Question about the bubbles in a DWC

[Revshot]

is it the oxygen rich water that is needed by the plant so the roots dont rot or is it the action of the bubbles constantly hitting the roots?

the reason i ask is because my new grow tray is 4'8'x18" deep ill be holding 32 plants. i wanted to put an air stone directly under each plant...
a regular golf ball sized air stone is 99 cents but if the roots need to bathe in the bubbles in worried the air bubbles wont cover enough roots so my other option is an air puck, basically a 5" round disk so with a 6" pot and a 5" airstone under it i think this could keep the roots basked in bubbles. the down side is there about 6 bucks a puck

so what is it about the bubbles? is it the need to keep the water solution highly oxygeniated or it the need to keep the roots constantly bombarded with bubbles?

 

[YardDog35]

It's the oxygen in the water. The roots love the oxygenated water. The don't need to be bombarded with bubbles but it's good to have them in bubbles. Most dwc systems only contain a few plants each so it's usually standard that bubbles are flowing past roots.

32 plants in 32 square feet? You must being going SOG style?

As for the stones, look into these:Santee Hydroponics :: IRRIGATION :: IRRIGATION ACCESSORIES :: Air Stones (Round) not promoting the website, just an example. My local hydro shop has them, they work great!

 

[Revshot]

It's the oxygen in the water. The roots love the oxygenated water. The don't need to be bombarded with bubbles but it's good to have them in bubbles. Most dwc systems only contain a few plants each so it's usually standard that bubbles are flowing past roots.

32 plants in 32 square feet? You must being going SOG style?

As for the stones, look into these:Santee Hydroponics-::-IRRIGATION-::-IRRIGATION ACCESSORIES-::-Air Stones (Round) not promoting the website, just an example. My local hydro shop has them, they work great!

thanks for the help ill definally go with the smaller air stones and save a few bucks!

im not doing a SOG, 6" pot with a 12" growing space so basically 1 sqare foot for a plant. does that seem too close together? was shooting for two and a half foot tall.

 

[YardDog35]

That is a little close together in my opinion. If you are shooting for two and half feet you should expect them to be about the same in width. Plants get stressed when they are crowded. Of course it all depends on what type of lighting you are going for.

If it were me I would grow 8 monsters in that 32 square foot res, 2 rows of 4. You could potentially get a quarter pound per plant if everything is done right. Again...all my opinion.

Good luck!

 

[Revshot]

That is a little close together in my opinion. If you are shooting for two and half feet you should expect them to be about the same in width. Plants get stressed when they are crowded. Of course it all depends on what type of lighting you are going for.

If it were me I would grow 8 monsters in that 32 square foot res, 2 rows of 4. You could potentially get a quarter pound per plant if everything is done right. Again...all my opinion.

Good luck!

im going with more plants to try and go for a quick turn around time (not as big so a quicker veg time) if its to my benifit then next time for sure ill pull a few spots to make room for the next batch to grow i was shooting for 2-3 oz dry per plant so roughly 4lbs but nothin oviously for sure till the plants are done, right! room is tempature and climate controlled too and soon to be c02 enriched!
and my lighting is 3 400 watt MH/HPS set up spread evenly across the table

i

 

[TorturedSoul]

1200 watts is not much light for 32 square feet, IMHO.

To supplement air stones, you might strongly consider an aquarium power head. Actually, if you added one, it would be the air stones that ended up being the "supplement," lol; power heads really add the DO to the water.

Either way, much of the mechanism of oxygenation takes place at the air/water interface, the surface of the reservoir. In air stones (and the like), you're better off with ones that give you many smaller bubbles (more surface area) than with fewer larger bubbles even though the actual amount of air is the same.

 

[Revshot]

1200 watts is not much light for 32 square feet, IMHO.

To supplement air stones, you might strongly consider an aquarium power head. Actually, if you added one, it would be the air stones that ended up being the "supplement," lol; power heads really add the DO to the water.

Either way, much of the mechanism of oxygenation takes place at the air/water interface, the surface of the reservoir. In air stones (and the like), you're better off with ones that give you many smaller bubbles (more surface area) than with fewer larger bubbles even though the actual amount of air is the same.

being from the saltwater trade im pretty familiar with the oxygen exchange process and i agree competly, i already have 2 power heads running to help circulate the water around and i ended up going with 8 12" long air stones driven by a dolphin AV-50 air pump

the reason i didnt wanna go with 1000 watt set ups is 1 hydro usage and 2, being that these plants are sitting arox 2' off the ground already at max i can only get 3' out of them before they run into the lights, so 400 watt bulbs seems better to not burn then plants as they run out of growing room

 

[ptg701]

...much of the mechanism of oxygenation takes place at the air/water interface, the surface of the reservoir. In air stones (and the like), you're better off with ones that give you many smaller bubbles (more surface area) than with fewer larger bubbles even though the actual amount of air is the same.

I'd like to hear more about that.
I have used air stones in my tanks for years, but I have don't have any scientific evidence that they really provide more oxygen to the plants.
I have often wondered if oxygen was really getting into the solution and if so how.

If nutrient solution from a tank with air stones was analyzed and compared with nutrient solution from a non-air infused tank, would the one with air really contain more dissolved oxygen?

And if it does, can the plants access and utilize it?

 

[Revshot]

I'd like to hear more about that.
I have used air stones in my tanks for years, but I have don't have any scientific evidence that they really provide more oxygen to the plants.
I have often wondered if oxygen was really getting into the solution and if so how.

If nutrient solution from a tank with air stones was analyzed and compared with nutrient solution from a non-air infused tank, would the one with air really contain more dissolved oxygen?

And if it does, can the plants access and utilize it?

its not the bubbles that really put the o2 in the water, its the disturbance at the surface of the water that the bubbles create that allow gases to escape the water/ allow more 02 to disolve into the water

 

[Caber1]

I use and ebb and flow system and have been looking for either, a more powerful air pump, or a power head(submersible) for my large reservoir .
Not sure which direction to go.
I did buy a power head once with the head that goes back and forth, but it didn't like it when the water level would drop during feeding and it had to pump air. Didn't take long to burn out.
Three issues at the moment. They are price, (don't want to pay arm and leg),
strength(some advertise lpm or psi or watts), and the last being noise.
Can't really find much on this whole subject.

 

[VapedOutJoe]

Sorry I can't help Caber1. I would maybe ask this as a new thread. I know there are some people that are very knowlegable about pumps on here, but the subject on here is bubbles, so maybe people aren't really checking.