Re: [compost_tea] Micro bubbles + water pump...

From: Robert Norsen <bnbrew_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:08:56 -0700 (PDT)

I wonder Thomas, if the drawing i made in my head from your words is the drawing you had in your mind as you wrote. Close maybe? An in line water heater- Copper or what pipe? gently heat. Pipe is gonna be 100+F to deliver many BTU to a larger tank. Bugs go from 70 to 100+ and back to 70 repeatedly. will they object? I don't know.Design for a 5 minute clean it cycle. Pmp innards and pipe and elbows and all is just part of a system to clean. Sounds complex, expensive and hard to clean. As simple as possible is a good rule. MICRO Bubbles When I see micro bubble it is as water pressure is dropped suddenly as water pours from the city water system into my glass. Disolved air in micro bubbles is releaded as the pressure drops. My glass always clears up in a matter of a few minutes. Micro bubbles bust to the surface. I am not familiar with bubbles so small they become suspended in water. I see them in heavier more viscous liquid
 s. like emulsions or taffy. I am interested in that concept. It would have value . However even the small air bubbles don't promise long term O2. If the microbes breath the micro air they will use the O2 and give off CO2 ( root beer) so O2 may not follow the TEA as long as the bubbles. This is so unknow to me i need to listen and look not debate. Tell me more. Water Pump In the Bob's line I use rising air bubbles as the water pump and to agitate & extract during the cycle. This is still possible and productive even if there
is a micro bubbler in the system The advantage of the air driven circulation is low cost, gentle action and ease of cleaning the system. as well as it furishes all the O2 we find needed in O2 testing. . I tend to stay by my suggestion of using a separate water heater to get the water to the right temp at the start. When the ambient temps are ok to apply TEA the brewer will not lose enough heat to matter diring the brew cycle. I departed a complex brewer that cost me $ 5,000 to make one I sell now for $685 with 5 times the capacity, 1/10th the time to clean, makes the same or better quality TEA with less compost. I don't need a fork lift to move mine around or a warehuse to store it. Brewing needs to be simple as well as effective. Them bugs are complex enough. Bob. Thomas Giannou <thomas_at_tandjenterprises.com> wrote:Bob, Here's a couple of thoughts..... If you have a circulating water pump hooked up to a micro bubble venturi you can put an inline heater on the w
 ater line and it will gently raise the temperature of the water. The water pump will circulate the water and will break fungi and bacteria loose from the compost material. The micro bubble venturi I have been looking at will put a lot of disolved oxygen into the water and the air bubbles will stay suspended in the water for hours. The venturi I have in mind has large holes in it and will not clog up. The compost can be put in a 5 gallon container (a bucket) and submerged and held down and the water output can be directed into that container. One can contain the compost in a large paint filtering bag to keep the large particles from getting out into the water. The bucket can have a bunch of holes in it to let the good guys out. The micro bubbles will spread all through the water and make it look like milk from all the air suspended in the water. The circulating water pump will solve the agitation / extraction problem and the suspended micro bubbles will easily saturat
 e the whole container and solve the dissolved oxygen problem and it would solve the problem of keeping air in the tea until it can be applied. In fact, this kind of tea will have lots of air in it when it is sprayed on the soil and the air will go down into the soil with the water. Then more air will be available to the critters living in the soil. The main benefit of this design is the air remains suspended in the tea. This kind of technology has been around in the sewer treatment industry for a number of years. If you look at a device called an aerobe-a-jet, a bit too pricy for my wallet, you will find a micro bubble generator that can saturate thousands of gallons of water. Their smallest sized model might work with some compost tea users who want to brew fairly large containers of tea. Add a water pump for agitation and a lot of current problems with making tea will simply go away. The micro bubble venturi I have in mind will cost a lot less and will also genera
 te a lot of 20 micron sized bubbles that stay in suspension. The aerobe-a-jet doesn't circulate water. It just pushes out a bunch of 20 micron bubbles to saturate the water with air. With compost tea making we need the circulation to break the bacteria and fungi loose... but not too violent. I think a water pump could do that just fine. Anyone have any suggestions about a suitable water pump? Brand, make, model? Different sizes for different volumes of CT tanks? --Thomas Giannouhttp://www.tandjenterprises.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Norsen To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 10:08 AMSubject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Copper heating element
Hi Jason You and others might do better to start with an efficient 80 gallon hot water heater that puts and holds all the heat in the water rather than in the surroundings. Then fill your tank 80 gallons short of full with typical 52 F well water. Add 80 gallons of 160 degree hot water and you are going to be at 70 degrees right away and ready to start the brew. No 2 day wait for the water to heat while the brewer tank loses about half the heat you are adding. A gas fueled HWH would be economical. compared to electric if you can use gas. Heat loss in the 24 hour brew will be partly offset by microbic heating. An air driven brewer will cool some. good in summer. Can be offset in winter with in-tank heater. External heaters are gong to put some heat in the tank and some into the surroundings. Not very effective. Defroster cable used to de-ice roof edges can be used by closing the thermostat. It won't take much heat to keep the system warm. Bob.
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Received on Tue Apr 29 2003 - 02:38:36 EDT

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