# water farm



## bizzy323 (Jan 25, 2010)

how does the air pump work for a drip system on water farms? i cant figure it out. someone help


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## cmd420 (Jan 25, 2010)

If it's the 4 nozzle air pump, you have to make sure the 4 individual "levers" are turned to allow the air to flow out...

If it's the single pump (a little blue thing), you just have to plug it in and go..in the side of it you'll see a little black "nipple" the you put the tube over..


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## bizzy323 (Jan 25, 2010)

cmd how does the air pump lift the water to drip tho. thats my questions


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## cmd420 (Jan 25, 2010)

here ya go..these can seem kinda wird the first time you put it together..


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## bizzy323 (Jan 25, 2010)

kinda got it lol but doesn't the air creat bubbles? from the bottom?


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## cmd420 (Jan 25, 2010)

Air bubbles are good..as long as you see water spitting out of the drip rings, you're golden


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## bizzy323 (Jan 25, 2010)

you leave it on 24/7?


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## cmd420 (Jan 25, 2010)

yes sir..24/7


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## MindzEye (Jan 25, 2010)

Google "venturi effect" that is how a water farm works...


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## DonJones (Jan 25, 2010)

bizzy323,

It's not a true venturi.  My understanding is that as the air flows into the column it forms a bubble under the water that was in the column to start with.  This bubble starts to rise with the water flowing behind it.  These happens a lot of times until there are enough bubbles to start forcing solution through the drip tube.

That is a general idea as far as I know.  I'm sure there is more to than I appreciate.

Great smoking


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## MindzEye (Jan 25, 2010)

hXXp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli's_principle

Heres the venturi effect explained in better detail. Venturi doesnt always have to be pressurizing a container to get fluid flow, the link above show a perfect pic of just passing air through a tube and connected to it is a fluid filled tube, the air draws the liquid with it when passing through the tube. This is still Bernoulli's Fluid dynamics....

Its the same reason I have to install a P-trap on newly installed air conditioner condensate drain lines...


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## DonJones (Jan 27, 2010)

If by a P trap you are talking about the thing that goes under the sink and is incorporated into a toilet where the fluid goes through a low spot that remains filled with the fluid when the flow is shut off, every plumber that I have talked to said that was to block fumes/air from flowing back up from the sewer into the house.

In a true venturi pump, a fluid moving at a high rate of speed passes straight through a Tee fitting with a restriction at the junction over the leg of the Tee where the venturi effect causes a low pressure/vacuum in the leg or the tee and if there is a line connected to the leg, with an open end, the vacuum causes the atmospheric pressure in the open line to push what ever fluid is in the resrvoir into the moving air stream.  Please see this link for an explanation.  hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_pump

In the water farm the air, which is moving relatively slow, does not pass straight thorough the Tee over an connection to the reservoir, but in fact comes into the fitting going the wrong way, reverses direction, mixes with the solution and causes the rising air bubbles to lift the solution rather than creating a vacuum to suck the solution up the pump column.  I *think* the lift occurs because as the air mixes into the solution in the pump column, the solution becomes less dense and the weight of the solution in the reservoir pushes the mixture up the column into the drip ring, but I could be wrong. 

If you really want to know exactly how it works, please contact the manufacturer, ask their tech department and let us know what they tell you.  The important thing is what it does, it mixes air bubbles in with the solution as the solution is moved from the reservoir to the drip ring and in the process increases the dissolved oxygen in the solution.  Highly oxygenated solution drips thorgh your grow medium to the roots and causes them to use the nutrients in the solution more efficiently and grow faster and stronger.

Great smoking.

Great smoking.


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## MindzEye (Jan 27, 2010)

DonJones said:
			
		

> If by a P trap you are talking about the thing that goes under the sink and is incorporated into a toilet where the fluid goes through a low spot that remains filled with the fluid when the flow is shut off, every plumber that I have talked to said that was to block fumes/air from flowing back up from the sewer into the house.
> 
> In a true venturi pump, a fluid moving at a high rate of speed passes straight through a Tee fitting with a restriction at the junction over the leg of the Tee where the venturi effect causes a low pressure/vacuum in the leg or the tee and if there is a line connected to the leg, with an open end, the vacuum causes the atmospheric pressure in the open line to push what ever fluid is in the resrvoir into the moving air stream.  Please see this link for an explanation.  hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_pump
> 
> ...



Im Not a Plummer!! And no this P trap is for draining a condensate drain pan on an Air Conditioner... We have to use a P-Trap so that gravity fights THE VENTURI effect because air is passing by the opening of the drain inside the unit and trying to bring water with it.. I went to school for 5 years to learn this stuff.. Venturi effect is something I deal with every day.. All your talking about with the T is one form of the venturi effect, and even with what your talking about air can be passed through the main tube and create a vacuum to draw fluid also...  Did you know that fluid doesnt even have to be involved in the Venturi effect? We install thermostats sometimes that use the venturi effect to draw return air past the thermocouple.

When the Bubbles in the hydro farm make their way up the tube it draws water with it so its the Venturi Effect...


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## DonJones (Jan 28, 2010)

Oh yes, I'm very familiar with the venturi effect.  The return air is a "fluid", just a gaseous one rather than a liquid one.  Also, the venturi effect can be used to inject either a gas or another liquid into a liquid in addition to a liquid or other gas into a gas.

By the way, I just looked into my central AC unit in the HVAC and all it has is a drip pan with at hose running over to the floor drain, where it empties on to the concrete floor by the drain.  No kind of anti-reverse flow device at all.  And it was inspected an approved as meeting code by the building permit inspector.

But that doesn't mean that you are wrong either.

Great smoking.


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## MindzEye (Jan 28, 2010)

DonJones said:
			
		

> Oh yes, I'm very familiar with the venturi effect.  The return air is a "fluid", just a gaseous one rather than a liquid one.  Also, the venturi effect can be used to inject either a gas or another liquid into a liquid in addition to a liquid or other gas into a gas.
> 
> By the way, I just looked into my central AC unit in the HVAC and all it has is a drip pan with at hose running over to the floor drain, where it empties on to the concrete floor by the drain.  No kind of anti-reverse flow device at all.  And it was inspected an approved as meeting code by the building permit inspector.
> 
> ...




Thats because thats a tiny residential unit LOL.. I dont work on those.. Go on the roof of a 4 story office building find a 100 ton unit, it will have a drain line with a p-trap.. Your home a/c doesnt have enough air flow for a venturi effect on the drain.. I work on equipment that has 20,000 cfm's... Fans that have fan blades taller than me and its cool they swivel to control airflow like a helicopter blade look them up they are called JOY fans, I also work around some squirrel cage fans that are 10 feet tall... When your dealing with air flow like that venturi comes up a lot..


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