OK, I made a venturi adapter. I used Bernoulli's principle to figure out the constants so I could adjust the angles just right.

What I got now is an airhose coming out of my res which sucks in air on its own- injecting it into a 375 gph waterline.

The design consists of several layers of different sized tubing, hose, plastic vitamin bottle, air flow regulator, screw-clamp for the seals, and pieces of a plastic pen with fanlike serations in it to atomize the bubbles to 5-20 microns.

I then took it a step further, and attached an aquarium air pump rated for 150 gallons. What happened next was strange....

I heard a fizzing and popping all around, and the the tubes leading to the trays emitted a super high frequency whine, possibly a mach threshold.

I could hear bubbles being smashed and smashed and smashed and cut and smashed again inside my venturi; fittings and a plastic bottle designed like a vortex, so the bubbles spin around the inside and get cut and smashed many times before escaping into the system.

The water turned as white as milk, so opaque that I couldnt even seen 1 inch into the solution, like milk I tell ya. After looking more closely I realized they were billions of microscopic bubbles. The few I could actually make out with my eyes I estimated to be in the 30-40 micron range. There are many others of smaller size which I cannot make out that form the white hue in the water. I estimate these to be around 5-20 microns? this cant be right.....

These small bubbles stay in the water almost indefinetly if there is current. Eventually they will rise to the top after 20-30 minutes but they are so tiny they tend to just move with the water back down into the res again for a double dose.

There is also a foam, similar to what you see in the ocean when large waves crash, or in riptides. A rich bubbling foaming froth that oxidizes all the pathogens and dead organic matter it touches. This "surf foam" lingers but subsides and does not leave a soapy foam or residue.

I'm am going to post some pictures soon dont have my cam. But most of all I'm looking forward to the results from my plants. I wish I could measure my oxygen levels. I may be close to aeroponic levels of oxygen, I dont know...


I know I stumbled onto something significant because I have not been able to reach this kind of effeciency with aeration; I always just bubble the hell out of my res, but then once that water gets to the beds its all clear again with hardly any oxygen. I mean this is why some deep water cultures have an advantage over flood and drain because of the direct bubble to root action.

I use to put airstones in the beds themselves- its a pain in the ass, lots of stones, and when the trays drain the airstones make noise and splatter water all over the plants.

Now I just use 2 air pumps, and 2 375 gph water pumps- modified with my custom venturi adapter with spiral bubble cutting action. Thats it.

My venturis and I got more than enough oxygen for about 15 4x4 grow beds with the following reasoning:

Since all the water coming from the res is white with saturated microscopic bubbles that stay in the water for over 20 minutes, then the oxygen coverage is therefore an even 100% to all flooded beds since my water returns back to the res in less than 15 minutes before the cloudy bubbles eventually pop and the water turns clear again. Because I use stronger pumps I can cover this kind of volume with not delays.

My airpump and waterpump come on at the same time. So I have no oxygen stones running when im not flooding. I have a single large bubble airstone to keep my res mixed.

I wish someone had told me about this before, or on one of these forums. Given the science is out there, but I guess I had to just figure it out by mistake...

I'll keep you guys posted...