AFdrawing

The heart of the system is the air-lift pump. Which operates by pumping air into the bottom of a vertical plastic tube that is open at both ends and with the bottom of the tube submersed in the nutrient solution. The air bubbles will rise up the tube which traps and lifts nutrient solution up the tube with the air. The drip ring is simply a ring of tubing with holes cut into it to disperse the nutrient solution. The ring is attached to the pumping column with a "T" fitting.

Many people have tried to copy this great little system. Most of these fine folks have been successful, after a little experimentation, and made themselves a very productive hydroponic system. Most of these people have found out, however, that by the time they found and bought all of the required parts they really didn't save much (if any) money, this is especially true if you include the time involved in making the system. The system may seem very simple and it is.... however there are many variables that can make copying this system a bit tricky. For example the sizes of the tubing used for the air-lift pump are important. If the tubing is too small or too large you will not get satisfactory results. If you would like to attempt making the air-lift pump you will need a tube with an inside diameter of approx. 5/16" to 3/8". The tubing also needs to be fairly rigid. You can drill a 1/4" hole into the side of the tubing approximately 1" up from the bottom of the tube and insert a length of 1/4" flexible vinyl tubing (see drawing below). Connect the free end of the 1/4" tubing to an aquarium type air pump. NOTE: The nutrient level needs to be 2" or 3" above the bottom of the air-lift pump for the pump to operate.

The airlift pump is by far the hardest piece to figure out when copying the AquaFarm. This is mainly due to the fact that the AquaFarm system has a custom molded part that attaches the line from the air pump to the lifting column, eliminating the need to drill any holes or fool around with different size tubing for the air lift pump. To help simplify things Simply Hydroponics and Organics sells the pump column and the drip ring a-la-carte (along with any other AquaFarm parts) which can cure a lot of problems when making a system of this type from scratch. The cost of the complete column and drip ring is under $12. I'm not trying a high pressure sales pitch here, just pointing out another way. CLICK HERE for information about ordering these parts.