DIY Air Diffuser: 1/4" Soaker Hose

And then I find this! Hmmmm....wonder how this would fit and work in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket?

EcoPlus 728432 Aqua Lung Air Diffuser, 10"
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After harvest I plan to clean the system and inspect the soaker hose with photos as well. Then I will set it up again with fresh water and compare the system to how it was running before the first grow with it. If it looks good I will be using it for a second run right away.
 
Just a quick update, in my third run with these and still working great. Expanding to a 6 bucket system and plan to keep going with these DIY diffusers. Roots do like the hose and I find I need to do some cleanup because of that between runs, but they also clean easily. They seem to hold up well so far. I now run the pump hung from the tent well above the buckets. Noise and heat are no longer an issue as the pump just needed to get worked in. I'm going to call this one a success and continue using it. Checked, and the soaker tubing is still available at Lowes and Amazon. I will update if there are any changes, but otherwise, this one is in the bag.
 
What section would I find the soaker hose at in Lowe's? And did you ever try them with the spiral design instead or have always just stuck to your original design?
 
When I was searching around for this project I came across many different shapes, but the one I went with was the RED FROG design because it had the best distribution in a 5 gallon bucket. It depends on your store I would imagine. If you go to the site and have your local store set to your location, it should tell you the isle and bay number on the page: Shop Raindrip 1/4-in x 50-ft Rubber Drip Irrigation Soaker Tubing at Lowes.com
 
this is great. i don't have enough pump right now or i'd mod the system i just built. really good idea.
 
Hello 420 Mag Community. Apologies if this subject was already posted...I searched and couldn't find one specific to this subject.

Just wanted to post my results so far in my efforts to build some soaker hose air diffusers. Wasn't at all happy with my first grow with the little air stones and pump that came with the kit I got. Other than that, the kit is awesome for a first-time DWC setup...just under powered.

My goal was to come up with a single pump solution for a 4-site system much improved over the lame stones that came with the kit. I wanted to keep it as quiet as possible, but wanted to see LOTS OF BUBBLES! :)

After much research this is what I came up with and I am about to start my next 4-site run with. I have tested it and you can see some pics and video below of those results.


Stack of 4 above. Note that each are missing the two tees that connect to the air pump manifold via the 1/4" lines. Each diffuser has two air lines, one going to each side.


MATERIALS

1/4" Soaker Hose - I have read that the brand is important. Someone tried some from Amazon and posted in the review that it didn't work for this particular application. The stuff I used didn't even have a brand name...it was what I could find at Lowes and it works great! I believe there is currently an addon item on Amazon that matches this Model #: Model # 015005T and on Lowes: Item # 192389

EcoPlus Commercial Air 5 - 80 Watts 1300 GPH - At first, I thought this was going to be overkill...and when I hooked up one diffuser to it and closed off the other 6 valves, I thought for sure it was. And for that, it was! :) This baby came with a sweet 8 valve bulkhead. Each valve can be turned on and off.

1/4" Barb Drip CROSS Connector Fittings - Amazon, bag of 30. Teenitor Agricultural Garden Irrigation.

1/4" Barbed Tees - Amazon, bag of 50. Raindrip 307050B

3/8" x 1 1/2" Stainless Flat Washers

5/16" Stainless Lock Washers

1/4" Polyethylene Drip Irrigation Distribution Tubing

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Absolutely amazing! Thank you SO much for posting this !! I have been searching for a proper soaker hose for some time and this one is perfect.

Anyone interested in the soaker hose and happen to be Canadian... it is available on Amazon Canada and is onlh $19 :)

Just search for this..

Raindrip 015005T 1/4-Inch by 50-Feet Porous Soaker Tubing

Thank bro you just saved me some serious cash.

Respect...
 
Just a little update, almost 4 runs in and still working well (a few weeks left on my current run). The bubble action has subsided about 25%, I assume from wear and tear of the drip tubing, but still more than enough per bucket. Been running these steady for over a year now and feel they could probably last at least another year. Have had no real issues and the pump has done well and steady work once it got broke in.

