottom. Bobo-style nozzles are easy to make, too. And as has been
expressed here recently, good pumps aren't cheap. But when you bite the
bucks on a good air pump, you get more air and 20,000 to 30,000 hours of
use, and kits to renew them, also.
I think a 1cfm (one cubic foot or 28 liters/minute) pump is a baseline size,
probably good up to 20 gallons, certainly good for five. The little KIS
pushes about 2.2cfm into 4.25 gallons! The Bitti comes with a 1cfm unit.
(I have no business with either Leon or Bob, so this is not an ad... very
much appreciate both of them, tho, and both machines are good, as are
others...). www.aquaticeco.com is a good source for better pumps and I
found another the other day, www.aquacave.com.
Air pump's are key, likely most expensive part of small machines. Don't
scrimp there. Good ones will last and perform better. You can change all
other elements of a system inexpensively but if you don't have a good pump
you're wasting time, imo.
-- Kirk
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Received on Tue Sep 30 2003 - 20:27:31 EDT