What have your experiences been with bubblers and oxygenators?
I bubble all of my water with air stones for at least 24 hours (seems to be helpful if using tap water (that doesn’t apply to everyone, but I know does apply to some lol…) but it can help evaporate out the chlorine content from what I understand (I don’t think it touches chloramine though.) The bubbled water seems to perk up the plants, I’ve noticed enough visual difference to make a case for “I think I’ll bubble my water from now on,” but not sure on the scientific level other than trying to get more oxygen into the root zone.
@Growernick was talking about the oxygen levels in the root zones during his test for Harvest Gold Silica, and Dan with @DanAutoPot would be another good brain to pick, their autopot system comes with an airdome attachment that you place at the bottom of the pot, fill with your grow medium, then run a that airline to a air pump and constantly feed oxygen into the root zone area. I found it nearly impossible to overwater and anything that would happen to sit longer than I’d like would be an any oxygenated area, so there is little chance of stagnant water in the roots.
It’s an interesting topic. I too bubble my (tap) water before using it to remove as much as the chlorine as possible, especially when following an organic regime. I wouldn’t, however, bubble my nutrient solution to “aerate” or “mix” it. I’m not sure where this practice originated but, in our experience, this simply raises the pH. When we talk to customers that are having pH issues, 99% of the time they have an airstone in their res.
So, the airdome was developed to allow the grower to oxygenate the root zone rather than the nutrient solution. The grower gets to increase aeration without affecting pH. I couldn’t honestly say that it increases dissolved oxygen content, we’ve never tested, but it certainly speeds up vegetative growth
That’s right, you guys don’t recommend an air stone in your reservoirs, do you?
No, we recommend a water circulation pump if a grower wishes to keep the nutrient solution turning, but an actual air stone usually increases the pH.
I’m not a scientist (far from it!) but I believe it occurs because the CO2 is present in the water as carbonic acid, when you bubble the water you release the CO2 and therefore reduce the acidity.
If you constantly add pH down to counter this then you’re affecting the balance of your nutrient.