Getting ready to upgrade to a 6-site system with more lights at end of year. Finally going to fill this tent with lights to cover corner to corner. I will be building six new diffusers to start the new system off with new everything, including a pump upgrade to the EcoPlus 3566 GPH with a 12 valve EcoPlus manifold. Building out two HLG 320W with 3xQB288 v2 boards on each for a total of 6 Quantum boards along side my current Duolux 600...for a total of 1240 Watts of LED power. The Duolux 600 does great inside of its 3.0'x3.0' light print (see photos below of current grow), but that just isn't cutting it...time to fill this 4x8 tent to capacity. As it is now, I use my yoyos to pull the flowers in under the light to get as many under that footprint as possible.

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Dude I was just looking to make these a few weeks ago... search terms evaded me for that soaker hose... really nice find on that one! Found some of these online while searching that are basically these with just a plain cross in the center and they wanted 55 bucks a piece for them. Yeah, no...

Got all the materials to make a bunch of em - made a few today and they are sweet but my 950gph pump just ain't enough juice for these babies. They have a small trickle of bubbles going but it ain't gonna fly... So I ordered the 1300. I was tempted to pick up a 1750 of a different brand... but went with the 1300 since it seems to be working out for you.

And being super detailed like I am, I got the perfect measurements on those tube pieces.

Outer ring (4 x smaller pieces) = 3 inches
Outer ring (2 x larger pieces) = 6 inches
Inner ring (4 x L shape bends) = 3.5 Inches
Middle T (4 x straight pieces) = 2 inches
Outter T ( 4 x straight pieces) = 1.5 inches

Those specs make the perfect inner and outer circle on those babies! I also added a few metals rings in the center because the roots will push those tubes down guaranteed!

Thanks again for this one man! Much appreciated!
 
Got my pump today and hooked it up and the difference between my 950 and the 1300 isn't that much. A little better, but not what I was expecting. I've let one sit in a bucket for the last two days and it started off with a pretty weak trickle of bubbles and now it seems the tube has broken in a bit and looks a little better but there isn't any current really... just lots of tiny bubbles. Not seeing anything like the movement you are in your videos. Are you running another bare airline in there on top of this thing?

I don't know, maybe they need to break in and my pump needs to break in a bit more, or maybe they use different stuff to make this soaker tube now but it's nowhere near as spectacular looking as your video. And I have the same exact materials as you. I'm gonna let them sit in there for awhile and see if things improve.

Anyone having a similar experience?
 
Sorry, haven't been on here for a bit...busy time getting my new setup configured and ready for my next run. About to cut my last grow I started in Sept, last run with my first 4-set...5 runs total.

Ripin, where did you get the hose? What model number was it? I'm building my new 6-set today and probably testing tomorrow...but still have hose I got from my last batch...from Lowes.

I will let you know how it goes with my new 6-set and the EcoPlus 3566...this should be interesting :) Got everything for my new setup I mentioned in my last post and started my next batch of seeds soaking last night...time to get real and fill this tent...
 
Outer ring (4 x smaller pieces) = 3 inches
Outer ring (2 x larger pieces) = 6 inches
Inner ring (4 x L shape bends) = 3.5 Inches
Middle T (4 x straight pieces) = 2 inches
Outter T ( 4 x straight pieces) = 1.5 inches

Those specs make the perfect inner and outer circle on those babies! I also added a few metals rings in the center because the roots will push those tubes down guaranteed!

Thanks again for this one man! Much appreciated!

I didn't measure my first 4-set...and they are currently in use...so I thank you for this, going to make my new 6-set based on these measurements. :cool:
 
Has anyone done this with soaker hose and had the hose pores plug up over time? I have high mineral content water, built a test unit, and it worked fine initially. Then a couple months later tried it and no (very few) air bubbles?
 
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