dwc just a water pump no airstone,can i

can i run a dwc system without airstones and just a recurculating pump moving the water around,i heard about it somewhere can remember where that the most DO in water can be set bu water movement not the bubbles from the airstone,and i have too many airpumps its starting to make alot of noise

The results wouldn't be nearly as good as if you used an air pump

The airstone oxygenates the water which improves plant growth. Without it your stifling your plants. I run airstones in my ebb n flow reservoirs for this reason.

i just found the article that mentioned this,

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2009/11/supercharging-your-plants-with-oxygen/

and in this thread heath uses just the cascadinf effect of the water to pump DO

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/149998-heaths-flooded-tube-vertical.html
has anybody tryed it,a little over a m0onth ago i put a small 5g pot with 2 White russian clones in it and placed 2 airstones with a big pump that i would usualy use in a 25g rezervoir. the results shocked me,i got clones from the same mother in another DWC with less air pumped and a ebbe and flow table , the 2 cones in the small dwc are at leat 10 days aheah with much fatter buds
thats why im trying to find out what the best way to supercharge the water to get to these results again

heaths vertical tube grow is NFT, not DWC... at least I think that's how I remember it.


I dont think a pump just moving water around would work, there are some pumps that have an airline attached that will pull air from outside the res and infuse it into the water. I think that would work.

TRY IT!!!!!!!!!

report back your findings please.

The basic principle is the same either way. All that you are trying to do is increase the surface area exposed to air. You can do this by putting air in the water (bubbles) or putting water into air (waterfall-aeroponics).

They sell needle wheel pumps for use with protein shimmers for reef aquariums. They have a venturi so that the the pump sucks in air so that the impeller called a needle wheel chops the air into very, very small bubbles. These increase the DO of the water a great deal more than airstones. They are made in both air cooled versions and submersible. They are made in many, many different sizes. This is a very widely used brand. http://www.aquacave.com/detail.aspx?ID=2725 The small tube must be above the water level to draw in air. It will make a slight sucking/whistling noise unless you use a filter/silencer on the end of the air line. A typical air filter is simply a prescription pill bottle loosely filled with cotton. Put a small hole (1/4" in the bottom end and in the lid. Make the hole in the lid small enough that it is tight around the airline tubing.

The water will be so full of small bubbles that the water coming from the pumps will be almost milky in color/appearance.

Seriously just go to walmart buy a cheap pump and airstone. It is less than $15. As far as I know you cant have too much dissolved oxygen in the water.

seriously if yu cannot absolutely spend the money and try to get a air pump that is a half watt to an ideal watt a gallon of power then take the water pump and have it splash water as much as you can. Maybe have it shoot straight up lile a fountain and hit the lid or hot the wall. As much agitation as you can and you are getting air in there. Yu could sell your water pump on craigs list, lol, then buy an air pump. Or even cooler make an ebb and flow with that water pump. Or even buy a drip attachment. God damn hydroponic system building is fun!

You can do whatever the hell you want, but it won't neseccarily grow great weed. Air stones are tried and true for DWC, the water pump alone could maybe work. How about both?

Have you looked into quiet air pumps at all. they have funky sound cancelling domes, I am using one that claims silence, its very quiet but not silent. It is many times quieter than the average aquarium air pump.

I am also thinking those big 20w ones made for hydroponics, they replace at least a couple little pumps. don't know how loud they are.

captain insaneo said:

Seriously just go to walmart buy a cheap pump and airstone. It is less than $15. As far as I know you cant have too much dissolved oxygen in the water.

Click to expand...

However, most airpump and airstone set ups add very little dissolved oxygen to the water. I have DO meters and I know for a fact what I am talking about.

so you think that a needle wheel water pump would be better than an air pump and stones? Is this the milky white color you are talking about?

[youtube]2hT5jiOWfv0[/youtube]

fatman7574 said:

However, most airpump and airstone set ups add very little dissolved oxygen to the water. I have DO meters and I know for a fact what I am talking about.

Click to expand...

yes i am intrigued with these pumps you speak of but the only problem is I use a dual diaphram aire pump for redundancy,


if one of the diaphrams goes out the other one keeps pumping air to your plants till you can get there and replace the diaphram. if all you have is a water pump for air, you will need to have 2 running to make sure you dont lose a crop to equpment breakdown

or do they sell a redundant one?



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Big P. how many times have you had a pump fail? I have been growing hydro for like 2 years and have a bunch of shitty air pumps that are working fine

happened to me once but i would have hated life if I lost a crop over it


i didnt check on my moms once for like 3 days and went in there one day to find out the lamp went out and I lost my favorite genetics


my fault for only having one bulb srewed in


but im thinking maybe a water pump needs a lot less maintenance than the rubber diaphram type air pump


so does it really make the water look all milky like that?

what size pump for a 40 gallon tank?

im trying to match the results that i got from my 2 clones flowered in a small dwc 12l bucket in witch i put 2 airstones and a 5w dual airpump,so the water in it was like a washing machine convulsing,these plants are developing like crazy 2 times as thick and 10 days at leat faster than all the others in soil and ebb and flow,everything else is the same,so then i read that article that i posted in it they say that u can supercharge your grow if u can get the proper amount of DO in the solution,but to put that many pumps in the DWC table that i built thats 7x4ft i would need 20 pumps and thats just too much noise and watts and not pactical,so im trying to find a way to get that solution supecharged

tom__420 said:

so you think that a needle wheel water pump would be better than an air pump and stones? Is this the milky white color you are talking about?

[youtube]2hT5jiOWfv0[/youtube]

Click to expand...

what the fuck is that,i want one,u guys in the US have everything u want,i live in a shity country in europe so i dont have anything in the stores besides the basics and sometimes not even that,my whole growroom is diy i even had to make the rezervoirs from plywood couse the largest ones of plastic were barrels 1m high

I'm sure you could find a place that would ship one of those needle wheel pumps

whats the gph on that and does it heat up the water alot

is there not a limit to the amount of aireation you can put in a batch of water anyway?


like my pump is rated 320 gph if my tank is only 40 gallons and im using a 320 gallon air pump, thats overkill already right?