Continuing the discussion from Come be a part of the first OG poster creation:
Made a simple compost tea brewer the other day
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There is pvc pipes in the first two photos. It isn’t in the third photo. What is that and what does it do?
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The pvc is part of a vortex brewer for the same jug. IThis is a cleaner set up. I think
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Finally found me a 55 gallon drum to make a brewer out of
Screwed the pump to the top so it doesn’t move or fall in with the vibration
Thinking I’m gonna want to build a stand for it and put a valve on the center bottom that all I have to do is put a 5 gallon bucket under it and open the valve to fill it
Gonna fill up 5 gallon buckets at a time and mark the sides for liquid measurements so I can just fill to desired line and fill my tea bag accordingly for amount brewed
Also need to figure out a solution for putting something on top the air stones to get them to stay in place and not just drift as a cluster so I have more equal bubble distribution
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These TeaLab bubble snake aerators work really well for aerating compost tea, I have two 5 gallon ones but may get one or two of their large aerators which work for 55 gallon drums. May be something to look into, just be sure your air pump puts out enough GPH output.
I’m personally not a fan of those, bubbles are too big for my liking vs stones, it’s all about having the water molecules being able to touch air molecules and smaller bubbles give you more surface area and currently have a 12 port split off to (24) 3" long stones but as they bubble they collect together so want to be able to spread em out and have something on top of em to hold em down.
My air pump is the vivosun 102w 1750gph so its a generally larger one that can handle some out put
To each his own, when I’ve used stones I feel like the aeration is just limping along. Either way, using compost tea can work wonders for soil and plant health.
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How big was ur pump and how many stones did u have on the end? I get a lot of movement and action with my current setup
I could see that statement being true with a small pump and a few stones but 24 of em gets it’s done for me
That’s a lot of stones! Do you use two pumps then since it looks like the one you showed has 12 valves or do you have a splitter on each end to supply two stones instead of one? It seems a lot more cost effective to use the bubble snakes for most people though being that each stone costs around $6, especially so if you are doing a large volume of compost tea.
I got a splitter on each end for two per line
6 bucks a stone? Where the heck u paying that???
last time I bought em I got 48 of these for 43 bucks after tax
So a lil less than a buck each and still cheaper than dispensary shopping haha
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Interesting, I am used to the stones that are 6 inches long, not the size of a lighter. Anyway, glad you like your set up and have fun growing.
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Oh ya, they def come in all shapes and sizes, I went off the theory of only so much air gonna come through the tube so bigger stone ain’t gonna benefit and these seem just right split off. First ones I played with were 1" and about half the size of my thumb and finally came across these without looking back
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