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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Aerator for Composting Tea

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  • From: "marc" <marc AT aculink.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Aerator for Composting Tea
  • Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 13:49:55 -0700

...proprietary systems to get oxygen into
> water/compost slurry is what makes all the difference as to the helpful
> microbes.
> Is jet fountain a specific type of aerator?
> Can a simple water garden type pump, $65 at Home Depot, pushing water up
> into the air, via a perforated PVC pipe, do just as well?
> For a 1000 gal. stock tank, any idea as to GPH or GPM needed?

In the sewage waste water industry they call the process aeration.
Essentially it's a fast way to compost stuff.

They aerate in aeration basins. The basins are often big square concrete
pools. If you walk up to one you'll see a boiling mass of water and realize
the appearance of boiling is actually a LOT OF AIR being bubbled into it.

The way it works is to use the food value of the sewage to feed various
microscopic "critter/bugs/microbes/amoebas/saprophytes" and they in turn put
off waste that is consumed by other "bugs" and on and on until the mess is
no longer a mess but looks like pond water.

Depending on the age of the sewage the religious, ethnic, political, racial
and species of the bug population change. In the beginning there is a LOT of
food and the competition is low so any ole bug can survive - imagine
microbes without much mobility just munching away as they don't have to
chase food.

As the stuff gets older the food availability decreases since it's getting
eaten up and converted to non food forms. Since the competition rises due to
less food the more mobile bugs predominate since they can get to the less
available food. A true bug eat bug world.

One of the required inputs is oxygen. The bugs need oxygen so they can eat
and live and breed more bugs to reduce the food supply until they reach a
stage of equilibrium with their local ecosystem.

Other inputs are light and heat. They need the light to power their little
bodies. In a waste water plant you can see the activity of the critters on
monitoring equipment by their oxygen consumption. It drops way off at night
as light and temperature drops and naturally is lowest in the wee hours
before the sun pops up. De bugs be asleep. (Bugonics)

One of the duties vital to a waste water plant is to make sure the air
compressors keep up with the increased oxygen demand as the sun comes up.
These little solar powered bugs really like their breakfast and will consume
enough oxygen that if the compressor controls lag too far behind you'll get
a mass population change (die off), sometimes within minutes.

So if you want some kind of a tea looking substance or so called energized
fertilizer (energized being full of microbes) you simply duplicate the
sewage processing plants. You must harvest it while there's still food value
as the bugs are as happy as your plants to eat it all up. In other words you
choose to use the stuff in a partially composted state. Keep in mind this
does not kill all pathogens such as E-Coli.

In one of my favorite surplus catalogs they have some inexpensive high flow
low pressure compressors that would do a good sized aeration tank. The
compressors in the waste water plants are multi-hundred horsepower so may be
unsuitable for the smaller farm.

Oil lubricated compressors are a bad thing as they put oil into the water.

Surplus Center
Product types: used electric motors, surplus items.
Address: 1015 West O Street, Lincoln, Nebraska USA 68501
Telephone: (800) 488-3407

Sprinklers splashing down are inefficient aerators. (In gravity irrigation
this concept can do some good because the water is naturally flowing
downhill and you don't need a pump. You can allow the water to splash down
on a screen and the water turbulence/aeration will keep the screen clear of
algae while the movement of the water moves the debris the screen top to a
waste end of the screen. This is an economical way to fine-filter entire
rivers used for irrigation. Sorry - I digress)

Underwater bubblers work about the same. A favorite of a lot of people. A
compressor will push air into pipes and out of holes or aerators or
airstones or whatever. Do some reading and select your favorite.

Eductors. Fun. Easy to use. Efficient. You drive the input with a water pump
and a port develops suction that can draw air into it and a mixing action
occurs.

Capillary tube. Very efficient. Theoretical oxygenation in excess of maximum
atmospheric with proper design. Don't bother unless you like
experimentation.

Waterfalls. These do the splashing thing mentioned above but have esthetic
value.

Marc Nameth






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